Education Snobbery and Math

At least one of my children uses Khan Academy a lot, so I decided to research the organization and as usual, I found a lot of conflicting beliefs and a lot of education snobbery. Some math people feel that Mr. Khan only explains procedures and not the actual concepts involved. Thus, they opine, he doesn't ensure that learning is intuitive and transferable.

My opinion is that Mr. Khan hopes to be a good tutor and he is good--but not perfect. Should that surprise anyone? He isn't going to transform a mediocre math student into a great math student, but he can certainly help your child pass some classes and feel far less defeated.

If you already have a math whiz on your hands, you can look forward to your student learning far more than is available in a year's curriculum, and independently for the most part. Any math topic can be accessed at any time using the indexes, just for curiosity sake, or for mastery's sake, but a more structured use of the site is facilitated as well, with parent or teaching coaching built in.

Opinions abound about the rapidly growing site, but people are quick to forget that this man does this free of charge, based on a belief that anyone in the world should be able to expand their education or have access to free education, with only an Internet connection. A number of partnerships, including one with NASA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, enhance Sal Khan's site. The site teaches far more than math, although it started with just math as he began tutoring his cousin on YouTube. Later, due to the popularity of his videos, he eventually left his job as a hedge funds manager to develop Khan Academy full time. He has three degrees total, from Harvard and MIT.

The preparation for college available on Khan's site, including an entire SAT practice exam, and counseling on every aspect of college admission, levels the playing field for students hoping to apply for college. Traditionally, advantaged kids go into the SAT or ACT and apply for college with far more input and financed preparation behind them, compared to middle income or disadvantaged students. Mr. Khan deserves kudos for this invaluable service, as well as the many other services he provides.

Mr. Khan states that what his site can do now will not compare to what it can do 5 to 10 years from now; it is constantly evolving. Indeed, millions the world over use his instructional videos, enjoying his conversational style and unscripted methods. Bill Gates supports Khan's not-for-profit endeavor, as well as other philanthropists.

Math educators don't know what to think about the Khan Academy phenomena--usually either loving Khan or hating him--and many balk at the idea that video lecture instruction could revolutionize education. They especially balk at Bill Gate's assertion that Mr. Khan is the "world's teacher".

Sal Khan can't be responsible for what people say about him or his instruction or the future of education, but he's humble enough to revise videos people have criticized. He also never claimed that he could replace classroom teachers.

Obvious math snobbery stood out in some of the reviews of Mr. Khan and his site. When I was researching the Teaching Textbooks math program my older children use, I found evidence of educational snobbery as well as it related to math. Math people have some strong opinions and can be cult-like (as I'm sure the humanities group can be as well), not understanding that many of us use math as a means to an end, not as an end in itself.

If you have a mathematical mind, great. Go with it and expand upon it as you pursue mathematical fields, but don't say to me that if the instruction were good enough, and intuitive and hands-on enough, all of us would develop a mathematical mind. There are left-brained and right-brain thinkers, after all, and few people prove equally strong with both. I don't beat myself over the head because math isn't my thing, or blame all my teachers for my deficits in math. I just want to be free to pursue my own passions and strengths and keep math in perspective.

I remember more than one opinion when researching Teaching Textbooks that started with the statement, "I think math is the most important subject." 

Really? How about...the most important to you and for you? Many such parents have chosen a math curriculum for its rigorousness over the enjoyment factor, much to their child's dismay, not taking into account what is most important for the way God created their child. As a result math remains a battleground in their home, all in the name of rigor, even taking a toll on the parent-child relationship.

Many from the snobbery camp say Teaching Textbooks is behind other programs, but the fact is if you stay with Teaching Textbooks, your math education will be complete. If you constantly leave one math program for another, there are going to be holes in your education, but if you stick with one publisher, the continuum and organization and thoroughness are usually there, even if it doesn't match the continuum of your local high school or elementary textbook. You can't effectively compare math programs by looking at a single year. You have to look at the entire programs across years.

Teaching Textbooks has placements tests on their site and they strongly encourage you to have your child take them before purchasing a grade level, precisely because different math curricula follow different philosophies as to the order concepts should be presented, which I don't think is a bad thing. I don't believe in the Common Core one-size-fits-all model of education.

If you find that your child hates a particular curriculum and you've decided to change, don't expect a precise line-up of topics when you switch to another one, and don't lightly accuse your former curriculum of not being rigorous enough.

I have found that one of the worst ways to choose a math curriculum is to rely too heavily on reviews from people who have skipped around too much and then given their superficial opinions about a number of curricula.

Another problem with reading reviews is that you can't put too much stock in a parent's detailing of their own child's experiences. One parent stated that Teaching Textbooks is not rigorous and shouldn't be used by college prep students because when her daughter took the SAT, she scored too low on math. Later down the review she adds that math is not her child's strong point, and that her child took the SAT with only two weeks notice and didn't have much time to prepare. As many Teaching Textbooks parents countered such testing assertions by stating that their student did fine on college entrance exams and went seamlessly into college math classes.

Teaching Textbooks doesn't teach to the test by any means, but they do embed college entrance exam questions into several years of their materials. They're also very strong at including real-world math questions, especially in the 7th grade, which we're currently using. We've used the program with joy since the third grade, but Peter needed a supplement to learn multiplication facts.

Video instruction certainly isn't for everyone, but it does have the added benefit of being both auditory and visual, simultaneously. We also find the option to replay any part of the lecture invaluable. Kids also benefit from having the solution to each problem explained, and hints provided at a click for the more difficult problems, for students who need it. If your child is a math whiz, no problem; these children can just work ahead and avoid clicking on any of the extra scaffolding.

We love Teaching Textbooks and their humorous, but not silly lectures and problems. We also love the option of using Khan Academy in conjunction with it. My math whiz, Paul, can learn Algebra and Algebra II and more without me having to purchase the expensive Teaching Textbook CD's more than once a year. He's not held back by our finances and my son Peter can learn math in peace, at his own pace, and even enjoy it, even though he doesn't excel at math generally.

The Teaching Textbooks company's products are expensive, but you get a lot for your money, including automated grading. To me the curriculum is worth even more than we pay, in fact, and their customer service is outstanding.

Everyone has different goals and beliefs and that's why there are so many educational options out there. I would just caution parents to consider not only what they personally believe and hope for, but also what is best for their individual child's learning profile.

Is math likely to be a means to end for your child, or is it likely to feature prominently in their future? Choose accordingly, rather than from some rigid beliefs about education as a whole.

If you don't regularly read curriculum reviews, you probably don't encounter educational snobbery that often, but I find myself increasingly aware of it. Education can certainly become a god, particularly for those of us involved in it intimately.

God is teaching me, a former professional educator, that knowledge can be a source of vanity and pride. Looked at from the wrong perspective, it can bring shame on us, rather than glory to God.

1 Corinthians 8:1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

Have you encountered education snobbery? Has your view about education altered any over the years?

Click here for a balanced, researched review of Khan Academy.

Here's a Harvard Business Interview with Sal Khan.

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Weekly Homeschool and Life Wrap-Up 4/10

Starting with gratitude this week...

Giving thanks for these blessings...

~ Grace that reigns down on my spirit just when I'm feeling such despair 

~ Greening grass everywhere, promising more color soon

~ Spending my days with four sweet, imaginative children

~ Freshly baked wheat bread with honey

~ Sweet strawberries 

~ Soothing words, promising words, glorious words from the Bible

~ Friends who love the Lord

~ Excited kids coming home from AWANA

~ Children growing in the Lord

~ Family prayer that binds hearts in Him

~ Excited children floating boats in the flood left by dreary spring rain

~ Listening with my daughter Mary to an excellent American Girl audiobook about Josefina 

~ Kid creations all around me

Hospital Appointment

Tuesday we were back at the hospital for Beth's fourth infusion of Orencia, a juvenile rheumatoid arthritis drug. She dreads the IV experience slightly less now, but she still cried. The nurses are very nice and one of them is talkative, who also has a six-year-old daughter. Maybe I'll be able to share the reason for my Hope with her one of these months. 

What I'm Learning About Life and Our Comfort

I do the best as a mom, and as a daughter of the King, when I remember it isn't about whether life feels easy or hard or exhausting, or whether a day holds hope or despair. Transcending today's difficulties and rejoicing in the Lord always means stepping above the earth emotionally and spiritually, remembering that the Lord's concern is for souls, not for my daily ease of living. 

He can allow my daughter to have an aggressive arthritis and my son to have a debilitating OCD, and my other daughter to have crippling anxiety over thunder and lightening and tornadoes...he can allow it all knowing His grace is sufficient for me, for his power is made perfect in weakness. And me? I have to remember to boast all the more loudly about my weaknesses, so God's power can rest on me.

2 Corinthians 4:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Boasting About Our Weaknesses

So here's my boast: This week was hard and Mary cried over thunder and kept her fingers in her ears for hours so she wouldn't hear more of it. She couldn't concentrate on school and I ran out of ideas to help her. So, exhausted, I held her in my arms and we listened to an American Girl audiobook for a few hours straight. I seriously didn't know what else to do. We loved the Josefina stories and I found myself crying several times. We both felt sorry when the stories ended.

No, we didn't get through her regular subjects, but she learned a lot about Hispanic culture in 1824, before New Mexico became a US territory. She learned about how hard children had to work to help with daily living chores on a ranchero, and she learned that many couldn't read or write. It was a day of immersion into another culture, and afterwards, the sky looking better, Mary perked up and she and Beth pretended to do chores like knitting and baking and sweeping on a ranchero.

God Orders Our Days

I had been feeling so discouraged by the amount of time the children's anxiety disorders and health issues were stealing from us, and then I remembered that each day unfolds as God wants it to, and that my daily concerns are not the same as His. Does he care if we don't finish our curriculum on time? He has secured my children's futures and I'm a mere instrument of His. 

Armed with new faith, I told my son Peter that I was absolutely sure God would take him down a path of healing and that his OCD would not be this debilitating forever. Several hours later he told me that I'd encouraged him so much, and that it had been easier to resist his rituals because of what I said. Yes, Christ's power is made perfect in weakness.

Paul's AWANA Homework

Paul had to write a salvation message for his AWANA homework, using four different verses. I loved what he wrote. He read it to me on the way to AWANA and I immediately started crying, remembering how lost I was at his same age, and giving thanks to God that my children know Him intimately and are armed to change the world for Christ, anxiety disorders and all.

The Good News by Paul

Everybody sins and the punishment is eternal suffering. That is why Jesus was born here. Jesus is the Son of God, and was born here as a baby. Even though Jesus never did anything wrong, he died on a cross. Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

And three days later, Jesus rose from the dead! Jesus' death on the cross is the way to heaven. This is in Titus 3:5-7 He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Now to become a Christian you must do three things:

1. Admit that you've sinned. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.

2. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Acts 16:31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved--you and your household."

3. Confess your sins. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

That is how to become a Christian.

I drove the rest of the way to AWANA in joy, knowing the Lord is doing a good work in my children. It hadn't been an easy day, but this was the grace, this little essay, that reminded me of God's love and faithfulness. I had so many concerns regarding my children, but all my concerns were needless. Right in front of me, the Lord is blessing them with a spiritual knowledge and hope. So often I feel responsible for their futures, but needlessly. God is raising them up, not me. I just need to stay out of the way!

I gave the girls an egg carton and they have caterpillars in the works, waiting to be painted.

Mary, who doesn't really play with Barbies, but only dresses them occasionally, made this pink dress for one of them.

Beth makes dolls all the live long day, outside of her school assignments. We see fabric and shapes and figures, and looking at the same things, she sees a doll or stuffy waiting to be made.

 I had Mary review many of the All About Reading 2 stories, and with this /ou/ /ow/ lesson, she finished the curriculum and moves on now to All About Reading 3.

I'm pleased with Beth's Kindergarten progress, even though appointments and disorders have meant that she doesn't get a reading lesson daily. She's a good student and concentrates better all the time.

Computer Programming with Khan Academy

Paul, along with the usual subjects, has spent a lot of time on Khan Academy this week doing computer programming. He's over the moon excited about it, which puzzles me because as I look at it, I can't imagine anything more boring or tedious. My mind just doesn't work like Paul's, but I'm so pleased that he's excited and he excels at it. He's interested in writing homeschool curriculum some day, so now when he does a Teaching Textbooks math lesson, he's thinking about the computer programming the two brothers had to do to design such a complicated math curriculum. The Teaching Textbooks brothers are most likely Christian, judging by many of the math questions, but I'm not sure. They were homeschooled.

Planning a Garden

Peter, along with the usual school, has busied himself continuing to plan his garden and agonize about what date our last frost will be. He's researched and considered and changed his mind four times about when he will first plant cold weather crops outside. OCD is primarily a disorder characterized by a preoccupation with certainty. The brain glitch makes the person pursue certainty to a ridiculous extent--to an impossible extent that keeps them on a hamster wheel going no where fast. It's maddening for all involved. The key to getting better is learning to live with uncertainty.

What I'm Learning About OCD

I read a good deal in an OCD book this week and learned about a mother who, from the time her daughter was born, worried constantly for her daughter's safety. She never let her out of her sight and took great pains to keep her from harm. This severe OCD preoccupation with her daughter's safety continued into the daughter's adulthood, after which the daughter continued to live with her mother because to be out of her mother's sight for long was too stressful, due to her mother's OCD rituals to "ensure" her safety. The mother called the daughter constantly when she was at school or at work to check on her safety, and if the daughter didn't answer, the mother would drive to the workplace or school and check on her. It was awful and it was ruining their relationship. The mother had lost years of precious time with her daughter, all because of OCD, which wouldn't allow her to relax and just enjoy being a mother, proudly watching a daughter grow.

The mother finally ended up at the right counselor's office. He told her that to get well she had to accept uncertainty regarding her daughter's well being--that someday we all die and we don't know when that will be. She couldn't ever be sure her daughter would be alive the next day. At first the mother said no, she couldn't accept that kind of uncertainty. But bravely, she stayed in treatment and got well, and her relationship with her daughter repaired. It was a happy, healthy one.

OCD is a torturous, horrible disorder that belongs in the pit of hell.

My son Peter goes over and over in his mind about whether God wants him to go to Uganda to help the farmers there, or own a nursery and greenhouse and somehow serve the Lord in America. He wants to serve the Lord, but he just can't be exactly sure which path God wants him to take. Never mind that he doesn't need to have this figured out at 13 years old. It doesn't matter. He ruminates all day and drives everyone crazy, asking my opinion about what God wants for his life (we can't get involved with reassuring him because it makes the OCD worse).

It's like a hamster wheel he can't seem to get off of, and regarding his salvation, it's the same thing. He ruminates about whether he really is a Christian and really is going to heaven. These are very common OCD obsessions and they'll drive even the sanest person in the sufferer's life absolutely batty. No amount of counseling will help until the sufferer says...yes, I'm ready to accept and embrace uncertainty. That is step one and it's not a decision Peter has made in the affirmative yet, despite his agitated state.

So, I keep reading and I keep informing him about the way out of his conundrums. And I wait on the Lord, because I just know my gracious Heavenly Father will take Peter down a healing path, for His glory. One thing is for sure: My son loves the Lord. His answers in his AWANA book this week, which for Trek Club is more like a Bible study book, brought me to tears (yes, I'm teary a lot these days). He's a boy after the Lord's own heart, who just needs courage and a healing touch.

How was your week, friends? Thank you for reading here!

Nourishing Your Family Series: Honey

As I learn about nutritional information I'll be sharing it here periodically, as part of a Nourishing Your Family Series. Today, we learn about honey, which is a nutritious, medicinally beneficial food.

Here are some of the health benefits, as detailed here:

Naturally Suppresses Coughs

If you're stuck with a cough that won't go away, studies show that honey works as well as or better than many over-the-counter cough syrups in soothing it. Honey's thick consistency coats your throat and the sweet taste is thought to trigger certain nerves that make your throat less sensitive to the cough impulse.

Soothes Burns 

Applying a thin layer of honey to a minor burn can help quell the stinging sensation and have an anti-inflammatory effect. The antibacterial qualities of honey may also prevent the burn from becoming infected, which could result in a quicker healing time.

Aids Sleep

One of the many soothing properties of raw honey is its ability to help provide sleep relief. Honey may help facilitate the action of tryptophan, which helps make people sleepy. Plus, if you are suffering from a cough that keeps you up at night, a teaspoon of honey could help soothe your throat while you sleep.

Helps Heal Wounds

Applying a thin layer of raw honey to a minor wound may actually help sterilize the cut and help it heal more smoothly, with less scabbing. The application of honey to the site of the wound will help keep it moist, and exposure to oxygen helps to activate an enzyme in honey that forms hydrogen peroxide, which has anti-bacterial capabilities. Gently apply with a cotton swab, and cover with a Band-Aid. However, honey is only appropriate for minor cuts that you would otherwise simply apply antibiotic ointment to – any deep cuts or cuts that appear infected should be evaluated by a medical professional.

Boosts Immunity

The phytonutrients in raw honey have antibacterial and antiviral properties that may help boost your immune system and fight sickness. If you're feeling a little under the weather, try making a "Hot Ozzy" by combining 1 tablespoon of honey and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice in a 1/2 cup of hot, but not boiling, water.

Beneficial for Seasonal Allergy Sufferers? 

Honey is also beneficial as a sort of "allergy shot" for allergy sufferers (slowly desensitizing you to the pollen), especially when you use local honey. However, you have no way of knowing how much pollen is in each jar of honey, so use it for these purposes cautiously, as too much pollen could lead to an allergic-shock reaction. Some medical professionals recommend, in fact, that allergy sufferers not ingest raw honey. 

My aunt and uncle and their children all use local honey to fight allergies, and they've never had any problem. We've purchased 3 large jars of raw honey and also haven't had problems. My recommendation is that each time you buy a new local jar, use it in minuscule amounts to test your reaction to the pollen count, and have Benadryl handy in case you overreact.

If all these benefits impress you, let me first warn you that you won't enjoy them if you buy supermarket honey, unless it is labeled "raw honey". It will be expensive--possibly as much as $10 for 35 ounces--but it will definitely nourish your family as God intended (just don't give it to children younger than a year, or to cancer patients undergoing aggressive chemotherapy).

Supermarket honey is to be avoided. The Huffington Post details why here.

I like honey for the taste, sure, but I also love the fact that, unlike refined sugar, honey -- provided it hasn't been subjected to high temperatures during processing -- is infused with all sorts of good things like vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and living enzymes. Honey also has a lower glycemic index, hence it has a more gradual and healthier release into the bloodstream than sugar. Moreover, it has antimicrobial properties, and has even been used to treat diabetic ulcers and certain antibiotic resistant infections. 

Finally, I love honey because I am a great fan of the industrious and beneficent bees that make it. Or do they?

That is the question raised in an eye-opening new study published by Food Safety News. The group's food scientists say that over three quarters of the honey sold in American supermarkets and drug stores may not be what the bees created, but a watered down, reconstituted hodge-podge of the real deal mixed with other cheaper, less savory, and often less safe, ingredients.

The problem, according to the Food Safety News report, is that there is no way to tell if honey is really honey except by looking through a microscope at the pollen grains embedded in it. And these highly nutritious grains are frequently filtered out of the final product leaving no way to determine whether it is really honey, or a highly processed syrup which bears that name.

It is for this reason that U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules state that any product that contains no pollen cannot be called honey. But the understaffed FDA isn't checking. So the Food Safety News sent 60 jars, jugs and plastic bears of store-bought honey to Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University, the director of the schools Palynology Research Laboratory. 

Bryant's results were astonishing: virtually all drug store honey and small individually packaged honey served up in fast food outlets does not contain pollen, and 76 percent of the amber stuff sold in America's leading supermarket chains is likewise devoid of this telltale evidence of its origins, and therefore does not qualify as honey by the FDA's own standards. On the other hand, all of the samples bought at farmers markets, coops and health food stores were infused with the traces of pollen that proved it was real.

Commercial honey manufactures say that they ultra-filter it because shoppers want honey that is crystal clear and devoid of impurities. But there are other reasons the pollen gets removed, including the desire to conceal where it comes from, and lace it with cheap additives. Since pollen's source is local blossoms, the type of pollens found in honey tells botanists where the honey originated, and whether it is authentic.

"It's no secret to anyone in the business that the only reason all the pollen is filtered out is to hide where it initially came from and the fact is that in almost all cases, that is China," says Richard Adee, the Washington Legislative Chairman of the American Honey Producers Association, and one of America's largest independent honey producers.

Not only is low cost Chinese honey forcing many American bee-keepers out of business, but the unregulated liquid is often heavily adulterated with high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners, as well as being tainted with chloramphenicol, heavy-metal toxins and a witches brew of agro-chemicals, including some illegal animal antibiotics, which are fatal to a small percentage of the population.

In 2001, the U.S. imposed high tariffs on Chinese honey to prevent the dubious syrup from flooding our market. Chinese producers responded by illegally transshipping their product to other countries, such as India, where the laundered "honey" is then sent to the U.S.  Few American distributors put their product through the costly lab tests which could determine if it is contaminated. 

In 2010 the European Union effectively banned much of the transshipped Chinese honey from their market. But U.S. officials have not yet followed suit. More than half of the honey consumed in the U.S. is from unknown foreign sources. In an effort unveiled at the 2011 North American Beekeeping Conference in Galveston in January, a group called True Source Honey announced a voluntary certification program for producers and distributors who are able to prove that their honey comes from legal and legitimate sources. They are also lobbying the FDA to take more effective measures in strictly defining honey and regulating its sale.

Until that happens, better to stick with certified organic and raw honey, which is likely to be closer to what the bees have so generously provided us.

Does your family enjoy raw honey? You can look for local honey sources by visiting farmer's markets or health food stores, or just searching the Internet for sources in your county.

Happy Resurrection Day!

He is Risen! Hallelujah!

Our girls with "Uncle" Dean

From Uganda With Love

Though I write frequently about Compassion International, I don't know that I've provided a glimpse of the receiving end of sponsorship. The letters you receive from your sponsored children will bless you in profound ways. While it isn't usual to post a personal letter, I know Sheila from Uganda won't mind my posting this if it brings glory to God. She is the kindest young lady, a teenager living with just her grandma, her mother having died and her father working in the city (he doesn't support her regularly).

Everything she writes brings glory to God. We began sponsoring her in January, 2014, and I found out in her first letter, received March 2014, that she was already a Believer. She writes about 5 to 6 letters a year, in her own hand and in English. It takes about two months for her to receive my letters, and about two months for me to get a response, but she doesn't immediately respond. The topics she is addressing here seem to have been introduced by me last fall, though her letter is dated January 21, 2015. I received it April 4, 2015.

Dear Christine, (changed to my blog name)

Greetings to you and your family members. I hope all are okay. Me and my grandmother are okay. I am so glad to communicate to you once again. I thank you for sending to me letters with good pictures. 

Here Christmas was so marvelous. We celebrated Christmas with an uncle from the city called Kampala. We ate chicken at home. At that Christmas there was a cake for every child with our parents. I gave a hug to my grandmother and was so happy for that.

Thank you for always thinking about me and my grandmother thus writing letters to me. As far as praying mantises there are some but few and I haven't ever heard of this American game called baseball.

I enjoy watching birds like doves, crested crane. My grandmother is okay. I told her that you love her so much and she became very glad.

The picture of squirrel in the letter was new to me because I have never seen it. Here they are no where to be seen.

I would like to share with you a memory verse from the book of Luke 11:9. It says: So I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.

It teaches me to keep on praying because God is a protector, a provider of each and everything.

The whole heart of mine wishes you a victorious year 2015. May God protect you. May God bless you.

My heart swells with each of her letters and I long to visit her. It's a recurring prayer of mine. I encourage you to sponsor a child and have the blessing of a letter like this in your future. Teenage girls are likely to write more than most other sponsored children, so keep that in mind if you wish to receive newsy letters. Also, teenagers usually have to wait longer for sponsors because people tend to choose the cute, little kids. So, consider a teenager?

We sponsor children to bless them and to bring glory to God, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of the blessing your family receives in return, in the form of relationship and letters.

Do you sponsor a teenage girl? Does she send newsier letters?