Mt. Sophia Ideas» Life Skills

5 Tips to Help Study for a Big Test

Vicki Tillman — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:47:45 +0000

Do you get nervous before a big test?

Try these ideas:

1) Study each day. A little daily learning helps develop strong neural pathways in your brain. These strong neural pathways make information easier to retrieve even if you feel tense during a test.

2) Review your notes the evening before the test. Take some deep breaths (to lower your stress levels) and read your notes outloud. THEN find something to laugh about (laughter makes things easier to remember).

3) Quickly look over your notes again in the morning.

4) Talk to yourself well. Remind yourself of other times you’ve done well on a test.

5) Do some deep breathing before you begin the test.

You’re going to do well!

3 Tips for a Successful Homeschool High School Year

Vicki Tillman — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 20:54:04 +0000

We are getting ready to leap into the new school year.

Here are 3 tips to help this year be successful:

1) Make a schedule

Students who make and follow a schedule tend to do better than those who don’t. Schedules help you pace yourself- not over work and not over play.

2) Make friends

High school is an important time to surround yourself with friends who believe in you and your ideals. You need the support and the fun of having friends.

3) Make time to pray

Sounds cheesy, maybe- but you can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens you. BUT you can’t do all things on your own. Check in with Him daily! Learn to listen for His voice.

Have a great year!

What to do When Your Homeschool Journey Feels Lousy- Kyle Thorp

Vicki Tillman — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:33:54 +0000

Life is full of ups and downs. We’ve all seen days when the sky is gray, the birds aren’t singing, and the car won’t start. Just because you love homeschooling doesn’t mean it will always be fun or easy. Sometimes it’s just plain lousy.

: Does your life feel like a roller coaster?

Maybe neither you nor your child can understand logarithms, or the college admissions deadline that you thought was still weeks away is suddenly–TOMMOROW! Or maybe you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. For whatever reason, you just start to think, Why me? This isn’t fair?

You might try to curb your inner grumbling by telling yourself not to overreact or to count your blessings, but you can’t help feeling as if you somehow have a right to be dissatisfied.

Guess what. You have every reason to be dissatisfied!

Bad days are a blessing because they reveal an important truth: that all is not right in the world . . . yet.

: Dissections prove that homeschooling isn’t always glamorous

When I have bad days, I think of what Paul says in Romans 8 about the groaning of creation as it awaits Christ’s return to restore all things. We shouldn’t try to quiet our own groans by hoping that tomorrow will be better. We KNOW that eternity in heaven will be much, MUCH better. It would be wrong to be satisfied with anything else.

What Is Love?

Micah Tillman — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:48:05 +0000

Earlier this semester I had to give someone some relationship advice. The question of who loved whom — and what exactly love is — was central to our conversation.

Then, a couple weekends back, my sister married a very awesome guy. I naturally had to write them a long philosophical discourse on the nature of relationships and love.

So, I hope you’ll forgive me if I devote this post the to topic of love. It’s not a homeschool-specific topic, but it’s one homeschoolers definitely have to deal with.

And there are few topics that are more important, in the end.

____

I want to talk about romantic love specifically. I feel particularly compelled to talk about this kind of love because (a) I’m married, and (b) I teach college students.

As a married person I want to make sure I get love right. And as a teacher of college students, I get worried that they’re going to get love wrong.

I mean, have you ever listened to the songs about “love” that kids listen to, or seen the shows and movies about love that kids watch? You remember the songs you listened to and the shows/movies you watched when you were young, right? It’s essentially the same stuff: fun (for the most part), shallow (for the most part), and occasionally disturbingly bad.

____

So, what is love, exactly?

I think love happens in three levels.

It begins as a desire, not as something you explicitly choose. Specifically, love begins as the desire to spend the rest of your life with someone, helping him/her to achieve his/her goals and to become as awesome as he/she can become.

That’s what falling in love means. It’s something that happens to you. You can’t help it, as it were. (But more on that later.)

And if that’s not what you desire, you haven’t fallen in love. You’ve fallen into something else, which may be perfectly fine, but isn’t love.

____

The second (and deeper) level of love is the addition of commitment to desire.

Specifically, love becomes the desire and commitment to spend the rest of your life with someone, helping her/him to achieve her/his goals and to become as awesome as she/he can become.

This level is extremely important. This is where you shift from merely being in love with someone (which is a fine thing to be in, usually), to loving her or him.

This is the level where you engage not just the emotional/desiring side of yourself, but your full self — mind, emotions, soul, body, etc. — since you make a commitment to do whatever is involved in spending the rest of your life helping the other person to achieve his/her goals and to become as awesome as he/she can.

____

The third (and perhaps deepest?) level of love is the acting out of your desire and commitment to spend the rest of your life with the other person, helping her/him to achieve her/his goals and to become as awesome as she/he can become.

Until you act out your love, your love isn’t fully actual. To actually love someone, you must act. (The word “actual” has the word “act” in it for a reason!)

And that means you must actually (a) do what is required to spend your life/time with the person you love, (b) do what is required to help him/her achieve his/her goals, and (c) do what is required to help him/her become as awesome as he/she can.

____

But now we face two questions.

First, can you control whom you fall in love with?

Second, can you fall out of love?

____

The answer to the first question is, “No, and yes.” What you find attractive depends upon your character and personality. You have the power to shape both your character and personality.

If you have a bad character — that is, if you are shallow and vindictive and immature — you’re going to be attracted by a certain type of person. If you work on improving your character, you’ll begin to be attracted by a different type of person.

So, your character determines who you’re going to desire to spend the rest of your life with, helping her/him to achieve her/his goals and to become as awesome as she/he can be. But you determine — and can change — your own character.

____

The answer to the second question is, “Yes, but it doesn’t have to be a disaster.”

Love is one part desire, one part commitment, and one part action. The commitment in some sense is the completion or actualization of the desire, and the action is the completion and actualization of the commitment.

To “fall out of love,” I think, simply means losing the desire part of love. Desires are like emotions. They can be fickle. They can come and go. But the “heart” of love is in the commitment and action that actualize the desire, not in the desire itself.

If your desire flickers, therefore, I’d be willing to bet that continued commitment and action (which make love complete and actual) will bring the desire back to life.

And remember: While desire is the only part of love that you don’t control directly, you can control it indirectly by the way you shape your character. And you shape your character by the way you choose to act and think.

____

So, that’s my theory about love.

What do you think?

-Micah Tillman

_{[Micah is a Mt. Sophia graduate who is working on his doctoral dissertation at The Catholic University of America. He also gets to teach philosophy (as a "teaching fellow"), which he loves.]}

The Importance of Having a Personal Philosophy

Vicki Tillman — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:57:06 +0000

Did you know that philosophers rule the world?

Really, they do. (However, the poor things usually don’t get to experience their reign because their philosophies catch on 10 years after they die.)

Every day, you are influenced by what philosophers have philosophized into place for you.

1) How did your doctor tell you about the virus you have? (and who else did he tell?)

2) How did the federal government decide whether to remain in Afganistan and Iraq?

3) How your local government officials decide about who and what to tax?

4) How did the local radio station decide which music to promote?

There is a philosophical thought pattern that underlies each of those decisions.

You have personal philosophies that drive you, even though you might not recognize it:

1) Who do you choose as friends?

2) Where do you go to church?

3) When do you loose your temper?

4) With what charities are you involved?

5) Where do you shop?

6) To what do you read/watch/listen?

I have been reading Hamlet’s Blackberry (developing a personal philosophy about intentional engagement/disengagement with the digital world.) You see- EVERYTHING has a philosophic underpinning.

If we are wise, we will examine our life, our ideas, our choices- and choose/be intentional about what we believe and do.

Socrates first said it: The unexamined life is not worth living.

Philosophers rule the world. How do you rule yourself?

Now and Not Yet- Kyle Thorp

Vicki Tillman — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 02:59:41 +0000

Kyle Thorp is a Mt. Sophia graduate, student at Grove City College, and son of Allison Thorp. This post is running concurrently on www.7sistershomeschool.com.

It’s Christmas Eve. For many years this was a day of torturous anticipation for me. I would be waiting eagerly to see what was in those boxes under the tree. But it wasn’t just the presents that mattered. I got to spend time with all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. Yes, I actually enjoy spending holidays with family. I just happen to have the best family there is.

Christmas was always full of fun times! But the worst part was that it always had to end. I had to start school again. And the toys I got were never fun to play with for more than a week. My excitement was built up then brought down. I didn’t feel satisfied.

Then last year the Christmas cheer in my house was overshadowed by the death of a family member. I wondered how we could celebrate Christmas after the tragedy that had taken place. During that season, God taught me a lesson. We expect so much out of Christmas. We expect our families to come home. We expect to get a day off. We expect to get everything on our list. We expect everyone to get along. We expect the food to be good. We expect perfection. How many Christmases have we gotten it?

You see, our attitude toward Christmas is one of the signs that we were made for something better. We have this idea of the way things are “supposed to be.” Apples are supposed to be crisp and sweet. Steak is supposed to be tender and juicy. Christmas is supposed to be joyful and peaceful, and there’s supposed to be snow.

Naturally, when we place such high expectations on everything, we are constantly met with disappointments. The steak is overdone. The apple is soft and mushy. It sleets instead of snowing. What are we supposed to do about it? Just accept that life sucks and resolve to be miserable? Not at all! That’s not the way God wants us to live.

The proper attitude toward life in an imperfect world has two parts. The first part is found in Colossians 3: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” God has a wicked awesome home prepared for us. It’s called heaven. If you want to know what it’s like read the last chapter or so of Revelation. Yes, it’s poetic language, but it gives us an idea of how wonderful our next life will be. Everything you didn’t get in this life will be repaid tenfold in heaven. You’d have better luck trying to find all your gifts on Christmas eve than you would trying to find heaven on earth. As I learned in one of my college classes, this is called over-realized eschatology. If your wish is for “no more lives torn apart, and wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts” you’re going to have to wait for heaven.

On the other hand, we can still have joy now while we’re on the earth. The second part of our attitude is to appreciate the blessings we have in life. Sometimes we bite into an apple that’s just perfect, or we open a gift that is just so special. These are reflections of heaven. We tend to miss them because they are usually swallowed up by the worries, tragedies, and disappointments of life. Life is not joy-less. To think so is under-realized eschatology. We need to take note of the simple pleasures in life, and thank God for them. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

So what are we made for? According to my professor, we were made for “now and not yet.” We should appreciate the gifts God has given us now and eagerly await the gifts he has yet to give us. I hope you get a chance to think about this during your Christmas festivities.

Setting Goals- Marilyn Groop

Vicki Tillman — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Do you have written goals for each child and for your homeschool? If you do, congratulations. Few people have written goals. If you don’t, here is a way to write some. Of course, just as there is no one right way to homeschool, there is not one right way to write your goals.

Here are some goal setting guidelines. Adapt them to your purposes:

1) Think about what you want for your child by the time he or she graduates from high school. You may want her to go to college.

You may even want or need him to get a scholarship to help pay for said college.

You may not think college is in your child’s future, but you probably do want her to be able to support herself and move out on her own. That would mean that your child would have a marketable skill.

You probably want your child to be able to support a family, prepare a meal, have friends, be serving in church, balance a checkbook, and bring your grandchildren back to see you!

2) These are all long-term goals and can be written as such.

3) Once you have your long-term goals written, think about what steps you need to take this school year to bring you closer to these goals. These will be your short-term goals.

-If my child is in third grade and my long-term goal is being able to balance a checkbook, I might need him to be able to add and subtract multi-digit numbers accurately. This would bring him a step closer to my goal.

-If I want her to be able to study her Bible, perhaps working on reading comprehension would be a good start.

4) Once you have your long-term and short-term goals, think about the “how” of accomplishing them. What is my plan for this year that will bring my child closer to this goal?

-Do I need to complete a math workbook?

-Do I need to study another culture?

-Do I need to teach her about proper nutrition and exercise?

5) When you set your goals, don’t focus entirely on academics.

-You can include physical, social, and spiritual goals.

-You can include obedience, teamwork, and diligence. (These will all be important to raising a child who is ready to enter the real world someday.)

When my boys were little, I included a goal of being able to “handle a variety of social settings”. For years, it seemed that the short-term goal was accomplished if they burped and said “excuse me” instead of “that was a good one”. As they grew and matured it included things like being able to handle a job interview, knowing how to dress appropriately for an occasion and proper etiquette on a date or on the dance floor at a wedding.

Each child and family is unique. We can glean from each other, but it is detrimental to compare ourselves to others. Once you have your written goals, you can use them to help you decide which curriculum or activities fit for you. And, you will be surprised to see how much you accomplish each year!

3 Guides on Decision-Making for Homeschoolers- Marilyn Groop

Vicki Tillman — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:51:20 +0000

Back in the dark ages when I started homeschooling, our options were limited. There were only a few curriculum publishers who catered to homeschool students. There were few extracurricular activities geared to homeschoolers, especially to middle and high school students. The internet was not available to answer questions and help you find resources. This is in sharp contrast to the world of homeschooling today.

Today, there are numerous curriculum sources and resources available. But, with these increased options, parents can find themselves anxious about making the right choices. Which curriculum should I choose? Which activities are the best match for my children and my family? How do I find the balance between social activities and academics, extracurricular activities and down time?

Obviously, there are many factors to consider and ways to decide, but let’s get back to the basics. There are three vital things you should do:

1) Pray. God has promised wisdom to those who ask, and He knows your family, your students, and your circumstances better than anyone (even you!). So, ask Him. And then listen for the answer.

2) Seek Godly counsel. There are many veteran homeschoolers and experts who can help you in the process. They can give you their opinions about curriculum that they have tried. (They can help, but only you know your unique circumstances enough to make the final decision.)

3) Look at your goals and whether this particular option would help to attain those goals. To do that, you actually have to have your goals. Written goals are a great way to keep yourself on task and to help you make decisions.

Which leads us to a discussion about goals… Stay tuned…

A Unique Idea

Vicki Tillman — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:48:44 +0000

Last summer, Nathan and Sarah Tillman wanted to visit France. Wanting to make it a fun, frugal and useful trip, (as well as a celebration of their completing their master’s degrees), they decided to try a new idea. They bartered room and board with a French homeschooling family in return for tutoring English and Latin with family’s kids. What an adventure!

Back home, Nathan (class of 2001) is teaching Latin at Tall Oaks Classical School and Sarah (a homeschool graduate, too) is teaching Composition to ESL students at University of Delaware.

Life Transitions

Vicki Tillman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:14:03 +0000

As you can see by the lack of posts during September, I’ve been real busy.

What is happening is that I hit one of those pivotal life transitions. You know the kind? You are moseying along living life as usual and all of a sudden you realize the little country road was merging onto I-95.

So I’ve been moseying along for 20 years, merrily homeschooling my 5 kids.

I hit major transitions each time one of the first 4 graduated from high school. I would feel loss, lost, sad, happy, relieved, and confused throughout their senior years (and especially at graduation).

After each graduation, I felt like I had to redefine myself and how I homeschool. That’s what transitions are like.

This year’s transition sort of surprised me: I am homeschooling my last high schooler. Seth entered 9^th grade this year. He loves high school. He jumped right into my philosophy that high schoolers should be busy and exhausted. He:

-carries full academic load

-is in Tri-State’s Chorale, Bell Choir, TEK, Rhetoric League

-is in MSA’s Praise Band and is manager for the soccer team (and drama in winter)

-is active in church youth group

-loves hanging out with friends in person and on social media.

So he’s cool. But I am at a transition. It feels weird to me. I am not planning 6 years down the road for the unit studies I want to see covered. I am not squirreling away curriculum to use on the next child. (Instead, btw, I am bringing it to MSA’s library and thinking what courses I want to teach here…)

What is it supposed to feel like when you are high schooling your LAST kid?