In this episode we interview Bonnie Rose and discuss her wonderful home school curriculum she provides. We also discuss how to pray for and talk about Christian persecution with our children. The first two Sundays of November each year are IDOP, International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Resources are linked in the show notes to help you, your family, and your church pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters.
Our Guest: Bonnie Rose Hudson
Bonnie Rose Hudson’s heart’s desire is for every child to feel the love of God and know how special they are to Him. Her website, WriteBonnieRose.com, exists to serve homeschoolers, home educators, and teachers around the world by creating practical resources that are fun, affordable, and easy to use. She has hundreds of resources in many subject areas for preschool through high school and releases an average of more than 100 new titles each year. You will also find resources there to help teach your children about missions and the persecuted Church and information about her early reader set in India, The Hidden Village, published by JourneyForth.
Books Discussed in this Episode:
Transcript with Links:
Terrie:
Welcome to “Books That Spark,” a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Coming up in November is what we call I D O P, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. And this is the first two weeks of November. And so that’s coming up and my guest today is familiar with praying for and teaching about the Persecuted Church. And we’re going to talk a little bit about that with her today as we get into the conversation. So I’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Rose Hudson, and her website is writebonnierose.com, and she has a wonderful set of homeschool curriculum to share with us today, but especially we’re going to start talking about the Persecuted Church and what she has. Thank you Bonnie Rose for being with us today.
Bonnie:
Thank you very much for inviting me. It’s my pleasure.
Terrie:
Well, tell us a little bit, of course, we’re kindred spirits when it comes to education and writing, and you have so many different tools to talk about, but I want to focus at first here about your missionary and the Persecuted Church and those kinds of lessons that you’ve written. Can you tell us a little bit about all of those?
Bonnie:
Sure. I found years ago that I was reading a lot of newsletters about the Persecuted church, and it was something that had always been on my heart. I remember hearing stories about children who were suffering persecution when I was a child, and so it was something I kind of grew up aware of. I grew up in a missionary-focused church, and as I kept reading about it, I found that I was maybe internalizing too much of it and it was just really starting to weigh on me. I started writing resources to help kids understand persecution in a way that they could understand and in a way that they could relate to without having to share all of the really brutal details and the tragedies that so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ face. And I found that writing actually helped me. It gave me an outlet for sharing what I was reading. And so it was actually kind of a healthy thing for me. And it turned into one of the first books that I published. It’s called Asia, It’s People in History, and it talks about children in China, Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Iran. And they’re fictional stories, but they’re based on news stories and real events and things that could happen in those areas. What I did was I tried to connect the fictional stories to the kids by looking at things that all kids have in common that they can relate to. Every child knows what it’s like to be cold or to be hungry or to maybe miss someone, be separated from someone that they care about, of course, to feel fear and anxiety about a situation that’s unfamiliar. So I tried to base it on those feelings and to help kids understand some of the emotions that children were going through without getting into the truly heavy things that children and adults overseas and around the world endured. So I started writing it that way. And then I also started trying to write a lot of resources to help parents find ways that they could help themselves and their children remember to pray for people who are persecuted and that actually can be applied to missionaries and it can be applied to praying for unreached people groups. So there’s all sorts of different handicrafts and things like that that you can do to help you remember that the world is bigger than your house, bigger than your home, bigger than your community. So I started putting together some blog posts about things like that, and they just share simple ideas like you could make salt dough or play dough flag of another nation. You can decorate it however you want, You can put glitter on it, and you can use that as a Christmas tree ornament. You can take and print a picture of a flag of a country that you want to pray for. The flags are easily found all over online. You can print a flag, you can have your child draw a picture of themselves like a silhouette without putting all their features on it. You can then put the silhouette, like on black paper, you can attach the black paper to the flag and it kind of becomes a silhouette prayer card. It reminds them that there are children just like them in another country. And so that’s another easy fun way that they can remember that there are children just like them that they can relate to in other places. So those are some of the first things that I did to try to help kids understand what was happening and how they could pray for it. And then they can move into other resources for adults as they grow and mature and learn more about the world around them and what the situations are that people face.
Terrie:
So with this particular book, what age group is it geared toward?
Bonnie:
It’s geared mostly for probably eight to 10 older students could read it, younger students could enjoy parts of it, especially the fictional stories. I incorporated a lot of curriculum into it, so there are a short history of each country. There’s a section about what life is like for Christians in the country. There’s discussion questions, there’s information about some of the largest people groups in each country. There’s also some true stories about persecution in those countries. And then there’s some activities. So very young children could enjoy, at the very least, the fictional stories and the discussion questions. And older students, 11 to 13 or even into high school, could always enjoy the stories as a launching point and then do research and learn more about those countries and the people groups from there.
Terrie:
Yeah, I think it’s wonderful. And I think I saw on your website that they can like journal their way through an imaginary trip through all those countries, or is that a separate book that you’ve written?
Bonnie:
I have different note-booking resources that have where they can journal about different countries. There’s a freebie on my website. It was one of the first resources that I made. It’s called “Praying Through the Produce Aisle.” I’ve always been fascinated by the produce aisle. I think it’s amazing that I can see a fruit there that grew on the other side of the world. You know, it’s just one of those odd things. But I’ve always loved that, especially the tropical fruits that grow in places that seem so exotic to somebody who’s living in the northeastern part of the United States. So these hot tropical jungles said, “Praying Through The Produce Aisle” is just the way to help kids start learning more about the different countries. And as they learn, then of course they can pray. And then it reminds you every time you go to the grocery store and you see that dragon fruit or star fruit or even a banana, to pray for the people in the country where those fruits grew.
Terrie:
I love that so much. In my ministry. I focus on the Deuteronomy 6 scripture that talks about as you’re walking along the way, teach the children as you’re going through your day, we disciple our kids with just constantly bringing them back to the word of God. And this is a perfect example of that. While we’re grocery shopping, we can be praying and helping our kids think of others. And I think that’s brilliant. I love it.
Bonnie:
I had fun with that one. Like I said, that was kind of, I don’t know, a childhood thing that just kind of morphed into a download. And so I’ve kept that on my site. It’s been there for years, and I thought, I’m just going to leave that here. I think it’s kind of like my foundational freebie.
Terrie:
That’s cool. Okay. You also have several copy workbooks that deal with missionary stories. Can you share about those?
Bonnie:
Sure. They focus on quotes from the missionaries more so than the story, the missionary themselves. But they’re a great springboard for learning about the missionaries. The missionaries that I have the quotes by are all very well known. I believe they all have books out in the Christian Heroes Then and Now Series, I don’t know if you’re familiar with those, but those are a fascinating series of books for elementary and middle school kids that share the stories of many different missionaries. So what I did was we found quotes by, right now I have quotes from a donor, Judson, Amy Carmichael, George Mueller, Hudson Taylor, Lottie Moon, Mary Lesser, and William Carey. And we found quotes that were inspiring and then turned them into copy works. So the copy work is in print or cursive, and you can either trace it or copy it. So it’s good for handwriting practice, but it also incorporates then very inspiring things that they said. Some of the quotes reflect parts of their lives, maybe make mention of where they served or the people they were serving. Most of them are just very reflective quotes talking about prayer, god’s providence. It is faithfulness to them in meeting all of the needs that they faced and all of the obstacles. They also talk a great deal about sacrifice and service, and God’s calling on each of our lives to serve him in whatever way he chooses.
Terrie:
That’s wonderful. I love it. And I love bringing cursive back into the curriculum. It drives me crazy that no one can read or write and cursive anymore. I get it, we’re in a new age, but oh my goodness.
Bonnie:
We need to save cursive handwriting. We need to hang onto that.
Terrie:
Yeah. It’s like you’re writing in a secret code now. You can write anything you want and they can’t read it.
Bonnie:
Yes. Including our founding document. So that’s a good argument for holding onto cursive. They’ve got to learn cursive if they’re going to be able to read the original historical document.
Terrie:
Oh, I know. Yeah, that’s a good point. And we’re coming up on Thanksgiving. This will air before Thanksgiving, and you also have copy work bible verses about giving thanks. And I love that. So that resource, it’s free, isn’t it right now?
Bonnie:
It is free right now. And if at any point going forward, even years beyond when this first airs, if any of your listeners come across this Thanksgiving copy work and would like it for free, just have them email me and I will be more than happy to send it to them for free. Just mention your podcast and I’ll be happy to give it to them free at whatever point. Rather it’s free on my site at that point in time or not.
Terrie:
Oh, that’s great. Thank you. That’s wonderful. And I’m curious about A Detective’s Guide To American History, 1900 to 2000. You have to share about that one.
Bonnie:
Well, A Detective’s Guide is designed to try to make American history as engaging as it can be for kids who might not automatically be drawn to history. I have always been fascinated by history. I can get sidetracked quicker than anything by the random historical tidbits people share. I am hooked on those. Like this day in history, I love finding out when Bubble Gum was created or any of those random things that just come up during the day. But I realized that not all kids are as hooked on history as I am. And so A Detectives Guide takes the different events throughout the year, and there’s actually two volumes. There’s an 1800 to 1900 and there’s a 1900 to 2000. Hopefully in the future there will be a 1700 to 1800, but I have not gotten that unit done yet. And it takes it and breaks each event into five different lessons.
Bonnie:
So for example, the Hindenburg or the building of the Empire State Building, and it takes the event, it breaks it into five days, it just has two or three paragraphs of text to read. Then it has a reading comprehension question about what they read, and then it has a puzzle for them to decode so that we have a, like a cipher wheel so that they can do a simple math problems and find an answer to a question. Then that answer is not found in the text. So that’s kind of a way of bringing in another additional fact. And then there’s other activities like map work and questions that they can answer. And as they work through, they can do independent research and learn more about the event if they choose, which of course, I hope by this point, after they’ve done five days, they’re so excited about it that they want to do and learn more, and then they can write about what they’ve learned. So it kind of tries to pull together different aspects of learning with the writing and the reading comprehension, even some math and some different puzzles like that to help them get engaged. And so each one just breaks it down into bite size pieces. And it’s fun too, because it doesn’t look like a textbook, so it’s not like you’re dragging your kid over and saying, Okay, we’re going to read six pages in this 400-page textbook. They just want to bolt from the couch. It’s just, it makes it a little bit less scary.
Terrie:
I think that’s great. A lot of your stuff seems to cross curriculum a little bit, so I love that. Yes. As a homeschool mom, that was wonderful. I always loved that.
Bonnie:
I tried to sneak in as many subjects as I can into each resource
Terrie:
That’s great. Okay. And one more that was very intriguing to me is the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. Can you share about that one?
Bonnie:
Sure. I had a mom reach out to me and she said she just felt that her student couldn’t break down a situation and understand the pros and cons. And so I started talking to her about what she needed in a resource and the critical thinking resources, what came of that conversation. So it helps students look at a question of, should I do A, or should I do B? It helps them look at possible consequences of each action, the pros and cons, what each choice would cost them. And it’s designed to help them look at, obviously there’s moral situations that they’re going to face. Should I go to this event that bad things may happen at? Or should I not go to this event? Those may or may not seem clear depending on the child’s upbringing from a moral standpoint. But also simple things like if you have to choose between two perfectly good options, do I go to the mall with so-and-so or do I go to the football game with so and so? These are two legitimately good options, and they don’t have any obvious pros and cons. So it’s designed to help them think through what will each one cost me? What will each one produce in the end and helps them look. And then there’s also a discussion aspect of this because as they’re forming their opinions and as they’re forming these patterns of thinking, they need to be getting input from their parents or from someone who is important in their life and who can share from their own experiences. So there’s room in there for discussions. So they lay out what they’re thinking about, They get feedback from their mentor or parent, whoever. They’re looking up to grandparent, and then they come back and say, Okay, so this is what they said, This is how I feel about it, and this is the decision I’m going to make. And then there’s also room for them to record what happened as a result of their decision. I tried to remind them in there that just because something has a bad outcome does not mean it was necessarily a bad decision. There are lots of things that we do right that just simply do not end the way we anticipated. Does not mean that the reasoning behind it was wrong or that the decision was wrong. So that’s kind of the heart behind that product, that resource to help them just learn to think through their decisions and also talk it through with someone that they care about and respect.
Terrie:
I love that. That’s great. And I just want to mention that on her website, she has lots of things that are either free or very low cost for families. I think that’s wonderful. That’s a ministry in itself that you provide so many resources for families at such an affordable cost. Even your most expensive item to me is still so affordable. Curriculum is just so expensive these days. So I really appreciate that. And a lot of it is downloadable. And when we were overseas, that was one of the things I just looked, I would scour the internet for things that I could buy that were downloadable and now it’s more common, but back then it wasn’t. And so I appreciate that as well. What’s your favorite of all the things you’ve written that you’d like to share with our audience?
Bonnie:
Wow, that’s a tough question. To be honest, A Detective’s Guide Through History is one of my favorites that I’ve published more recently. I really got excited about doing that and have really enjoyed doing that. I have another series that I started a long time ago and it’s called My Book About. And they’re very simple resources, but they are designed to again, help kids learn more about other countries, which as I’ve said and as, as I’m sure you’ve noticed from looking around my site, I love learning about world cultures. I’ve always found it interesting. And so the, My Book About Series visits four cities in a different country. Each book covers a different country and there’s countries from all over the world. One’s France, Nepal, Brazil, just from every corner of the world. And it shares just four or five little facts about the country. This city was a historic port city, or this city started as a village of four 40 people and now it’s a metropolitan city of 3 million. Things like that just to help them. And then it has a photograph or sometimes a just sketched picture of each city. And then at the end it talks about what did you enjoy about your visit to China? What did you enjoy about your visit to India? And then it gives them prayer points that they can pray about for the people there, it talks about like what percentage of the people there know Christ? It talks about this is a country of 50 million people, but 1% know the Lord. So kind of tries to highlight that, or some of them share, but there’s no scripture in the language of however many percent of the people. And so how can we pray for that? And so they’re just introductions to life in these different countries or some of the different cities, not so much daily life, but different cities. How they can pray for the people who live in those cities and in the country in a larger sense. I enjoy writing those.
Terrie:
Oh, that’s great. I love that. Okay. And is there anything we haven’t talked about that you really want to hit on?
Bonnie:
I think the missionaries and the unreached people and the persecuted church are very important topics that we need to talk about with our kids. They need to understand that this is going on around the world and that in some way they will face persecution and difficulties for being Christian too. It may for them, it may not be more than being excluded from a table of their friends at lunch, or it may be being harassed. It may be flat out bullying. It may be physically frightening depending on the situation that they’re in, but they need to know that they’re not alone, that these things happen and that God is with them when it happens, that it’s not happening because they did something wrong. I’ve read stories about persecuted Christians. They like, Things are going badly, We must be doing something wrong. And it’s like, No, no, no, no. You’re actually doing something right because you’re sharing about the Lord and that’s making the enemy angry, and that’s making the political powers that be in some of these countries angry. No, this is a good thing, as hard as it is for anyone to endure. So I think it helps our kids know that they’re not alone.
Terrie:
That’s great. Well, thank you Bonnie Rose for all that you’ve shared with us today. I think it is so important that we help our children understand that Christianity is something where we count the cost that Jesus warned us there could be persecution, and that we lift up our brothers and sisters around the world who are facing that every single day. I think you’ve done a great thing in providing these lessons.
Bonnie:
Thank you so much and for having me on. I really appreciate it. I’m glad to get to share with your audience, and I hope it’s a blessing to many families.
Terrie:
Oh, I think it will be. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for “Books that Spark,” a podcast, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions and discussions as we disciple our children and help them follow Christ with their whole hearts. If you would like to connect with Bonnie Rose, you can reach her writebonnierose.com, and there you will see all the wonderful curriculum she has written that she provides for you and a lot of free things that you can download. And all of her curriculum is priced so reasonably well, it is such a blessing to homeschool families. So please check out her site, connect with her there. She does share with schools, and will do speaking engagements, and she offers so many great resources. If you would like to connect with me, you can reach me terriehellardbrown.com. I would love for you to sign up for my mailing list where you can get some freebies as well and also get notifications when I post a blog post or an episode of this podcast. In addition, you also get a legacy email each week for the first couple months that you’re with my mailing list. And you have access to my monthly newsletter in which we have our new book club. So I’m so excited about this. We offer books for every age group that we recommend each month, and we have a different theme each month that we talk about. And all the books are based around that theme. So check it out, let us know if you have any questions. We would love to hear from you. We answer every comment or question. You can post those on my website at the end of each episode’s transcript, and you can find that under “podcast transcripts” on my website. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and share and let people know we’re here.
Terrie:
We appreciate you being here today, and we hope that you will take part in I D O P. There are several websites I will have links to where you can find materials for leading your church to pray for the persecuted church, or just praying for the persecuted church yourself and as a family. The need is so great for prayer today for Christians around the world who do not have the freedoms we have, and we don’t even know how much longer we will have the freedoms we have–to worship freely and openly, the faith that we have in Jesus Christ. So we need to be real with our children. We need to be real with each other. We need to be praying for each other and for our country. God bless you and have a wonderful week.
LINK to FREE Thanksgiving Verses Copy Work
IDOP Resources:
Your Host: Terrie Hellard-Brown
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts discuss living as a disciple of Christ while parenting our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ and to use the nooks and crannies of our lives to disciple our children.
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be WONDERFUL” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.