Archives

Culture and Community

Aug25

images-1Today I have asked James Kenniv to share about his thoughts on the area of Fine Arts. He is a musician, teacher and homeschool dad. Welcome, James and thank you for sharing about the subject. 🙂

Culture and Community

The area of Fine Arts and its intersection with homeschooling can strike fear into the hearts of parents. Often the Fine Arts represent that which we call “culture” and we are not quite sure how to deal with this topic. Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr, in his book Christ and Culture, discusses five basic ways we as Christians relate to culture. We are either against culture, of culture, above culture, in tension with culture, or transformers of culture. Without going into detail on each of these positions I will place myself firmly in the last camp of transforming (or creating) culture and urge all believers to do the same.

Since the creation of culture is often about pursuing truth and beauty we as Christians should see the immediate advantage that our world view brings to the table. After all, if we believe that “all truth is God’s truth” as was postulated by Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Calvin, then we are simply forth-telling what we believe. Non-believers do not have that point of reference as a place to start. Along with the truth that has been entrusted to us comes the responsibility to present that truth in the most compelling way possible to the rest of the world.

Culture does not happen in a bubble, but rather in the context of relationships with others, or in community. Intentional community formed around areas of the Arts are wonderful ways to transform our often disturbing culture into something once again beautiful and uplifting. Take piano lessons, join a theatre group, sing in a choir, play in an orchestra, perform in a 50’s cover band (!). Dance, write, play, perform, create! One sure way to keep the darkness from taking over our world is to shine our light brighter than ever.

One opportunity for those in the Cincinnati area is to join the Greater Cincinnati Community Choirs. This Fall my wife and I are offering three choirs to all that are interested in community and culture. The three choirs are Intervals, for those in fourth through seventh grades; Dynamics, for those in eighth through twelfth grades; and Tonality for adults. We will be performing new music written by local writers in a modern classical style. Our goal is to glorify God as a community of believers with our music. We intend to be excellent in our pursuits and intentional in our purposes. For more information you can visit our website at gccchoirs.com. Our season begins September 22nd and registration is open now.

Whether you come and sing with us, study an instrument, attend a concert, write a poem, or dance a ballet I encourage you to transform our current culture into that which is beautiful and full of truth for the sake of Christ.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders , making the most of the opportunity (Colossians 4:5 NASB).

James Kenniv

_____

James Kenniv is a composer, arranger, musician, and singer. He and his wife Kristen live in Lebanon, OH where they homeschool their seven children. In addition to leading the Greater Cincinnati Community Choirs, James teaches private music lessons at his home studio on piano, percussion, theory/composition and audio recording. You can contact him at jkenn4@mac.com.

Help with Writing

Jul7

imagesHaving used a variety of writing curricula over the years,  I am inclined to believe you have to find an author who most closely aligns with your style of teaching and philosophy since people approach writing through a variety of avenues.

Some authors prefer to be formal and have specific elements that are to be present in each of the piece that is written. If that is your style and thinking, then here are a few programs to research:

Institute for Excellence in Writing, Andrew Pudewa This program is tried and true with a DVD set to help you understand and teach writing. Areas of study include: outlining, summarizing, research papers, essay writing, and creative writing. Multi -age and multi-grade level, beginning in elementary and continuing through senior high school, this program will serve your student well in communicating in a clear and concise manner. Essay writing will be a breeze and research papers will not be a daunting task since students are taught how to do this easily with this program.

Writing Strands, Dave Marks, is a veteran teacher and home school dad created a multi-grade program for students. The four strands of writing (argumentative, explanatory, creative, and report writing) are explained and modeled for students. Short lessons for students to practice after each lesson with humor are sprinkled throughout the  lessons.

Are you interested in an incremental writing program? Two that I recommend are Jump In and Write Shop.

Jump In is a writing program from Apologia that can walk your writer through a step-by-step process of even the most daunting writing tasks.  The writing steps are small with a practice section for the students after each skill is taught.  The process is explained in a conversational manner that a junior high student could read it on their own and you, the teacher, can  discuss  and monitor the work that is being produced. Students of various writing levels and grades will enjoy using this curriculum.

Write Shop has programs beginning in kindergarten. The nice thing about the primary books is that you can do them orally with your beginning writers. Having used the middle school program,  students enjoy the topics they are given to explore. Giving students the opportunity each time to write about something they enjoy enhances the program and involves the student even more in the writing process.

Are you looking for online programs?

The Potter’s School has classes for writing beginning with 5th grade and continuing through 12th grade. Not only can your student take a writing class, but they have a wide selection of classes in every academic area. There are summer and year round classes from which to choose. In the past have worked with several of the outstanding tutors and I highly recommend this program.

Write at Home can either be used as an a la carte program that your student submits individual papers to be read and graded by a teacher, or your child may enroll in a full-time class beginning in the fall. Their classes begin with middle school (5th grade) and continue through 12th grade. One of my friends used it exclusively for their a la cart program and her daughter loved it.

Home2teach offers high quality, challenging, college-prep online writing classes to homeschoolers ages 8 to 18 world-wide.  While I have not used this program, it does look like a terrific option for students.

If you have found a program that I have not discussed here, please leave a comment.

~Lisa

Morning Knowledge Nuggets

Jun30

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 6.38.22 AMAngela sent me these wonderful ideas after she read last week’s guest blog post that Suzanne wrote on Character. This was too good to keep to myself so I asked her if I could share this with you and she said, “Yes”! I have included links for the resources that she has mentioned.

My “Morning Knowledge Nuggets” (a title the kids and I came up with last year when we started homeschooling) is my chance to “start the day in the right way” and get in some “tidbit” lessons that I might not get a chance to otherwise.

We begin with our prayers and a daily devotion/bible verse.  Then we do our “Character Connection” with a lesson or activity for the character trait of the month.  I also include an Etiquette lesson (the kids love the book from the Etiquette Factory) and an “Ethics” lesson where we try to tie it all in and talk about morals and values (I discovered at the end of this year that the kids loved hearing Aesop’s Fables and trying to guess the moral of the story…great discussions).

Sometimes I’ll throw in a “Sticky Situation” from a book I have by the same title that is a devotional.  It depends on what day it is, as we do each of these things on one day of the week (or take more as a situation presents itself).  There is also a second book, Sticky Situations 2

After “Character Connections,” we do our “Grammar Game.”  This is something short to reiterate grammar basics.  Sometimes we take a sentence for the week and  do something different with it each day, like Monday-label parts of speech, Tuesday-label sentence parts, Wednesday-label sentence type, Thursday-talk about capitalization, punctuation, and review the week, and Friday-“quiz”-apply what we’ve learned to a new sentence of the same type.  (btw, this all came out of a need to desperately improve our grammar fundamentals!!)

Other weeks, I’ll do something short and “fun” (although the kids don’t always think so!) to reiterate a difficult concept, what we’re learning that week, or something new that isn’t quite covered in our lessons.  Then we do a bit of German and end with our journal writing!  Sometimes we are done in a half or less, other times it takes an hour for all of it.  But I always feel like our day is a lot more complete when I can get in these “other” important things!  🙂

Touch A Truck

Jun9

swat_vehicles“Mom, what’s inside a helicopter? ” “How many people can fit inside a  S.W.A.T Team van?”  “Can I climb the fire truck?”  If you children have ever expressed an interest to you regarding emergency vehicles or other large pieces of equipment, here is something that will help your curious ones.

Touch A Truck  is a c-o-o-l program that will be in the Cincinnati area throughout the summer and fall. There could be as many as 50 service, utility, and military vehicles for children (and adults) to see up close. You also get to meet the people who operate them and can ask them all matter of questions! There will be a wide variety of vehicles that include a: police car, fire truck, street sweeper, highway snow plow, dump truck, tow truck, garbage truck and a backhoe.

Some cities have already had the program (Blue Ash, Green Township), but here are the ones I found that will be happening the remainder of this year. Other areas will be having the event, but no specific date was listed when I looked. This included Wyoming, and Montgomery, so check with the city if interested. This is a FREE event and this will be great for first aid, safety, and fire safety- all topics we are required to teach. 🙂 So, pack up your children and take your husband in your vehicle and head on out to experience these spectacular vehicles.

Date: Monday, June 9 

Time: 10:00 a.m.to 2:00 p.m.

Location: Sharonville Convention Center

11355 Chester Road, Sharonville, OH

 

Date: Friday, June 27 

Time: 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location: The Square @ Union Centre

9285 Centre Point Drive, West Chester, OH

 

Date: Friday, July 11

Time: 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m.

Location: Springfield Township Civic Center

9150 Winton Road, Cincinnati, OH

 

Date: Tuesday, August 12

Time: 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.

Location: Village Green Park

501 Wessel Road, Fairfield, OH

 

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2014

Time: 12:00pm – 4:00pm

Location: Deerfield Towne Center

5503 Deerfield Boulevard

Mason, OH 45040

 

 

 

Cafe Co-op

May19

classroom-pupil-image-1-150x150Here is information for a co-op in the Mt. Healthy/Springfield Township area. They would love to have high school students be a part, so if you have an older student consider joining them this fall. They have a great schedule lined up for the fall and registration is going on right now.

CAFE Christian Co-op
Just like a cafe is a place to relax, fellowship and enjoy the company of friends, CAFE Christian Co-op is a place for homeschool families to find help, support and encouragement. CAFE stands for a Community of Academics, Fine arts and Encouragement.
We are a medium-sized group of families meeting in the Mt. Healthy area. The co-op has both paid tutors and mom-taught classes, ranging from biology to ballet, art to American history, flute ensemble to First Lego League teams. Our Fine Arts Recital at the end of the year showcases the more performance-oriented classes and we finish the evening with a reception and art gallery. Classes are “a la carte”– some families stay all day and some just come for a class or two. Teachers set their own prices, and are paid directly, although there is a family fee to offset administrative costs. We do ask that families join with us and help in some capacity–teaching, being a classroom helper, taking charge of a cleaning job.
 
This year we have expanded to include full high school level classes, as well as additional junior high classes. We are excited to be able to offer a program to help families find the upper level classes that they need, and we are thrilled with the level of knowledge, passion and experience that God has provided in our upper level tutors. We look forward to watching our upper form students grow and blossom! 
 
Please check out our website for the specific list of classes, policies and schedule (http://www.cafecoop.weebly.com/) and feel free to contact me with any additional questions. Several of our elementary classes are nearing capacity, but we do not have a waiting list. 
Join us at the CAFE!