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Volume I, Issue 2
Epi Kardia Insights
To Equip Parents to Disciple and Teach Their Children
Epi Kardia Has a New Website!
Please visit our new website! We have
done a major overhaul, have fixed broken links and added much more
information about our curriculum as well as more resources:
-
The actual Table of
Contents for both the Lower and Upper Grades teaching
manuals
-
Bible Reading Plan for one
year
-
Recommended books for High
School and Beyond (still under construction)
-
Ability to purchase books
specified in our curriculum directly from our site! We currently
have World History-World Literature and American Literature
for High School books and will be adding more soon!
Ready to Move Beyond the Textbook?
1. Now you can! With our new e-book, Designing a
High School Course Using Real Books, all of the direction you need is at
your fingertips. Organized in easy to understand steps, this guide opens up a multitude
of literature-based courses for you and your high school student to develop. Just decide
which course you want to cover, grab your books and watch your high school student excel!
Check www.epikardia.com to view a sample.
2. Check out Beth's article Beyond
the Texbook just published in the spring edition of Seasons of
Home magazine! If you are not familiar with this magazine, here is an excerpt from
their website:
Seasons is a full-color, print publication
created to encourage families and better prepare themselves through the passing on of life
skills needed in the home. Seasons is filled with articles and projects that revolve around
homeschooling, sewing, cooking and baking, gardening, Titus 2 encouragement, themed teas,
father/son projects, and daughters at home. Meant to be a keepsake, each issue is graced with
delightful photography for visual learners.
And here is an
excerpt from the Introduction of our new high school
curriculum, Essay Styles for High
School:
An Essential for Every High School
Student...
Essay writing, recommended for every high school student, requires a clear
understanding of the essay types, essay structure, the writing process and solid
evaluation to be truly beneficial. At Epi Kardia, we don’t view writing as a subject,
but rather an essential life skill. Students who can express themselves well through
writing tend to achieve more in every subject area. Writing promotes more succinct
communication, organization skills and higher level thinking. It develops confidence,
creates an outlet for healthy expression and strengthens a student’s overall academic
prowess.
With our new high school curriculum, Essay
Styles for High School, your student will learn to write the five most
common types of essays: narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive and
comparison/contrast. This course is designed with step by step detailed instructions
for both the student and the teacher providing a clear picture of each essay style
along with solid goals and objectives. Even parents who do not view themselves as
strong writers can teach this course because the evaluation section describes exactly
what you need to look for in your student’s writing and explains how to determine a
fair grade, as well. Check our website for more information and to peruse a
sample.
ALSO COMING IN TIME FOR
FALL 2008
American Literature for High
School is new and will be ready for the fall of 2008.
We will be posting a curriculum description and a sample on the website soon. Get a head
start and order the books used in the curriculum at www.epikardia.com
Preparing Your Middle Schooler for
High School - Part 1
What are His
Goals....Really?
Understanding
Goals
Goals influence behavior. That
seems obvious. But sometimes we don’t realize what our goal actually is--a subtle point,
but one that can lead to dramatic differences in behavior. For example, I am on the last leg of
my regular walk and have a choice to make: Do I want to cut through some woods directly
to my house, or walk the long way around the block? It depends upon my goal. If my
goal is to finish my walk, I am likely to cut through. But if my goal is to
get exercise, I am
going to walk the long way around.
If you were to ask your
middle-schooler to tell you his goal as he worked on his math lesson, he would probably say
“finish the math lesson [that you assigned].” So this is not so much
his goal, as
it is your goal for
him. And most kids, if they took the time to think about
it, would agree that the best way to finish that lesson is the quickest way possible. J
Middle-schoolers need to learn
to own their own work and be increasingly proactive
about learning to be ready for high school
level classes. Over the middle school years, they need to engage with and
master the
material rather than just completing their lessons. Unfortunately, this is not the way most
kids look at schoolwork unless
they are taught
differently.
If your son looks at you quizzically
as you attempt to explain this foreign concept, relate that it is the same principle as
completing a chore well, such as cleaning one’s bedroom. He can whip through it in record time
, stuffing clothes under the bed and tossing them onto the closet floor, OR, he can do a
thorough job putting his clean clothes, neatly folded, back in the drawer and dirty ones in a hamper. At a quick glance, the results
might look similar—but the next time he hurriedly looks for his favorite shirt, he will find
that they are not.
Our task is to teach two things: first, that he is doing this work for
himself, not just you; and, secondly, the subtle difference between “finishing the math lesson”
(i.e., getting this lesson over with as quickly as possible) and “understanding the math lesson”
(i.e., working until mastery occurs). It is easier for him to choose to do a good job if
he can reframe the job according to his goal, not yours. For example: if he can
think of the benefits to him of keeping his room clean (he is able to dress more quickly, find
things, has more room to play, is allowed to have friends over, etc.), it takes less effort for
him to own the goal and be more responsible.
How do I encourage more
responsible thinking?
Teach and model positive
choices and responsible life skills—because they yield positive benefits and are right (as
opposed to ‘because I said so’).
For example, get up and go to bed at
a decent time , so you are alert enough to get your
work done. Make healthy food choices and
exercise, so you have energy and your body can do what
you want and need it to do. Treat others with
respect, because we are told to in God’s
Word. Work to earn part of the money for your
retreat, because you are the one
going.
Teach him to manage his own
schedule.
Buy an alarm clock so he
can wake himself up in the morning. Encourage him to make a chore list and check
whether something needs to be done rather
than you reminding him to do it. Show him how to keep track of youth group, soccer practice and
other activities on his own calendar (or the family calendar). Set some deadlines and
give consequences when they aren’t met.
As he becomes older, give
him a vision for the future .
Let him know that God has plans for him, and you share in his
excitement in seeing them unfold. Talk with him about school as his first
‘job’. Give him the purpose for middle school, which is to prepare him for high
school (the years that really
count.) Assure him that you will work
together with him so that he will be ready by the time he gets
there .
How does this look when applied
to school?
As your middle schooler begins to
own his work, encourage him to seek knowledge and
understanding by being proactive. If his goal is
to learn , not
just finish, work toward the following:
-
In math, willingness to do extra problems
until a
concept is fully mastered
-
In
science,
researching another source outside one’s assigned lesson for a more
understandable explanation of a difficult topic
-
In
foreign language, making vocabulary
flash cards or doing extra work that is not part
of the assigned lesson, just to build a better u
nderstanding of the language
-
Across all
subjects, listing and defining u
nfamiliar
vocabulary words, just
to increase one’s
vocabulary
-
In
history, taking reading notes instead of
just reading
If
these suggestions sound way beyond your middle school student, take heart--this
is a process, not an event. (And middle schoolers mature at
different rates, which has to be factored in as well.) This is a concept that
will need to be taught and reminded through middle school and into high
school, but with consistency, patience and good modeling, you can teach your
student to set his own goals to learn proactively, rather than
just to finish his work.
by Dana
Wilson
Dana Wilson is a co-author of Epi Kardia literature-based unit study curriculum
used by homeschoolers and private and cottage schools. She has one homeschool graduate currently
attending college and one homeschooled high schooler at home. Contact Dana
at dana@epikardia.com .
To read the
next post in the
series Preparing Your Middle Schooler for High
School, discussing developmental
changes and ways to encourage higher level thinking, please
subscribe to our blog at
www.epikardia.com .
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