The Storeey ov Rescyoo Man by Joshua J

An early illustration of Rescue Man, from January 2008:
A transliteration into Standard Australian English - for those who cannot read "Joshie-ese" fluently - is provided at the bottom of this post. For those who would prefer to do their own translating work, I have provided a transcription of the text below the image of each page.

Hints for translation:

Joshua's most common error in writing is to mix up certain letters that look very similar. In this passage, he has often replaced b with d and p with d or q. Sometimes, other letters are reversed, so a short j is probably actually intended to be an i; t and l often suffer this fate as well.

Most words are spelt incorrectly (being honest!) but usually according to a basic understanding of the rules of Phonics. Translators may try reading the words out loud and thinking about what other sounds might be represented by a given grapheme. Hence story is spelt with eey after the r. I think the first e was added to "make the O say its name". The second e was added because ey is a common ending used to represent the final E sound, as in key and monkey.

All text copyright Joshua J, September 2009.The storeey ov rescyoo man.
1 in hud worcin tawn a
dadey was deen in The hasdtl
vay nam him rescyoo man.
2 rescyoo man growi up.
rescyoo man livd inu a
qee has he didin get trets he
wos a helfe boo.
3 rescyoo man.
he went for his forst flit
it wos fun ver wos a qoll
in frunt ov him he bumqd
in too it he had too go too
hosdtt.
4 in hosdtl.
he had cut his hed cut ii dan
too his scul he had too get it
stichd vay gavd him sum
medsen so it dident hort he
fel a slep.
5 The sooquhiro.
rescyoo man went a rand
The tan it was pesfl he
see a sin vat seb satby
soop hiro rasing.
The rasing.
he bilt his hsip The ras
bging ot dube wun
6 The a wood
a goodee wun badee testu
hol ezee haw ese itis wos
Too cil The bades reseyoo
man cilb him.
can we conplet The
necst chapter tmoro.
[The following words had been erased and written over with the above question.]
7 The chapdr of bef.
The bade rodots sent bi
The cilu The ume reseyoo-
man bibent no Wot
to stop vem va got
aut ver guns
[To be continued???]

The following translation of the original story by Joshua J is provided with every care for accuracy and absolutely no assurance of inerrancy. While spelling errors have been corrected, the only grammatical corrections have been standardisation of some capitals and addition of punctuation marks where the author indicated sentence breaks were intended. The erased section has been included in its appropriate sequence.

The story of Rescue Man.
1 In hard working town a
baby was born in the hospital.
They named him Rescue Man.
2 Rescue Man growing up.
Rescue Man lived in a
poor house. He didn't get treats. He
was a healthy boy.
3 Rescue Man.
He went for his first flight.
It was fun. There was a pole
in front of him. He bumped
-
into it. He had to go to
hospital.
4 in hospital.
He had cut his head, cut it down
to his skull. He had to get it
stitched. They gaved him some
medicine so it didn't hurt. He
fell asleep.
5 The superhero.
Rescue Man went around
the town. It was peaceful. He
-
see a sign that said Saturday
super hero racing.
The racing.
He built his ship. The race
began. Another won.
6 The award.
A goody won. Baddy tested
how easy how easy it is was
to kill the baddies. Rescue
Man killed him.
-
7 The chapter of death.
The baddy robots sent by
the killer. The army Rescue
Man didn't know what
to stop them. They got
out their guns
-
Can we complete the
next chapter tomorrow?
Just in case you are wondering, Rescue Man has been Joshua's alter-ego for some time. This post tells how it all began.

Doctrinal studies for 2008

I have just prepared my new schedule for 2008 and incuded daily Bible reading and prayer, alone and in Circle Time with the kids. One other thing I am hoping to add into my weekday routine is a short study on church doctrine. Recently while I was at a Christian bookstore, I found the book An Exposition on the Shorter Catechism, by Alexander Whyte, and I think this will be ideal.

There are 107 questions to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the first and most well known being "What is the chief end of man?" The answer is: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." This book contains each Q&A with a short commentary. I am not sure yet whether I shall simply read through the book, one question each weekday, or if I shall take my time, memorising each question and its related verses, and moving on to a new question only when I have accomplished this. Obviously the latter would be more profitable, however I am hoping to use the Shorter Catechism for Recitation, Memorisation and Copywork (Transcription) with my kids throughout their years in the Grammar Stage, so I might memorise along with them then. This would be the more realistic course.

I also hope to complete my last 3 units of the Certificate in Christian Studies in night classes at Theological College next year so I can graduate from that at the same time as Jeff graduates from his MDiv. The subjects I hope to be able to undertake are The Rise, Fall & Reform of the Church: Church History I; The Christian Life: Head, Heart & Hands; and .... aargh! I've just been over to the college website and they've changed the offerings for next year!! Well, those two subjects, anyway. That's my punishment for flippantly quoting James 4:14-15 to my friend R at church this morning: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Whatever I am able to study, I pray that my growing knowledge may bring glory to God and help me to enjoy Him forever.

Hiding His Word in their hearts

According to the neo-classical view of the child, my children are all in the 'grammar' stage of learning. This means their brains are, at present, wired for absorbing information. They soak it up like sponges: my 4yo son knows the names of each of the trains in the Thomas the Tank Engine books by Rev W Audry, my 3yo daughter can recite Luke 18:15-17 without fault, my 2yo is rapidly increasing her repertoire of nursery rhymes and kids' songs and my baby ... well, he's busy learning to wave and say "mama" as well as "dada". In all of this list of achievements, the only one that would be considered unusual would be reciting Bible verses. Yet this is one thing that I consider very important, because I see the value of hiding God's Word in my children's hearts.

We practise reciting our Bible memory verses together as a family each day at either breakfast or lunchtime. Often, the two older kids have the verse memorised before Jeff or I, because they are so good at taking things in. We use the Scripture Memory System described at Simply CM, reciting new verses each day until they are memorised and then practising them regularly to keep them fresh. We are working on some verses I chose because they support the major Christian doctrines with regard to who God is, how we know about Him, who Jesus is, what He did, sin and salvation. Occasionally I add in another verse I have come across it in my own private study that has really struck me, and we also plan to memorise such things as the order of books of the Bible.

Recently, my mother watched Anna recite Colossians 1:16 - For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. She warned me to be cautious, and on reflection I think she was very astute. It is essential that our children memorise the correct words of Scripture, and do not memorise mistakenly. When they are older and are relying upon their memory of certain verses, we do not want that memory to be faulty in what it tells them about God's Word.

It is also important that they understand what they are saying: that while the memorisation is indeed by rote, it is not forming knowledge without understanding. When we were learning Colossians 1:16, we discussed "authority" and its trappings. We also read aloud the picture book Possum Magic by Mem Fox (in which the possum Hush is first turned invisible and then visible again by Grandma Poss) and used this to explain what was meant by "visible" and "invisible". We explained that "created" means "made" and reminded the children of other verses that speak of God as the Creator, such as Gen1:1 and John1:1-4.

Another caution appeared to me from Exploring the History and Philosophy of Christian Education. "Bible memory games ... are important ... but they should never be seen as the end. They are simply the means to the end of balanced spiritual formation. ... Meaningful understanding and practical application must precede memorisation or we are guilty of creating modern day Pharisees." I want my children to be able to act upon what they know, so I need to train them to exercise their knowledge in their daily lives. So when Joshua came home a while ago to tell me "Our next door neighbour doesn't want Jesus to be his King. He says God didn't make the world, it was evolution." I reminded him that God has told us the truth in His Word, and we can be sure that He is the Creator, because Colossians 1:16 (and other verses) tell us this. Then we prayed together that Joshua could share the truth about God and His Son Jesus with our neighbour.

This is what it means to have His Word in their hearts.