the WRITE Balance: devotional

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Character Building for Families: A Review

One of the deep desires of mothers everywhere is for their children to grow to be good people. While sometimes we get sidetracked with physical success or failure, at the end of the day we pray that their character will be what shines about them. The tricky part of that is that good hearts need cultivating and maintenance. Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you a couple of books that can help your family be intentional with building up those hearts with virtue and character - Character Building for Families, Volume I & II by Lee Ann Rubsam.

Character Building for Families is a two volume spiral-bound set of topical Bible studies designed for families or small groups. Volume I covers 12 character traits and Volume II covers only 5, but at length. While every topic stands alone and accessible in any order, Volume II's topics are not as easily grasped by young children. Virtues like Stewardship and Mercy in depth are better suited for older kids, whereas Obedience and Diligence are vital concepts earlier on.

The remarkableness of these studies is really in their simplicity. There is not a large amount of devotional material, but rather wisely placed questions and scriptures to memorize. The author's intent was to ensure that all of these character traits were given adequate time and study, but it certainly allows the parent/teacher to include their own illustrations or examples. In some ways, it is more like an outline than anything else. Each lesson is divided up into days and may last anywhere from 5 days to over 2 months, depending on the topic, but if we had the time more than one day's lesson could be covered in a day.
The author, Lee Ann Rubsam, home schooled her children for 25 years, until they reached adulthood. Character Building for Families was originally written for her family. She continues to mentor younger home school mothers through social media and writing, including The Character Building for Families Blog.

As my oldest inches closer to double-digits, I am growing increasingly aware of the fear of missing something before it's too late. Character Building for Families is a great framework to facilitate all those important conversations!

Friday, October 7, 2016

Spiritual Growth through Poetry Analysis: An Everyday Education Review

The majority of the products I get to review are geared towards my children and their education. Today I'm talking about something I used solely for myself: Working it Out: Poetry Analysis with George Herbert from Everyday Education, LLC. Late high school and college students would certainly benefit from this study or anyone looking for a different avenue for mental and spiritual growth. This book is, by design, a devotional intertwined with a clear study of George Herbert's poetry, capable of accomplishing many things within the reader.
George Herbert was a Welsh-born Anglican priest whose poetry and spiritual content has been noted by many over the years including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis. In this text, Joseph L. Womack walks the reader through over 50 poems in a uniform manner highlighting the following elements:
The Big Picture: What the poem is about. The Parts of the Picture: A stanza-by-stanza explication of the poem with selective identification of literary devices and poetic techniques. The Parts of the Picture Come Together: An explanation of the movement of thought through the poem Reflections: Questions for further meditation. Scriptures for Further Reflection

Beautiful Handwriting, Literature and Poetry {Everyday Education, LLC}

If you took one poem a week to study, this could last an entire year. For a classroom setting, there are some recommended deeper learning exercises as well as the option of studying only certain poems as the table of contents organizes them by theme and subject manner. The dual nature of studying both George Herbert's poetry and also his history through personal reflection provides a wealth of learning no matter how you decide to utilize it. In my review of it, I simply started at the beginning and read until I ran out of time or in some cases fell asleep! A mom's study time is sometimes difficult to fit in you know. With my children being under 6, I have had less opportunity to study denser topics like poetry in the past few years so this delving felt a little indulgent on the one hand and overwhelming on the other hand. The extensive discussion about each stanza certainly carried me through my inexperience or rusty thought processes where the poetry was concerned. The history and context that is found sprinkled throughout each poem's discussion is an education all its own. Since all of Herbert's poetry is thick with spiritual implications, it is impossible to embrace this study without your mind contemplating a relationship with God. In my opinion, the most effective way to maximize or intentionally pursue spiritual growth is to spend time in the corresponding scriptures provided for reflection. This return to God's word seems to connect Herbert's poetic experience - and any reflections gleaned - with your own relationship with the Bible, bringing new life to both. A wonderful exercise on your own or in any kind of study group! Other members of the crew reviewed a couple of other texts in literature and writing as seen below. Be sure to visit some of their reviews to determine if they might work for you.