Are you waiting for the release of Freedom & Simplicity™ on R Road to Biblical Wisdom? Until it is available for purchase, I will post various portions for short, unannounced times on its webpage. Check it often to read bits and pieces from Freedom & Simplicity™ on R Road to Biblical Wisdom.
Don’t know what I’m talking about? R Road to Biblical Wisdom is the Freedom & Simplicity™ methodology we utilize in all our learning. It is a process of learning through biblical reasoning and application. This methodology forms the Framework of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™, a biblical approach to home education.
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
1 Thessalonians 5:23
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Anna-Marie posted a helpful article on enjoying Word Studies. Word studies are a part of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ (our biblical home ed approach) that we learned through the Principle Approach®. They are highly valuable to understanding a topic biblically - and, as Anna-Marie says, even enjoyable.
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Order Christian & Home Ed Resources here
Get future posts to this blog by email:
It’s a win - win - win situation for Learning Maps™! Me and My House is now an affiliate partner of NovaMind, meaning you Win! Win! Win! You get the convenience and great looks of a computerized Learning Map™. You get a great mind mapping software to help you do it, NovaMind. And you even get an educational discount on the Pro edition; (home educating families qualify). Both Windows and Mac versions are available.
Me and My House also wins! Your purchase through our website helps support Me and My House ministries.
You don’t know what Learning Maps™ (mind mapping) is? You haven’t hung around me long enough! 
Mind mapping is an AWESOME and POWERFUL tool for learning, for gaining and retaining understanding! It is a natural with biblical principles learning because it shows relationships!
Basically a mind map (our terminology is Learning Map™) is a way to graphically/visually outline and organize, brainstorm and research, plan and present, educate and evaluate, comprehend and communicate. We first learned how to make these as a pre-writing help many years ago. I was impressed by their usefulness and benefits as both a learning and teaching tool, and it grew from there to be one of the primary tools we use in education - both learning and teaching.
You start with a word/picture/idea in the middle of a paper and then branch out from there - first your main points, then each of those branched into subpoints. Utilizing color and pictures, as well as the design, helps us to remember the ideas and information easier. (Schools sometimes call these "webs".)
I originally drew my Learning Maps™ by hand, and my children still do most of the time. But software is available to make our Learning Maps™ on the computer. That makes them super fun and convenient, as well as enhances our use of color, pictures, and all sorts of design. (I LOVE color and design. — And I own 3 different mind mapping apps.)
We use Learning Maps™ to plan studies, to document studies, to outline lessons (for me to teach from - or the kids outline as I’m teaching/ what they learn), to outline writing assignments, to brainstorm anything, etc…… I even made a Learning Map™ of their daily responsibilities. And I make them of each seminar session I teach, as well as for the books I write.
You can take a peek at a few of our simple Learning Maps™ on our webpages.
- Spiritual Journey
- Bible - Foundations Study
- Lesson Plan Format
- Rudiments of Literature
- Link to our P.I.P.E. Learning Maps™
- A session of Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ ~ The Seminar
Then look at what others have done with them. (It’s up to you how elaborate you want to make them.) (Please note, these are examples of the types of things you can do with mind mapping - not recommendations of the content within the examples.)
- NovaMind Example Mind Map Gallery
- Mind Mapping educational examples
- Mind Mapping personal use examples
- NovaMind "religion" examples (sermons - prepare and present, bible studies, speakers notes)
There are several editions of NovaMind to choose from.
NovaMind Pro - for advanced Mind Mappers, senior school and university students, coaches, and for general business use. The 30% educational discount is available to home educators for NovaMind Pro.
NovaMind Express - an entry level product, providing excellent Mind Mapping capabilities for schools and beginning Mind Mappers.
There’s a Pro edition too. You can compare all three here: NovaMind Feature Comparison.
AND here’s another way you WIN! You can download a 30-Day FREE Trial.
What are you waiting for? Have some fun over the next month as you work on your Lesson Planning for next year!
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
Order Christian & Home Ed Resources here
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Feature Friday - sharing a Recommended Resource for Freedom & Simplicity™
Graphic organizing or conceptual outlining or “mind-mapping” is a memorable way to outline ideas through diagramming, using colors, symbols, levels, and relationships.
Inspiration is one of my favorite computerized mind-mapping apps. I use it to plan lessons, workshops/seminars, and just about any other brainstorming, planning, researching, organizing, presenting, etc-ing that needs to be done. Although my dc do most of their Learning Maps (mind-mapping/graphic outlining) on paper - generally as we walk through a lesson or they study it more in depth, Inspiration can be a more fun tool to use when it is handy to do so for them.
I’m always looking for ways to add a little extra spark in our studies and notebooking. I’ve blogged before on lapbooking, a fun way to journal our studies, and (I think) on key sheets a style of "learning map" we use to help in our principled studies. (If I don’t explain it in a blog post, it is well explained in Freedom & Simplicity™ in HisStory.) This idea is a combination of those two things.
We’ve done many things to "spice up" our key sheets. And at other times we just take a sheet of paper and draw lines to divide it into quarters. This last term I came up with a new idea that has become a hit!
I designed 1/4 page "book covers" for the authors we studied, with their picture, name, and a heading, on the "front cover". (In my "sampler" - see below - the children will glue on a picture and write the info themselves.) I printed these on cardstock and we cut them apart and folded in half to make our "book covers". Then the children made 4 page booklets, 1/4 sheet size, (called "bound books" in Dinah Zike’s Big Book of Books. You could also use mini stapled books.) Then they glued these into their book covers. They wrote one of the four "key sheet" categories on each of the pages and filled in the info for each writer. Ta-da! Fancy, fun key sheet!
These key sheet booklets can then be glued into a regular lapbook, or (as we did) glued - 2, 3, or 4 - onto a sheet of cardstock. (We then slipped these into a page protector in our notebooks.)
I’ll try to get a pic or 2 added to this post later. AND (Lord willing) a "sampler" and full instructions will be our next newsletter Free Gift! So if you are not receiving our monthly newsletter yet, click here to subscribe. In addition to getting monthly news, tips, and ideas from Me and My House, you’ll also get our (near) monthly Free Gifts, including this Lapbook Key Sheets sampler (or whatever name I give it )
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
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The last two weeks I’ve been buried in our lessons, and books, books and more books. I love it! Although my eyes have begun to go a bit buggy. And it means I have to back date this post, so I can post another for this week. But I want to do that, as I have a great idea we used that I want to share with you.
We’ve lingered a bit longer on these last 2 terms because this time period is SO rich in literature. We’ve been studying the early 1800’s including the beginning of modern missions and the expansion of America. But this is also a time period when America’s literature was born, and great or enduring literature was produced throughout the western world.
English Literature (outside of America) began our studies last term, as England/Scotland somewhat set the tone for our own. Yet, American Literature is still very distinct in style. Our nation was becoming its "own person", individual, apart from the "mother country", at this time after gaining our freedom. Much as I wanted to just jump into OUR literature, I had to set the stage.
Authors
Sir Walter Scott was our focus our first term, as we love him. I wish I’d thought ahead, and ordered the syllabus written by F.A.C.E. before we did this topical study. We may have had a been more in-depth study that way. But I didn’t, so we did what we did. My children all LOVE Ivanhoe. We had to watch the movie AGAIN. And we looked at paintings that Eugene Delacroix (one of our artists this term) had made from his books, such as Rebecca’s kidnapping.
We also introduced other authors that our children love, but may not have known were contemporaries, as well as the most famous poets of the time and their poetry. Our oldest (at home) dd’s favorite author is Jane Austen and she has read several of her works. The rest of the family has watched several of her movies, (including the current PBS series on Sun. evenings) and dd can tell them the points of variance from the books. Charles Dickens is another familiar author around here, coming just a bit later in our time period. Our youngest student is currently reading several of his short children’s stories on her own.
Leaving the British Isles, another of our faves wrote at the same time, Johann Wyss and The Swiss Family Robinson. We’ve read and listened to this book over and over, as well as watched the movie, OVER and OVER. This was our other focus as a Christian writer. We also introduced another author that the children have listened to his audiobook over and over, as well as watched a couple different versions of the movie, Victor Hugo and Les Miserables. We did not reread the works of these authors, but the children did want to at least rewatch the movies, so we’ve had more DVD time lately.
Poets
The poets we covered in our first term were William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They didn’t become endeared to us. So because the War of 1812 is a focus in this time period, our poet focus became Francis Scott Key. We studied not only the Star Spangled Banner, but also a tremendous hymn written by Key, Lord With Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee. We also looked at Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem, Old Ironsides. (We had to get some American’s in there. ) Our younger children learned poems by Charles and Mary Lamb.
Our other Hymn Writer focus was an author to study in more depth in the time period before this one, but he sets the stage as the first hymn writer in free America, Timothy Dwight IV.
Artists
We began with American artists, Charles Willson Peale (our focus) and John James Audubon. We also introduced 2 English artists, John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner, to set the stage for our next term’s artists.
Till next time -
I have so much to share on this exciting subject - like some links to old books we are using.
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
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Sometimes this journey of home education is not just "The Road Less Traveled", it’s a roller coaster of ups, downs, and sharp turns. As we follow and teach Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™, education based on biblical principles, we try to present the Freedom & Simplicity™ of home education in the Spirit, grounded on the Word. Well, my nicely laid out chart for our Freedom & Simplicity™ in Bible course is, of course, completely grounded on the Word. But following the direction of the Spirit within that sometimes leads to an adventurous ride.
We just completed this term, which for our Bible course covered the PIPEline period of the Patriarchs to the Law, Abraham to Moses. On my chart it had a few nicely termed titles for the themes of each week, but as I studied to prepare to teach, I saw how God had orchestrated it to come together. A clear theme of Covenant was being laid through each week, each lesson.
The first week we studied Abraham. We studied the giving and the promise of the covenant - initiated by God, the sign of the covenant - circumcision, faithful to the covenant - the test of sacrifice.
The second week studied Isaac, heir of the covenant. We studied human covenants under God’s - and those under covenant in a covenant household, the servant sent for the Bride, the marriage covenant.
The third week we studied Jacob, unworthy of the covenant. The unlikely choice for the covenant, wrestling to enter the covenant, servant of the covenant.
The fourth week we studied Joseph, learning to walk faithful to the covenant. We studied his knowing the call but being proud - pride comes before a fall, his faithfulness through his humbling - God’s means of refining, and God lifting him up - and Joseph seeing "God meant it all for good."
The fifth week we studied Moses, re-instater of the covenant. We studied Moses’ confronted by the covenant - and his excuses, his failure to bring his son up in the covenant, and God’s power through the covenant.
The sixth week we studied Israel and symbols/representations of the covenant. We studied the passover - and its relation to salvation, the crossing of the Red Sea - and its relation to baptism, and the manna and water in the wilderness - and its relation to communion.
The best laid plans are those directed and brought together by God Himself, the author and finisher of our faith. As I studied His Word, He was faithful to lay out our plans in such as AWESOME way.
We didn’t just study these stories in and of themselves, reading, researching, and recording what we found. But we studied through them in relation to what God had for US in them, reasoning, relating, and releasing the application to our lives, and how God wanted us to grow through studying this. It is amazing, but I still continue to be amazed at how home education in the Spirit, grounded on the Word brings such Freedom & Simplicity™.
Many people tend to get hung up on Notebooking and what should be going into them. Here’s a quote for your ponderance:
"(3) The notebook is not a filing cabinet to catch every piece of paper throughout the year. It is a permanent record of the year’s work collecting the substance of the study of the subject. (4) The object is not to contain all the facts in the binder. The object is to make a record of research, reasoning, and relating of the subject throughout
the year." (Noah Plan Lessons Kindergarten, pg. xiv)
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
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What things are really imoprtant to study? What do our children really need to learn well? What facts do they need to remember?
In deciding what to study these are questions I look at:
Why am I studying this (do I need to remember this):
- to know God and His Word
- to understand His Plan
- to understand His Creation
- to advance His Kingdom
All facts we need to remember should fit within one of these categories.
For Me and My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa @ Me and My House ~ Discipleship for Life!
Order Christian & Home Ed Resources here
Get future posts to this blog by email:
Freedom & Simplicity™ is truly that. It isn’t hard. But it is intentional! Below are "7 simple steps" - OK I wouldn’t call them that, because L.E.D. is not a check off list, but for those of you who need a list, there it is. Again, it isn’t hard. It is freeing. But you do have to do it. These points below correspond to our 7 Pillars of Excellence in education.
1. Renew your own mind. This is the first and most important aspect in Biblical education (discipleship) in the home. A student will never be more than their teacher. If you want lifelong learners who love to learn, you must become a lifelong learner who loves to learn. If you want a biblical foundation, you must lay one in your own life. If you want biblical thinkers, you must become a biblical thinker. As R.C. Sproul, Jr. says (paraphrased, because I’m out of town right now), "If you can’t teach physics, you can’t teach physics. But if you can’t teach the Bible, learn the Bible!"
2. Bring children along side you in living a life pleasing to God - in worship, praise in song, prayer, planning and preparing nutritious meals, providing modest clothing, changing the car oil, building a shed, studying to show yourself approved unto God, everything! "You follow me, as I follow Christ." We are not just academically teaching our children. We are training them to live a life glorifying to God. And building relationships with them.
3. Read great books to them. The Bible, stories from long ago and yesterday. Read books with heroes of character! Read true stories, biographies, could-be-true stories, documents, great expressions - to read, listen to and look at - poetry, music, art. Fill your child’s heart with stories that touch their heart, in ways that will inspire them to greatness. Yes, continue to read to them long after they can read to themselves. Hearing a great story doesn’t end when you can read it yourself. You are sharing more than the story. You are sharing yourself. Our Resources and Recommendations pages are full of great books - it starts here.
4. Copy greatness - literally, both physcially do what they did, and the words out of books. Young children naturally act out the stories they hear. That is great! Encourage it - the little boy who pretends to be Daniel slaying Goliath, or Daniel Boone living in the wilderness, trusting in God; the little girl pretending to be Ruth, gleaning in the fields, or Abigail Adams raising her family on the Word and journaling; the whole family acting out the story of the Sower and the Seed (as mine did last year, and had a blast!) Children will act out, not only in their play, but also in real life, after the heroes they have. See #3 again.
But go beyond just the physical acting out, and actually Copy the words of those great books and documents. Never underesteminate the power of Copywork. It is true learning and has much more value than many give it credit for. It should be a lifelong daily habit.
5. Retell greatness. Become a story teller. Tell the stories you’ve learned in your own way - orally, in pictures, act it out, write it out. Again, you may think this is a simple exercise, of little value. Do not underestimate the power of Narration. The Story (Mashal) touches the heart whether read in a book or told from the heart.
6. Put it in a book - make your own books of your Copywork and Stories and notes and whatever else you produce. Notebooking again is not a difficult thing - and need not be made difficult by worrying about if you are "doing it right" or "putting the right things in it". Notebooking (Journaling) is a natural thing that all learners do. Journaling, includes not just your Copywork, or Retellings, or Research findings. It also goes beyond these to include your own thoughts, reasoned from what you’ve learned.
7. Live and tell your own story. Your Journals become your Books, as you share them with others. Your studies and life lessons bring out your own Life Story, who God designed you to be. You Life Story may not be written as a written biography, but the message God has designed you to bring to the world may be written and published in a book - or it may just be lived out in front of your neighbors, whether next door, in a vocation, or around the world. Share the message God has given you to share.
Did you really thing education (discipleship) was harder than that? L.E.D. brings Freedom & Simplicity™ in Spirit LED home education!
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