Building Blocks of Boldness

O ur family has always loved American Idol… the great music, rooting for your favorite singer, and young people triumphing over adversity to step onto the stage and boldly put themselves into the spotlight. As a mom of kids who come from hard places, one contestant really stuck out to me this year. While a young girl played the piano and sang about brokenness and abandonment, tears streamed down my face. When the talented songwriter finished her performance, the judge on the competition show also wiped tears from her eyes and said, “Keep being brave.” I nodded in agreement and thought about the courage it took for this young lady to be on national TV and share how her mother had walked away from their family and the destruction and heartache it left behind. I wanted to jump through the television and give this girl the biggest hug and tell her that she just showed the world that she can do hard things and how that took incredible boldness. The moment stuck with me for days and led me to ponder the question, “How do we raise children who are brave and bold in this messy world?”

Agoal of most parents is to teach their children how to be bold. We imagine them standing up for the truth, not letting fear stop them from taking action, and protecting their siblings or friends from bullies. I, too, wanted that for my children. That’s a worthy goal to desire for our children, but the question begs, “How?” How do we help our children develop this kind of boldness?

First, we must understand some of the characteristics our children must learn if we want them to live boldly. In general, people who are bold are typically unafraid, have discernment, and exhibit confidence. While these are common traits, the degree to which a child manifests each one will vary. The way we accomplish developing boldness will vary from one child to another, but it is necessary to instill each of these character qualities in them throughout their childhood.

the Spring Issue, we discussed what it means to be bold. Now let’s zero in on what it means to be a bold mom. Some of the characteristics of bold motherhood might catch you off guard. Bold moms guard and protect their children. They nurture and feed them. They seek what’s best for their children, even if it costs them their lives. Most often we think of mama bears when we think of bold motherhood. The saying goes that it’s best not to get between a mama bear and her cubs. That is a no-man’s land, a danger zone if ever there was one. A mama bear is devoted to her cub, and insofar as it depends on her, she’ll lay down her life to defend her cub.

But sometimes in the human realm, we swing on the pendulum and find ourselves overprotective and completely unengaged on one end, or unfeeling and uncaring at the other end of the pendulum. Unlike the mama bear, we’re inconsistent. And all too often we let the culture dictate what we should protect and defend, instead of taking our orders from our heavenly Father. As homeschool moms we know what it’s like to be accused of being overly protective. We’re told that our kids need to be out in the “real” world, not just in our homes all the time. And yet, the Bible tells us that keeping our kids in our protective and loving care is exactly where they need to be. The real world, devoid of truth, without God, isn’t a place for the young and vulnerable.

Learning

Bold Science: A Discovery Approach

Bold•ness
/ˈbōldnəs/
willingness to take risks and act innovatively; confidence or courage

assing on boldness means we will encourage our children to see education differently than we may have growing up. It requires us to step into their world and model what it looks like to have a mindset that takes risks and acts innovatively. To walk in confidence and courage through their lives, our children need to begin by doing so in their education.

Science: the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment

Science is one of those subjects that seems made for this very purpose, especially when you teach it naturally. Science begins with observation and requires students to experiment—sometimes with success and sometimes with failure. Understanding it at a deeper level depends on students’ ability to notice connections, ask new questions, and come up with innovative ideas.

dwin Binney invented tools other people needed. He was ingenious, working alongside his cousin, C. Harold Smith. Both men were gifted, but in different ways. Edwin was curious, and Harold enjoyed sales. Together, they became Binney & Smith. Author Natascha Biebow tells their story in The Crayon Man (Houghton Mifflin, 2019).

Edwin’s curiosity and experimentation led him to invent the first dustless chalk for which he won a medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. He was inspired by his wife Alice, a school teacher, who encouraged his efforts to invent safe, affordable crayons since chalk smudged and pigments could be toxic. Edwin thought and thought, created, and tried again until he—in 1903—invented the first box of eight, colored, wax crayons. Since that time, Crayola has produced various size box selections and rainbows of colors.

ohn Glenn, one of America’s bravest and boldest explorers, is remembered most for his inaugural orbit of the Earth. He broke the boundaries of the Earth’s atmosphere, launching America into space exploration. Fly High, John Glenn: The Story of an American Hero by Kathleen Krull (HarperCollins, 2020) weaves brilliant illustrations and text—more advanced than some picture books—to invite readers to travel along on Glenn’s space adventures as well as on his endeavors after he retired from the space program.

Born in Ohio in 1921, John became intrigued by flight as a young boy. His parents thought flying was dangerous, but John was not discouraged. Determined, he earned his pilot’s license. In 1942, John entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program so he could fly for our country. He flew combat missions in World War II as well as the Korean War and later became a test pilot. His service in the U.S. Senate began in 1974. Amazingly in 1998, at the age of seventy-seven, John became a member of the Discovery Space Shuttle crew, becoming the oldest person to fly in space. A bold, courageous American, John Glenn died December 8, 2016.

mos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (1950; reprinted, Puffin Books, 1989) is a middle-grade biography set in the early 1700s. It is the recipient of the 1951 Newbery Medal. This classic piece opens along the Gold Coast of Africa. Based on a true story researched by the author, a fifteen-year-old African prince is captured by slave traders and sold to a Quaker family, the Copelands, who renamed the boy Amos. The Copelands teach Amos the Quaker faith and help him learn the weaving trade. Amos refuses to view himself as a slave and proposes how he could buy his freedom. Caleb dies before Amos is released, and Amos is consequently sold to Ichabod Richardson. He, too, treats Amos well and teaches him the tanning trade. Eventually, Amos finally buys his freedom, falls in love with Lily, a slave, and buys her freedom. When Lily dies, Amos marries Violet, a slave, and buys her freedom as well as her daughter’s. Despite many long years as a slave, Amos remains resolute, steadfast, and bold in his sense of self-worth and determination for freedom. In fact, his desire for freedom spills over to others. Amos lived as a free man until his death on November 17, 1801.

lisabeth Elliot, missionary and author of Through the Gates of Splendor (1957; reprinted, Tyndale Momentum, 1981) uses personal letters, journals, and photographs to document a poignant account of the five courageous men, one being her beloved, Jim Elliot. Jim graduated from Wheaton College, majoring in Greek, and felt led to communicate and work with the Auca tribe in a remote jungle of Ecuador. The mission was considered extremely dangerous, as the tribe was known for its violence and mistrust of outsiders. No one prior to Jim considered trying to communicate with the Aucas, let alone bring the gospel and the love of Christ to their tribe. For this endeavor, he gathered four men, Pete Fleming, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian. Knowing the tribe’s reputation and that their work may bring them face to face with sacrificing their lives for the potential salvation of some, the men were not deterred. Ultimately, their work did indeed lead to their deaths. Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint, Nate’s sister, continued the work of the men killed on January 8, 1956. In the 1996 twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Elisabeth Elliot updated the prologue.

The following are a few of the highlights from an interview between myself and second-generation homeschooler, Ben Wilson. Ben is the adult son of our columnist, Todd Wilson. He works alongside his dad as the co-host for their podcast The Smiling Homeschooler. He even lives with his family (wife, daughter, son, and baby on the way!) in a house next to his parents’ house. Ben is the oldest of the Wilson’s eight children and like his dad, he is passionate about homeschooling, being a dad and husband, and encouraging others. I hope you enjoy this snippet of our conversation.

Watch or listen to the whole interview here:
www.hs.today/bonus-content

The following are a few of the highlights from an interview between myself and second-generation homeschooler, Ben Wilson. Ben is the adult son of our columnist, Todd Wilson. He works alongside his dad as the co-host for their podcast The Smiling Homeschooler. He even lives with his family (wife, daughter, son, and baby on the way!) in a house next to his parents’ house. Ben is the oldest of the Wilson’s eight children and like his dad, he is passionate about homeschooling, being a dad and husband, and encouraging others. I hope you enjoy this snippet of our conversation.

Watch or listen to the whole interview here:
www.hs.today/bonus-content

veryday my inbox is populated with an increasing number of articles and news stories of teenagers getting themselves in trouble with technology. Whether it’s the middle school girl sending sexually inappropriate pictures of herself to others or the group of high schoolers that bullied a classmate into taking their life, it’s enough to make any parent want to take away every screen in their teenagers’ lives. But as with any issue in teen culture, the bad news always screams louder than the good. It’s easy to lose perspective when we don’t hear of the teenagers that are making a difference.

There are a great many teenagers out there who are leading among their peers to bring about social change, and their primary megaphone is social media. When Julia Warren from Richmond, VA, was sixteen years old, her heart was burdened by the number of young children in her community who lived in perpetual sadness. She considered ways that she might be able to bring a small ray of light into their lives. After six months of playing around with different ideas, she landed on the one thing she thought every child deserves—a birthday party.

ntil Jake was twelve years old, he hated reading. He loved lots of other things, but language arts, in general, was his archnemesis. We regularly took him and his seven siblings to a large bookstore to choose any book they wanted. Darryl and I beamed with satisfaction as the kids proudly held the treasures they got to take home. Each time, Jake was the only one who walked away empty-handed because he said he couldn’t find anything interesting.

Seriously? I couldn’t even count the number of times I’d had to restrict myself from buying books I thought looked interesting, and this kid couldn’t find a single book in the entire store that interested him? I truly couldn’t relate, but I also knew that more than likely, all he needed was time—he would eventually find something. Yet as time wore on, I started to get nervous.

elping our children develop boldness is a dream we all share. As parents, we want the very best for our children. From early on we see our little ones develop their own unique personalities. If we have more than one child, we notice the vast differences between each child (their strengths and weaknesses). It’s amazing even when we raise our children in the same household, they still grow up with completely different characteristics.

When we homeschool, we have the gift of spending time with our children as they are developing. We take on the vast responsibility of not only giving our children the best education possible, but also raising them to have strong character and reasoning skills. It is important to us to instill independent thinking, respect, and boldness, while maintaining humility. One of the best and most important avenues to teach this is through our own example as we live our daily lives. When children see how we assimilate information, handle adversity, challenges, and even success, they learn and emulate our example. They also learn a great deal from our ability to admit our mistakes when we mess up. They are learning when they see us develop solutions to obstacles. Through our examples, we can teach our kids to develop boldness and confidence as they watch us handle day-to-day life events. When we use good reasoning skills, we pass these abilities on to our children as they grow and mature to become young adults in the next generation.

elping our children develop boldness is a dream we all share. As parents, we want the very best for our children. From early on we see our little ones develop their own unique personalities. If we have more than one child, we notice the vast differences between each child (their strengths and weaknesses). It’s amazing even when we raise our children in the same household, they still grow up with completely different characteristics.

When we homeschool, we have the gift of spending time with our children as they are developing. We take on the vast responsibility of not only giving our children the best education possible, but also raising them to have strong character and reasoning skills. It is important to us to instill independent thinking, respect, and boldness, while maintaining humility. One of the best and most important avenues to teach this is through our own example as we live our daily lives. When children see how we assimilate information, handle adversity, challenges, and even success, they learn and emulate our example. They also learn a great deal from our ability to admit our mistakes when we mess up. They are learning when they see us develop solutions to obstacles. Through our examples, we can teach our kids to develop boldness and confidence as they watch us handle day-to-day life events. When we use good reasoning skills, we pass these abilities on to our children as they grow and mature to become young adults in the next generation.

ometimes when you begin writing an article, it takes on a life of its own and goes in a direction you never intended it to go. So it is with this article. I intended to write about passing on boldness to our children, not by forcing them to swim in mountain streams, bungee jump off bridges, or ride broncos in the rodeo, but by being kind, loving, and serving one another. That’s when the article went off rail because I knew the article wouldn’t sound very manly.

So just for the record… let me say I’m a manly dad. I own a chainsaw and lots of power tools, and I spit. At the same time, I encourage men to be affectionate with their children, take an active part in putting the kids to bed, and make the relationship with their children and wife a priority above everything else.

Because I write and speak about doing just that, occasionally I get an email from an upset guy who thinks I’ve sold out manhood and feminized fatherhood. In fact, many books and speakers would voice a manly “Amen” to that argument.