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The Hope Chest with Virginia Knowles
#11-10: My Country ‘Tis of Thee
November 11, 2008
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Dear Hope Chest friends,
This month, I’m actually writing about educational (academic) stuff! Imagine that! It’s a full issue – about 15 pages – so I recommend that you print it out and “set for a spell” with a nice tall glass of lemonade! In this issue you will find web links for Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, and the Presidential prayer team, as well as my thoughts on family history, the Puritans, and an authentic spiritual life. I have also included a list of American history resources, my own study guide for the novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond and a brief biographical sketch of John Winthrop. I know that a sizeable proportion of our 1,130 Hope Chest readers do not live in the United States. I trust that you will be able to glean something from this issue anyway!
Today is Veteran’s Day in the U.S., so I’d like to share the link to a poem called “In Flanders Fields” by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm
In light of the recent U.S. elections, which were a disappointment to many of us, it is helpful to remember that God is still in control. Nothing takes him by surprise. He is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Sovereign over all. And he calls us to pray for our earthly leaders! I encourage you to check out the Presidential Prayer Team web site to find out how you can be an effective intercessor for our nation.
Family Life Today is doing a series on Thanksgiving this week. You can listen to the audio broadcasts on-line and find other resources for Thanksgiving here: Thanksgiving at Family Life Today. My friend Stephanie Garvey gave us a copy of Barbara Rainey’s beautiful book/CD set Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember. When you click this last web link, scroll down the page to see the book.
You may also enjoy reading my own Thanksgiving Treasury web pages.
In our Providence home school co-op, we are having a little Thanksgiving assembly next week. It’s nothing fancy. I just chose some songs for each grade level to sing, and we are going to get together in the chapel at the church where we meet. You can click on most of the song titles that I list see the lyrics, hear the tunes, and read some of the background stories of the hymns. The K4/K5 class is joining the 1st/2nd class in singing the first verse of “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies” and the first and last verses of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” The 3rd/4th class and the 5th/6th class are doing all of “For the Beauty of the Earth” and “Come Ye Thankful People.” Other songs that we considered for these classes were “We Gather Together” and “Now Thank We All Our God.” The 7th/8th graders are doing “In God We Still Trust”, a stirring patriotic anthem by a country music group called Diamond Rio. (If you click on that link, you can see a music video on YouTube. Be sure to watch a few of the other versions listed on the screen, and compare their use of visuals. Also, you can extend the video to full screen by clicking on the second icon from the right just below the video.
You know by now that I love to explore my genealogical heritage – to “climb my family tree” in search of fascinating tales. Sometimes I find more than I bargained for – as in, who’s that hanging in my family tree? Yep, a real hanging, as in the Salem Witch Hunt kind! Here’s the scoop. A year ago, two of my daughters needed to choose notable ancestors as the topic of their history presentations for their high school co-op class. At a loss, I asked my mom’s cousin Priscilla Perry, who is one of our Hess family history experts, for help. She wrote about great-great-many-times-great grandmother Margaret Stephenson Scott, the oldest (at age 77) and last (on September 22, 1692) “witch” hanged by the Puritans. It seems that she was especially vulnerable to suspicion because four of her seven children died in infancy or childhood, and, as a widow for two decades, she was forced to live as a beggar whose own children failed to support her. She also had the reputation of a cranky old lady, which is probably because she felt so neglected and rejected. She was falsely accused of casting spells and trying to choke people. She was exonerated by the Massachusetts legislature nearly two centuries later, but that was too late for dear old Margaret! Here are three links to read more….
I encourage you to find out more about your own family history – if you dare! If you don’t have a clue about how this can be done, please visit my Hess family heritage page at ww.VirginiaKnowles.com/HessFamilyHeritage.
You also know that I can’t resist offering a few thoughts about spiritual growth, and thankfully I can still do that in the context of this issue! My own Christian life started at a Hess family reunion in 1976, on the ultimate bicentennial family vacation when we took a month to “see the grand old USA” by driving from San Francisco to Pennsylvania and back, bobbling back and forth across the Canadian border on the return trip. (Talk about a geography field trip!) You can read a little about this at My Story of Liberty in 1976.
But beyond that initial salvation experience I wanted to remind each one of us that we must continue to grow and grow and grow in our personal experience with God. I know the Puritans get a bad rap for being, well, Puritanical! The stereotype is one of being legalistic, judgmental, and bound up with picky rules that they harshly imposed on others. There is some historical evidence of that, but let’s not judge them to harshly either. They weren’t all like that. Most of them, I think, were sincerely trying to live in a way which pleased the Lord, and they wanted to encourage their neighbors to do the same by setting up a just society where virtue was rewarded and vice was penalized. (You will see some of the foundations for that in John Winthrop’s sermon “City Upon a Hill” which I have excerpted and paraphrased in this issue.)
I guess what it comes down to is where someone’s own heart is. If anyone coasts along just doing what everyone else tells her to do in the religious realm, dutifully following and teaching “the rules” without any sincere conviction of her own and without an intimate relationship with the God of grace and wonder – then there is the risk of becoming a legalistic “witch hunter” no matter which century or country she lives in. So, my dear readers, I long for you to deeply know the fullness and sweetness of life with Jesus Christ, not a “life” of rigid religious rules. Please let me know if you need a little help in this area. My web site and blog are full of articles on this topic as well. You can start right here: Pilgrimage and Jubilee.
OK, on with the rest of this issue! Enjoy!
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Book by Elizabeth George Speare
Study Guide Questions by Virginia Knowles
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the first novel we studied this year in our 7th-8th grade English class at co-op. My students (and their parents) have really enjoyed this book the two years we have done it. The book is set in Puritan times during the era of the Salem witch hunts. Kit, the main character, befriends Hannah, an elderly Quaker widow who is accused of witchcraft.
I used selected pages from a publisher’s free PDF study guide (click here to download it) to introduce the novel and its author, Elizabeth George Speare, but I mainly use my own study guide. I have included the link for it below. Even if you don’t use it, it will give you an idea of the kinds of things you can discuss with your children when they read books independently or when you read them aloud. The questions are not all mere recall because I want my students to think about the deeper themes and issues in the book, as well as the excellent descriptive language that the author employs. You may wish to listen to my audio presentation, “Academic Education for a Deeper Heart” which is on my blog.
We finished this book in four or five weeks, with discussion in class on Mondays, and reading a chapter or two each day from Tuesday to Friday. Please note that these questions do not cover everything in the chapters. Besides this book, they also have writing, grammar, and other assignments for my class, so I don’t want to give them too many questions. I let them choose about four questions per day to answer. Questions marked with a ** are for more advanced students. Sometimes I combine two chapters in one daily assignment, as you will note.
To see my study guide questions, click here: Witch of Blackbird Pond Study Guide.
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American History Resources
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Before I get ino titles specifically about the early colonial time period, I wanted to mention a few general American history resources that we have used over the years. Please note that these are not exhaustive lists. They are only the titles that I can think of quickly!
You can easily do a search on your library’s computer catalog for the following key words: Pilgrims, Puritans, Separatists, colonial America, Mayflower, Squanto, William Bradford, Jamestown, Plymouth Colony, first Thanksgiving, etc. Many library books treat the religious themes with a more revisionist (anti-Christian) perspective, so be sure to screen the books to make sure they are acceptable to your view point before you give them to your children.
The A Beka history textbooks are the ones we consistently use in our co-op. In the younger grades, the information is very basic, but is quite in-depth by the high school years. They are decidedly Christian in perspective.
You can click on links in this section to see the products.
American Pioneers and Patriots by Caroline D. Emerson / Christian Liberty Press
From New World colonists to Old West settlers, explore early life in America! These engaging stories of frontier families offer your 3rd- and 4th-grade students an exciting window onto the pioneer past. Through fictional accounts of brave boys and girls, today's patriots will appreciate the faith, courage, and determination of those who built our nation. 165 pages, hardcover from Christian Liberty Press. My kids beg for this one!
In God We Trust: Stories of Faith in American History by Timothy Crater and Ranelda Hunsicker (published by Chariot) is a book with short, readable biographical sketches of American’s Christian leaders from Leif Erickson (the Danish explorer who discovered North America) to Katherine Lee Bates (who wrote the song “America”). This is a must have book! We consistently use it in our home school co-op.
The children’s versions (ages 9-12) of The Light and the Glory, From Sea to Shining Sea, and Sounding Forth the Trumpet by Peter Marshall and David Manuel follow the thread of divine providence in American history from Christopher Columbus onward. I think you can buy activity books for all of these.
The If You Lived... series published by Scholastic Books are easy books which tell about daily life of children (and adults) during various historical eras such as what they ate, what games they played, what chores they did, how the illnesses were treated, etc.
The American Adventures series published by Barbour Publishing are 48 Christian novels, covering various time periods from 1620-1945. One thing that I like is the way that the generations are connected from book to book. The children who are the main characters in one novel may appear in subsequent ones as teens, and are likely to end up as the parents or even grandparents of the main character in books a little further along in the series. These books are most suitable for upper elementary and middle school, though I like reading them, too! (www.barbourbooks.com)
The Christian Heritage books by Nancy Rue are novels covering American history from the Colonial period until World War II, for ages 8-12. They are published by Bethany House / Focus on the Family.
America’s Providential History by Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell is a full size 294 page resource from the Principle / Providential educational approach. I would not use this as your sole text, but it makes a good reference for middle school and high school because it includes myriad source documents, quotes, woodcut illustrations, etc.
Now for the early colonial period, some easy picture and chapter books…
Sarah Morgan’s Day, Samuel Eatons’ Day, and Tapenum’s Day by Kate Waters are picture books that describe the lives of young pilgrim girl and boy, and a native boy.
William Bradford: Pilgrim Boy by Bradford Smith is an easy to read chapter book published by Beautiful Feet Books. It makes a great read aloud, too! My kids loved it!
Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla is an easy to read biography of the Native American who welcomed the Pilgrims and helped them survive. This is another one that my children have really enjoyed.
A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla is an easy to read story of two young children traveling to Jamestown colony from England
Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar d’Aulaire is a highly illustrated picture books, but it also has lots of informational text.
The Mayflower Secret by Dave & Neta Jackson is part of their Trailblazer series which covers notable Christian leaders from the perspective of fictional children who may have known them. This one is about William Bradford.
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City Upon a Hill:
John Winthrop’s Vision of a New American Society
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In my English class at co-op, I am also doing a series on “Great American Communicators” who have affected society through their speeches, writings, or inventions. So far this year we have covered John Winthrop, preacher Jonathan Edwards, patriot inventor Benjamin Franklin, President Thomas Jefferson, Phillis Wheatley, patriot orator Patrick Henry, dictionary man Noah Webster, Cherokee syllabary developer Sequoyah, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and more, lyricist Francis Scott Key, educator and author William McGuffey, and maybe one or two more that I am forgetting. When we did Patrick Henry, I split his “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech into 15 parts and divvied them up to my students to give them recitation practice. You can hear an orator present it by clicking here. You can do web searches on any of these names and pull up abundant information!
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John Winthrop
Many of the Pilgrims who ventured to the New World were Separatists who wanted to totally get out of the Church of England. They came here to start a new church system and a new lifestyle from scratch. John Winthrop was not a Separatist. He was a Puritan, which means he belonged to the Church of England and wanted to work to make it better. A strong leader, he became the governor of the Massachusetts Colony. He also had some pretty strong ideas about how life should be.
When the Massachusetts Bay colonists sailed for America on March 22, 1630, John Winthrop and his fellow Puritans left behind their homes and money to settle in the American wilderness. On the ship, John Winthrop preached a sermon that reminded them of their goal in going to America. They were supposed to make God’s kingdom grow, and keep themselves and their children spiritually safe from the evil culture around them.
Winthrop used a word picture from Matthew 5:14-16.
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Jesus had told his disciples that they would be like a City on a Hill – a great example of God’s glory in the world. Many important people throughout American history have been inspired by the thought that our land is to be an example and beacon of light to the rest of the world.
You will probably notice from the following excerpts that John Winthrop really knew the Bible. He had what I would call Biblical Literacy. He used the ideas and the words from the Bible to communicate important truths to other people. That was important back then, but it’s even more important now. We live in a culture that doesn’t value or teach God’s truth. We need to study hard to know what God says about how we should live. And, if we learn to communicate well through writing and speaking, we will be able to influence our own 21st century culture for Christ.
A small portion of the “Model of Christian Charity” sermon in the original Old English…
Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke and to provide for our posterity is to followe the Counsell of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberality…
My Paraphrase…
If we don’t want to be shipwrecked (as a community), and if we want to prepare for our children’s future, we need to follow the advice of the prophet Micah: Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God. So we must work together as a team. We must treat each other with brotherly kindness. We must be willing to go without extra stuff so that we can help with what other people need. We must show each other meekness, gentleness, patience and generosity.
You can read the whole thing at Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop.
A Christian band called Third Day has a song called “City on a Hill” which I play in class whenever I teach about John Winthrop’s sermon. You can find it on this CD:
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Finally, one last word from the Puritans. The following selection is from The Valley of Vision, a book of Puritan prayers currently published by Banner of Truth Trust in Scotland.
“The world is artful to entrap, approaches in fascinating guise, extends many a gilded bait, presents many a charming face. Let my faith scan every painted bauble, and escape every bewitching snare in a victory that overcomes all things. In my duties give me firmness, energy, zeal, devotion to thy cause, courage in they name, love as a working grace, and all commensurate with my trust. Let faith stride forth in giant power, and love respond with energy in every act. I often mourn the absence of my beloved Lord whose smile makes earth a paradise, whose voice is sweetest music, whose presence gives all graces strength. But by unbelief I often keep him outside my door. Let faith give entrance that he may abide with me for ever. Thy Word is full of promises, flowers of sweet fragrance, fruit of refreshing flavour, when culled by faith. May I be made rich in its riches, be strong in its power, be happy in its joy, abide in its sweetness, feast on its preciousness, draw vigour from its manna. Lord, increase my faith.”
Blessings,
Virginia Knowles