News about Jonathan

Can you locate Thailand on a world map? It’s surrounded by Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, with some coastal land in the south. Twelve million people live in its capitol city, Bangkok. The countryside is dotted with ornate temples and statues of Buddha. Economically, they are quite progressive; one of the better developed countries in Asia. But spiritually, they are just as needy as the rest of the continent.

We were there last week for a homeschoolers conference, along with about 40 other homeschooling missionary families. For the 3rd consecutive year, a volunteer team from Alabama helped facilitate the conference. The parents attended training sessions, heard about the latest curriculums, and shared homeschooling tips. High schoolers, including Martha, also attended training sessions, but had free time to interact with their peers.

One of the primary purposes of the conference is to test the 1st thru 8th grade students, to be sure they are learning what they are supposed to. Prior to my return to the Philippines, there was an obvious question on whether I, as a single parent, could homeschool Martha and Jonathan while working full time. The deal was that as long as their grades didn’t fall below average, they could stay with me.

I knew Martha’s grades were excellent, but I wasn’t sure about Jonathan’s. I love him dearly, but his learning style and personality bent don’t usually do well with academics. He prefers working with his hands than with his books. He struggles with keeping his focus on his school work and prefers to hurry through so he can play. I think in some settings, he might be diagnosed with ADD.

So it was with a bit of apprehension that I sat down with our homeschool advisor as she unfolded his test results. The student is tested in reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, math skills, social studies, and general science. He is given a percentile rank in each area and for overall, compared with all others of the same grade level in the U.S. who take this test.

I was shocked when Jonathan placed in the 99th percentile overall, the highest the test gives. I know Jonathan can do well when he puts his mind to it. But I also know that there are still areas he needs to improve in. His handwriting is terrible, his writing skills need more development, and there are still lots of facts and concepts he needs to learn. But his test results show that he’s getting along pretty good and that he probably absorbs more than I give him credit for. (And he get’s to continue homeschooling.)

Well, I would appreciate your prayers for Jonathan as we work on developing daily disciplines. His middle name, Bryan, means “pure one”. Jan’s prayer for him was that he would grow up to be mighty in spirit and a strong spiritual leader. These are key formative years for him. Pray that I can be a firm but gentle and wise father in training Jonathan to be all that God plans for him to be.