Part 1: Guiding our children spiritually intro
Part 2: the VIOLIN years
Part 3: the VIOLA years
Part 4: the CELLO years
Part 5: adding in the academics
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To see this whole series, click below: Part 1: Guiding our children spiritually intro Part 2: the VIOLIN years Part 3: the VIOLA years Part 4: the CELLO years Part 5: adding in the academics Yesterday, we discussed the VIOLIN years, from birth to age nine, when children learn in some very concrete ways through their senses, when vocabulary is exploding, and a time marked by their tendency toward mimicry and imitation. Now we move on to ages ten through thirteen, the later elementary and middle school years. It's a time of immense physical change, but also real changes in how children think as them begin moving toward adulthood. Carrying on with our string ensemble, these are the VIOLA years, marked by the aspects of Verbum, Intersection of ideas, Organizing, Language and Literature, and the trifecta of Arts/Attitude/Apologetics. Let me unpack those for you here. VerbumVerbum is Latin for "word", and is used in the Latin translation of John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." The living Word is, of course, Jesus, and it is both the written Word of God and the living Word of God that can now take center stage with our children in these years. Whereas we have modeled the fatherhood of God and our children have mimicked our faith since birth, during these years, they begin to establish more independence from us, including in matters of faith, and we must continually point them back to the Bible and to a personal relationship with the Lord Himself. Intersection of IdeasDuring these years, our children are approaching the world like a puzzle and putting the pieces together in a way that makes sense to them. With regard to their faith, they may begin asking questions about how what they hear at church fits in with what they hear in school or from their friends or on television. They need to see that the Bible addresses today's issues with truth and relevance, and they need to see that faith is not in a compartment that is separate from the rest of life. Just as the previous years needed others to faithfully model Christian habits and attitudes, the VIOLA years need mature believers to model how to walk the Christian life with relevance and courage in the twenty-first century. OrganizingAs our children begin to put the pieces of their faith together in a personal way, they also begin to organize those ideas in their mind - a kind of early version of what Bible scholars call systematic theology, as well as an understanding of how the Bible is organized. They also have a need for order in their physical world as well as their mental world. Language and LiteratureThe early years were focused on vocabulary development; language is important during these years as well, but in a different way. Literature choices become more demanding and more challenging thematically. Academically, children this age are learning how to read for information, to study, to express what they know and understand through writing. Spiritually, these take on special meaning as well, as children transition (if they haven't already) from a children's Bible or paraphrase to an adult translation of the Scriptures, and as they learn to study and understand the Bible for themselves, using what they know about language to help them do so. Arts/Attitude/ApologeticsThese are years when children can not only begin exploring the find and manual arts more, but can see how they can use those talents in ways that glorify God and contribute to the church. These are also years of attitude, as any middle school parent can attest! But in those "attitude" moments are also moments of opportunity to point out children toward the Lord, and to the power of the Holy Spirit to mold their hearts to follow Him. The final "A", apologetics, is the defense of the faith. While formal study of apologetics may be best saved for later years, this is an important time for our children to begin understanding that the Christian faith, and the gospel, are reasonable, and that the Bible is reliable. Explanation and ExegesisAs we consider the unique characteristics of the VIOLA years, the overarching phrase that comes to mind is Explanation and Exegesis. Exegesis is a word of Greek origin that refers to a critical explanation of a text. Here, it involves studying the Scriptures to see what they say rather than imposing our own ideas onto the text. The VIOLA years are the time when our children need to learn how to study the Scriptures themselves, through inductive study methods and by using tools that are available to them. If you are so inclined, it is a great time for them to begin learning Greek, the language of the New Testament, if for no other reason than to make those study tools less intimidating for the future (and with its different alphabet, kids love to master it, like a secret code!). It is a time to build their understanding of theology, of how the Bible speaks to today's issues, and of modern and historical apologists who defended the faith with grace, wit, and wisdom. It is a time to use their gifts and skills to serve others, both in the church and outside it, and to continue to grow in healthy Christian habits and disciplines. Most of all, it is a time to encourage them to pursue the Lord themselves, and not to think they can just coast on their parents' faith.
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To see this whole series, click below: Part 1: Guiding our children spiritually intro Part 2: the VIOLIN years Part 3: the VIOLA years Part 4: the CELLO years Part 5: adding in the academics I shared in my last post that our prayerful hope for our children as we raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord is that they are characterized by belief in Jesus, availability to His calling, service to others, and a life of sanctification - in other words, that their commitment to the Lord should impact their whole life, as seen in their head, heart, hands, and habits. Over the next three posts, I want to look at some distinct characteristics of children at different points from birth to young adulthood, things that help us understand both how they learn and what is important to emphasize. Let's now go back to the beginning of that journey, to what I call the VIOLIN years. The first stage of the journey with our children spans the years from birth to about age nine. These years are best divided into two periods of four or five years each, but since there are similarities in the kinds of learning that take place, we will consider ALL these years the VIOLIN years, encompassing the first two members of our classical string ensemble, the first and second violins. What aspects of learning characterize these years? These six: Vocabulary, Imaginitive play, Observation, Listening, Impressing, and Narration. Vocabulary. Children from the earliest years are soaking up words, ascribing meaning to them and learning how to use them effectively. In the first five years of life, in a verbally explosive time, children learn anywhere from 2600 to 10,000 words. By the age of ten, a child may have 20,000 words, and by age twelve, that has multiplied to about 50,000 words. Imaginative play. Children in these years are full of ideas, and imaginative play is an important part of learning, encompassing make-believe and role-playing. It is part of their emotional development, their creativity, their language development, and their thinking and problem-solving abilities. Observation. Remember the song line, "Oh, be careful little eyes what you see"? During these years, children are watching everything, and a primary way to teach them is to demonstrate it in some way, or to model it, as is suggested by the old maxim "More is caught than taught." Because of how they learn, we must help to guard their eyes and their minds in these tender years and to expose them to that which is true, good, and beautiful. Listening. Another line in that song is, "Oh, be careful little ears what you hear." During these years, children are also listening and soaking up everything. They may not always understand what they hear, but it is still making an impression on them, and this is one reason why it is so easy for children to memorize things during these years, especially if they are set to music or repeated in some other memorable way. Impressing. By this, I don't mean that we need to impress our children with great feats, but that early childhood is a time to heed the advice of Deuteronomy 6:7, referring to God's commandments, "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Taking time in these early years to make the Word of God a normal part of every aspect of your life, including memorizing the Word, will make a huge impression now and later. Narration. This is a time for stories, especially the true narratives from God's Word, and of heroes of our faith. It is also a time to enjoy fictional tales that have been written and shared from generation to generation, and to encourage and train them to tell those stories back to us. As I said above, the VIOLIN years have two stages, the early childhood years from birth to age five and the early school years, age six to about age nine. In terms of leading our children spiritually, these phrases can help guide us. Feeling and familiarity. From birth to age five, much of our children's spiritual development is going on subconsciously. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul refers to the image of mother of young children when he says, "But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children." This is a time for gentleness and nurturing, for building our children's sense of trust, and also for helping them understand the whole idea of authority. Our goal during these years are to make spiritual learning and conversations a natural and regular part of our lives. Let the Bible and prayer and church be associated with sensations of loving familiarity and security, and let our parenting feed our children's earliest understanding of God in ways that are positive and true. Modeling and mimicry. From age six to age nine, typically the early school years, children move from a more passive role in their spiritual development to a more active one, but still very dependent on what is being modeled for them. These are the years when I most consider the commands of Deuteronomy 6:7, referred to above, and also Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." While memorization of Scripture can certainly begin in the preschool years, it can explode during these early school years, as the ministry of Awana has shown. These are years to help our children grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures, of our Christian history, and of heroes of our faith. It's a time to introduce them, both by instruction and by modeling it ourselves, to habits of prayer, study, giving, and worship. It's also a time to gently guide them in cultivating heart attitudes and, when they find that difficult, to use those moments not to shame them legalistically, but to remind them of their need for God's grace. Do you have children in the VIOLIN years? What tools are you using to guide them spiritually?To see this whole series, click below: Part 1: Guiding our children spiritually intro Part 2: the VIOLIN years Part 3: the VIOLA years Part 4: the CELLO years Part 5: adding in the academics I think every Christian parent longs for a roadmap to follow as we guide our children, hopefully, to spiritual and emotional maturity. When we began homeschooling eight years ago, that is one thing that drew me to the program through which we began that journey. The program's philosophy centered on the idea of developmental stages of learning that just so happened to correspond with the classical trivium - or so they said. Children in the "grammar stage" were ready for a certain kind of learning, at the "logic stage", they would be ready for another, and then the "rhetoric stage" would be where it all came together. It seemed that if I just followed their pathway, everything would work out in the end, not only academically, but also spiritually. For a number of reasons, we stepped away from that path in 2019, and it threw me into a bit of a panic at first. I had assumed we would follow this philosophy through to graduation. Now what? Through lots of research into classical learning, and by talking with other homeschool parents, we have landed in a place where we are happy academically now. That process showed me that our previous approach was not the only way to approach classical education, and in fact that those ideas of the trivium as stages of learning were not rooted in history, but in one woman's unique analogy comparing the trivium with then-recently developed ideas about child development. We ditched the curriculum, the company, and the approach in favor of other options that we felt were stronger academically and ethically, but I kept thinking about the roadmap. Although I now knew that the classical trivium was actually a trivium of skills (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and not stages of learning, I also knew as a mom and a former teacher that children do learn in different ways at different ages. Slapping the trivium skills as labels of those stages, I felt, muddied the waters of classical education in a very confusing way, but that didn't mean there was no truth to the overall idea. Was there still something there I could find that would help me chart my children's academic, and even spiritual, journey? I began exploring what others said about child development, as well as looking at what the Bible says about how parents are to teach their children, and I began to take notes. As I thought and prayed on this, the image that kept coming to my mind was a string ensemble - stringed instruments of different sizes, played in different ways and making beautiful music together. I began to play with some ways to use that image to express what I was learning in a way that would be memorable, and could be applied to both classical and spiritual learning, but would not use classical educational terminology in a confusing way. That is what I want to share with you in the next four posts. It's something that is now helping me as I make plans and set priorities for my children, both spiritually and academically, and I hope it will help you as well. Begin with the end in mindOne of the "7 Habits of Highly Successful People" is to begin with the end in mind. Applying that principle, let's take a look at what we are aiming at and praying for as we "bring them [our children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4, NASB). We'll begin by looking at this command from the Apostle Paul, which comes after he has given directions to children on the importance of obeying their parents. Now he focuses on Christian fathers and draws a stark contrast between two approaches to dealing with children. Believing fathers are not to "provoke" their children, meaning to deal with them in such a way that, knowingly or not, they push their children's buttons to the point where they are going to sin in anger. Instead, they are to "bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Let's look at those three key phrases and what they mean. First, "bring them up" in Greek is "ektrephete," which carries the idea of "nourishing to maturity", or giving a child what he or she needs to become a mature adult. It is not just marking time while a child grows up, but parenting with intention and purpose. "Discipline" is the Greek word "paideia," not referring simply to punitive discipline, but instruction that trains someone to reach maturity. In ancient Greek culture, this was a term loaded with meaning. It referred to the system of educating and training the ideal citizen, one who would likely lead others. It was a holistic education, with intellectual training taking place alongside practical skills, moral instruction, and physical conditioning. Paul's Gentile readers of the letter to the Ephesians would have understood this idea instantly, although he was clearly applying the contemporary idea to an entirely new context - “in the Lord.” Finally, "instruction" here is the Greek word "nouthesia", or "setting the mind through God-inspired warning". In other words, it is the careful use of the Word of God to train the mind to reason well and to choose rightly, understanding the danger and consequences of not doing so. Putting this all together, our goal as Christian parents (with special responsibility given here to Christian fathers) is to direct our children's education, training, and instruction with the goal in mind, not of simply reaching a certain age, but of maturity in the Lord. What does that look like? This is where I want to bring in the string ensemble, typically made up of two violins, a viola, a cello, and sometimes a double bass. The BASS acronym is going to represent the point toward which we are aiming as we educate, train, and instruct our children toward Christian maturity. This young adult is, hopefully, characterized by the following traits.
Belief in the Lord: We want our children to have a firm and unwavering belief in who God is, what the Bible says about who He is, who we are, and what our purpose on Earth is. We want them to understand and believe the Bible and commit it to their understanding and memory. We want them to have an unshaken faith in the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, was crucified, dead and buried, and on the third day rose from the dead. Availability to the Lord: We don't only want our children only to have head knowledge of God, but to be committed to following Him as Lord. We want them to be ready to say "yes" wherever and however He leads them. Between belief and availability, we want them to live out the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Service to others: We don't want our children to be "so heavenly minded they are no earthly good". We want them to live out the second greatest commandment, to love their neighbor as themselves, through service to others and sharing the gospel as well. Sanctification: We want our children not only to master the "talk" but also the "walk". We want them to be committed to growing in holiness, not through legalistic measures, but by personal conviction of right and wrong according to the Scriptures, and by an awareness of their need for, and daily reliance on, the Holy Spirit. Another way to look at these is that we want our children to be fully mature in the Lord, encompassing their head (belief), heart (availability), hands (service), and habits (sanctification). In the coming days, I will share the other members of our string ensemble to see how we can encourage this outcome. We cannot guarantee that our children will follow the Lord or that they will not fall into sinful patterns, but we can be faithful with what the Lord has entrusted to us, to prepare the soil of our children's hearts so faith can grow, and to create a faith-filled home environment to which even the wayward prodigal can someday return and find the faith of his or her childhood. |
Welcome!Welcome! My name is Kristi. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a teacher, a writer, a musician... but most of all a child and worshiper of God discovering that even in life's messes, God is still good. Learn more about me and my journey here!
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