FAQ
Homeschooling is when parents assume the primary responsibility for their child’s education. This can be done in several formats: as a private school, where parents decide which curriculum fits their child’s capabilities and goals; participate as a home-based charter school, where parents follow grade-appropriate curriculum outlined by charter guidelines; public school after-school supplemental classes based on their child’s gifts and goals. The student, in this last case, is still under state regulated curriculum and testing, but the parent provides career enhancing classes.
In the U.S., homeschooling is regulated by the state. The best way to find the most accurate and up-to-date information about homeschool requirements in your state is to check state requirements on a homeschool organization website. They often include both homeschooling statutes and a summarization of what those legalities mean.
At one time, this was the top question about homeschooling. People have since learned homeschoolers have many socializing options. There are thousands of social opportunities: music lessons and clubs; dance lessons and clubs; gymnastic lessons and clubs; chess lessons and clubs; Awana clubs; church clubs; physics lessons and competitions; 4-H; Girl Scouts; Boy Scouts; Bible-study groups; and limitless sports activities.
Many Christian parents are looking for quality books, but modern publishers aren’t publishing books with high moral standards. These days, parents are forced to search among indie authors, or religious publishers. Sorry to say, local libraries aren’t helpful. Instead, they push social agendas that undermine the faith of our religious youth.
Young Adult (YA) fiction is an age range. It describes books aimed at readers between 12 and 19. This doesn’t mean YA can’t hold their attention after 19. To the contrary, great YA novels are so life-changing that adults enjoy re-reading them for the rest of their lives, even going as far as joining book clubs that explore how best to use these books to help our teens achieve a higher level of literacy.
Teenagers aren’t children any more, and young adults are dealing with more adult issues the further they get from childhood. For example, The Testing is described as SATs meets The Hunger Games. Young Adult (YA) fiction can provide intellectual tools that deal with suicide, teenage pregnancy, racism, cancer, and love in ways adult fiction can’t. The teen voice is so strong and flexible, it lends new confidence and perspective as they pass through their teens.
Noughts & Crosses would be a completely different story if told from an adult point of view, just as The Perks of Being a Wallflower works precisely because it is told in Charlie’s (a fellow teen's) voice. The same goes for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
For this reason, consider making Michael Benzehabe's YA series (Persianality, Unassimilated, Before, and Zonked Out a part of your literary class if you teach teenagers who are coming to grips with life's big issues.
Take that hyper-focus in a healthy direction. Schedule a movie night and watch a book-to-movie with your teen (or teens).
For the rest of the week, work in questions about life-lessons gained from that movie. Many YA novels have been turned into plays. Check out the local drama clubs in your area. What would make your teen happier than acting out their favorite book?
The deeper your teen dives into a book, the wider their range in the literary arts.
That too can be taken in a healthy direction.
Help them start writing 1,000-word-stories. There are many teen magazines who want submissions from teens; many local newspapers would gladly publish an article from a local teen.
Thereafter, if your teen can string enough short stories together, they may have a novel in the works. Many books on this website (www.benzehabe.com) are designed to inspire teens to put their writing skills to practical use.
Check out our Religious Journalism curriculum. This course introduces teens to the possibility of starting their own YouTube channel. Who knows? Maybe you should encourage them to start a YA Book Review channel.
This theory states that encoded messages are hiding in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Many books have already demonstrated that there are encoded messages, which can be discovered by means of decoding systems based on equal distance intervals between the letters that form strategic messages.
A less known element of Bible codes is deliberately removed letters, deliberately broken letters, deliberately misspelled words, and words that are used a specific number of times.
Check out Michael Ben Zehabe's RUTH: a woman's guide to husband material; JONAH: a commentary; ESTHER: the book for earth people; and LAMENTATIONS: how narcissism ruins a good thing.
Ancient scribes taught that God dictated the Torah, (the first 5 books of the Bible), to Moses (and later Joshua), letter by letter, and that He deliberately encrypted in the text, future names and future events.
Several decades back, three Israeli mathematicians, (Professor Elyahu Rips, a world renown scientist from the Hebrew University along with his colleagues, Doron Witztum and Yoav Rosenberg), decided to study this unproven belief with the help of computers. They programmed a computer to scan the book of Genesis and search by “skip code”, (a decoding technique called ELS, Equidistant Letter Sequences).
They verified the names of 32 sages who lived between the 9th and 18th centuries, checking every nth letter, where "n" can take any value.
The program later found more names. They calculated the odds against chance, and found the odds at 62,500 to 1.
They published their results in 1994, in the scholarly journal Statistical Science, (Statistical Science 9:429-438)
Since then, many authors and mathematicians have uncovered many more alarming discoveries. It seems the God of the Bible communicates at many levels.
The skip code is a decryption method that takes every nth letter, (where the "n" value can be any number, from a minimum of 2 to several thousand), and groups Hebrew words to see if they form phrases.
Some programs arrange the Tanakh, (the entire Hebrew scriptures), into a continuous string of Hebrew letters, and searches for names, words, and phrases, starting from Genesis, (or from any other specified starting point).
For example, the Hebrew letters in Yitzhak Rabin's name are found with a distance between them of 4772, (between Deuteronomy 2:33 to Deuteronomy 24:16).
The answer is yes!
You can search, replicate and confirm these discoveries for yourself. Researchers provide documentation in scrupulous detail. They always provide the name of the manuscript they used, the name of the biblical book, the chapter, the verse, and the letter number in the verse.
Thanks to the careful counting of words and letters, ancient Hebrew scribes gifted us with manuscripts that match those written by the “hand of Moses” (2Chron 34:14) thus preserving our Bible as a reliable document for modern translators, and code searchers.
Rule number one: buy books and flashcards that allow your student to wander about while they read, write, and research. Make sure they have a minimalistic backpack with minimalistic supplies that allow them to take their portable office into libraries, parks, hiking trails, lectures, and their favorite fast-food establishment.
Some churches have set aside funding for their Youth Groups, making sure their teens receive a solid Christian education. Ask your Youth Pastor about any such programs at your church. Investing in local teens is just as important as investing in foreign missionaries.
You won’t get a second chance to educate your teens.
Buy quality items that will get them through every year of high school. The titles of their books may change, but not the fundamental literacy elements.
Even if a book, flashcards, or a curriculum costs a little more, it may save you more in the long run, especially if it lasts all year . . . or even into the following year. Better yet, imagine your teen tutoring young ones in your church.
Purchase a supportive backpack that has ample space and lots of pockets for that day's school supplies. The biggest mistake parents make is overloading backpacks. We've all seen those kids, walking to school like a pack mule, with an overstuffed pack on their back.
Some schools don’t allow rolling backpacks, so check the rules before you consider that option.
With online learning and digital group work happening more than ever, it’s helpful for your teen to have a laptop to stay connected with their teachers and classmates. Look for a tablet or laptop with a long battery life.
They may not have the luxury of charging their electronic devices.
A durable carrying case for each electronic device is essential. I'm sure that requires no explanation.
An eTablet can subtract a great deal of unnecessary weight from their backpack. Parents (and students) are often shocked when they discover how many ebooks can be uploaded onto their eTablet. These same eTablets allow students to highlight in various colors, underline, and insert notes.
In addition, eTablets allow students (if they purchase as attachable keyboard) to write while they are away from home, since they support programs like Microsoft Word.
All of Michael Ben Zehabe's books are available in PDF format, which can be uploaded to most eTablets.
A three-ring binder is a high-school essential. Most learning activities can be summarized with paper and pen. Even students don't want to pull out expensive computers when paper and pen will suffice.
Three-ring binders also help to manage multiple subjects. Binder dividers help to keep notes and assignments organized if your kids have personal projects--not school projects, such as writing or composing.