Another benefit of reasoning from God’s Word with young children is that it really takes the pressure off me. I have one job to do, and it is up to God and my child to do the rest.

My job is simply that of planting seeds. I am to make sure my children have the rudiments, the seeds of every subject. It is not my job to freak out about how they will ever learn all they need to know to “make it in the real world.” No child, no matter how “well educated,” learns everything before they reach the magic age of 18. That’s what living is for, to continue learning and growing.

This quote may help you, as it has me:

When we teach the principles of God’s Word, the rudiments or “bare grain” of any subject, we do not know how the individual will mature or how the body of wisdom and knowledge implanted will be expressed by future generations. But, we are assured if we teach whole, complete principles, and “sow” them in the good ground of a diligent student, that these seeds—will produce fruit ofeter their own kind, and God will give them a body—and identity and individuality—that pleases Him. Careful sowing, watering and weeding cultivated the Truth sown. (A Guide to American Christian Education p. 127)

I do not know what my children will need when they are grown. I don’t even know what I will need tomorrow. But with prayerful preparation, diligence and faithfulness I know I can prepare my children as God would have me to. And that preparation includes reasoning with them from the time they are very young.

It is important to allow your children to reason. These are their property, their own thoughts that they have discovered. When they discover that ability your school time will never be the same. When my children are able to reason, however simple it is, I make a point to remind then that that thought belongs to them. I didn’t gove it to them, they did it on their own. Intellectual property is a powerful force. Any insight they gain through reasoning for themselves can never be taken from them. This will strengthen their faith and their ability to reason affectively with others as they grow up.

There is a philosophy of education that takes the perspective that reasoning is for older children. Younger children are to be filled with facts and enticed to learn with interesting topics and presentation. I don’t happen to agree.

On the surface, this sounds reasonable enough. How on earth can you reason when you have nothing to reason with? You need a certain amount of knowledge to be able to reason, to think things through. So what about reasoning with a second grader? A kindergartener? Is that even possible? I exhuberantly shout YES!!

The beautiful thing about reasoning from God’s Word is that it is God’s Word. It is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It is not head knowledge. It speaks to the heart, to the spirit.  A child can hear the voice of God, just as adults can.

In A Guide to American Christian Education, Mr. Rose discusses the seed principle, that is, when you use the Principle Approach you plant the seeds of the whole subject in principles, notdisseminating facts in an evolutionary, fact-based method. You can see in the salvation message that a child and a full-grown adult hear the same Gospel, feel the tugging of the same Holy Spirit and receive the same salvation. It is only the expansion of the idea that is different. It is the same with math, science, HisStory or English. When you are reasoning those subjects from God’s Word then your child, even a young child, can reason at a rudimentary level. The principles are planted and God can grow them into mature plants for His glory.

The most powerful thing I can really say is that I do it every day in my own home. I know that I would have missed out on some wonderful discussions with my children if I had simply been filling their minds with facts and fun. Since we are looking for principles and reasoning together, I cannot imagine doing anything else. And it gets better each year, because they are able to reason deeper and we can take the discussion into uncharted waters. God is good!

Getting yourself ready for a new year can be exciting and more than a little daunting. In all your planning don’t forget these simple yet important ideas.

1. Don’t get distracted by mechanics. It is very easy to get caught up in studying and 4-Ring and teaching with leading ideas and principles that we can lose sight of the bigger picture. The way the lesson is structured is less important than whether or not the child learns what you intended. The mechanics will come. Don’t let your lack of mastery stop you from providing excellent lessons for your family in the here and now. You will grow and they will grow and the mechanice will come more easily. And maybe you need to pause and sit together at the feet of the Master Teacher and allow Him to minister to you.
2. Don’t get discouraged. It is challenging to see your shortcomings and feel confident to teach this method, but you are more than able in Christ Jesus. Diligent study, patience and dedication to Biblical principles will take you far. If you are tempted to get down on yourself, take a deep breath and look back at how far you’ve come. Also keep your eyes on the prize and remind yourself why you are doing this. One thing you can do is to keep a journal of your home education. I love to read what was going on a year or two ago to remind me that we have made some real progress.
3. Don’t forget to pace yourself. This is not a race, so get off the fast track. We are all in a different place on our journey and it takes us all a different amount of time to get where we are headed. Stop comparing yourself with others. Also don’t forget it’s about the journey, not the destination.
4. Don’t forget the Holy Spirit. We can only do so much in our own knowledge and strength. We must seek the Lord daily for insight, wisdom and patience. If you are struggling with your temper or your kids just don’t seem to “get it” lately, maybe it’s been too long since you spent time with the Lord.
5. Don’t overfeed. Baby chicks only need a seed at a time, not a whole ear of corn. Try to avoid the firehose syndrome and do for the IV drip. They only need one principle at a time, one idea to chew on. And don’t demand instant answers. Sometimes they need to get back to you after they have thought a while. Less really is more.

There are so many exciting milestones along the way of growing together in the Biblical Principle Approach. I hope you will make an effort this year to stop and smell the roses. And to seek hard after the Lord.

Those of you who know me well know how dear Mr. Rose’s book is to me. It is invaluable in my BPA quest. I thought I’d share a way of planning lessons using his book. It’s not the only way, but one way it can be done, even for new families who want to create their own BPA lessons but don’t know where to begin. This is after you have gone through the section on p. 118, have a working knowledge of BPA and a personal philosophy of education written down (mine is in the clear pocket on the front of my teacher’s notebook).

(Re)read the section on ”Education for the American Christian Home” (beginning on p. 85).

Starting on p. 119,  you can see the subjects broken down into goals and objectives. Here is a list of page numbers you can write in under each subject:

• History (Elementary): objectives p.204
• History (Junior High): objectives p. 204
• Geography: goals–p. 259, overview p. 260
• Literature: see charts pp. 343-351
• Arithmetic: goals p. 241, rudiments p. 237, biblical origin and purpose p. 236, 234
• Algebra: objectives p. 445, vocabulary of algebra p. 427
• Science (A&P): rudiments p. 467, goals p. 468, overview p. 469, principles p. 457
• Economics: goals, overview p. 415, rudiments p. 402

Of course, you need to read the section for each subject, but this will give you a quick reference from the lists on p. 119-123.

As an example, take geography. I am planning for a 4th grader and a 1st grader. Here’s how I plan these lessons.

1. Prayer. I have to have the Holy Spirit to help me plan what my kids need to know this year.
2. Make a grid with the months on the side and the subjects across the top, so I can see what I am studying in each subject to create cohesive plans. 
3. See the geography topic on p. 120 for a quick glance at the subject.
4. Read the section on geography, written by Katherine Dang (259-273).
5. Note the goals on p. 259. (If I have 4 R’ed this, then I refer to my own goals.)
6. Note the overview on p. 260 (If I have 4 R’ed this, then I refer to my own overview.)
7. I make note of what I am studying in His Story and try to work geography alongside the subject. If it will not work there, then I will look to literature.
8. Using my overview and goals, I chart the months out. From there I am able to plan weekly lessons, using the biblical principles and leading ideas I deduce from 4-Ring and from The Encyclopedia of Bible Truths for School Subjects. I also add living books, mapwork, reference books and more to enliven the lessons.

I put the year’s master sheet into my teacher’s notebook so I can see my whole year on one page and how all the subjects are connected.

I love planning my own lessons this way because I can meet the objectives using the overviews and still create individualized lessons for my family. And Also I have a plan until I have 4-R’ed that subject and found my own objectives and so on. For more help on utilizing Mr. Rose’s book to the fullest, read my posts under the category Rose’s Guide.

Because we work with the seeds of principles, our lessons can look very different from yours and still we can both teach the same rudiments. With the overviews in Mr. Rose’s book I have a general direction to head in, but I can take my own path to get to the destination. I love that!

Do you make your kids share? That’s the polite thing to do, no? It keeps us from feeling embarrassed around other parents and it makes us feel like we are doing a good thing, raising “giving” children. (We spend a lot of time concerned with feelings, don’t we?…)

Katherine Dang has a lot to say about liberty. Sharing is no exception.  She challenges the idea of making your child share his belongings. Her take is this: never force your child to give up their property. You are raising a child with the idea of biblical liberty. Our three inalienable rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (property). As a parent teaching liberty, you do not force a child to surrender their property to another (socialism). You ask them to voluntarily allow another to play with or use their belongings.

Liberty is natural. Even a toddler instinctively knows there are things that belong to him and it goes against his law of nature to “share.” We remove that notion, with the best of intentions, when we force them against their will to share. If it is not done  voluntarily with reasoning and accounting for consequences, they should not be asked to do so.

So what other options are there, you think. Well, before a friend comes over, have your child put the things away that they would not like to be played with. Then all that’s left is happily volunteered.

There is a language of liberty, which doesn’t include sharing. Ever. “Would you let Jane play with your doll?” Let the child think about it. Discuss possible outcomes, like a broken toy, with both children. Let the owner make the decision. If it is yes, then make sure the lendee has a time frame and will treat the toy like her own. If onwer says no, then you say, “Susan, Jane says no. You will need to find another toy to play with right now.”

I said this idea may challenge you. You may think you will raise a selfish child if you do not force them to share. Is that God’s kingdom way? Forcing love, or compassion, or generosity? No, His way is always by choice, always motivated by love. If you respect your child’s property and their choices, they will be happier children and better citizens, understanding the liberty (and the responsibility) of private property. And we can raise a generation that will not be so quick to relenquish their rights as this one seems to be.

In this post I said that as a home educator I hope you are always evaluating what works. To me this is one of the best things about what we do. We are free to try new things and evaluate what works–and what doesn’t. For us a struggle has been the whole idea of separate subjects. I understand that the BPA philosophy keeps the subjects separate so they retain their distinctiveness. They have a reason for the traditional “school” model and I have no problem with that, in general. However it has not ever worked so great in my home. (see Dee’s post on BPA unit studies)

So I was at my local used homeschool bookstore the other day when I came across a book that describes how to create your own unit studies. A bell went off. I have wanted to do unit studies since my oldest was in K (we even used FIAR before moving to BPA). My heart leapt. Could I really do unit studies with BPA? I never really thought I could, so I kept on with what I knew. It was great and things were pretty good, but something was missing.

Now that I have added my 5dd, I really want our lessons to be interesting and educational and engaging. I want them both (and my ds as well) to love learning. (see this post) The best times we have had were little types of unit studies, with Benjamin West and other topics that I sort of tied together.

But the rest of the time has been “regular”. It was not making me happy as a teacher. I do not want to focus on academics per se, but on the rudiments, the first things to know. What we have been doing is not really engaging, at least for us. Everything is disjointed and unrelated. So I took the unit study book home and looked at it. I was so glad I did!

As I read through it a light bulb came on, I realized that BPA and unit studies are very compatible. Here are some reasons why:

• unity with diversity: subjects flow together naturally, nurturing a love of learning, but still distinctive.
• As the child grows, they are able to see the 4-R’s process more clearly, so they are able to move to independent study naturally.
• You are able to relate a principle to the whole topic, as well as to individual subject, so it will flow well.
• Personally, I believe that this method is more like real life. They can master the subjects as they relate to one another, as opposed to disconnected “boxes” of subjects.

These were my two dreams in educating my children: BPA and to use  unit studies to do that. Now I can do both. Praise to God for the journey I am on. Each step I have taken has led me to the next. I don’t regret anything I have done to this point because each was a necessary step to get me here.

In my next post I will go into detail about our first unit study, which may surprise you.

Well my 3rd grade lessons came today! I am really excited, now that I got to see them in person. I would have liked to have more information from FACE before I ordered, like sample pages and a list of topics covered, but I called, so I knew what to expect. Here’s my take at first glance.

Opening with BPA in general and BPA 3rd grade was helpful. I wanted to know what they expect of 3rd graders in their school just as a point of reference. Getting Ready for 3rd grade had even more info. Then they have a bunch of stuff I don’t use: school supply list, classroom constitution, report card and such. Their list of required  resources and optional resources (with their abbreviations) is something I will refer to as well.

The lesson plans are comprehensive for the following subjects: Bible, Bible as Reader, English, Literature, His-Story, geography and science. The supplemental info in the back has overviews for all the subjects and also ones for art, music and PE. They included some graphic organizers, presentation ideas and more to make things easier. And I enjoyed “Cultivating the Love of Learning in Third Grade.”

Their lessons are organized by week. They offer a principle, leading idea, materials for the lessons, lesson content and student work. They offer quarterly reading instruction and overviews for math but it is not covered. We use Ray’s anyway so that’s not important.

I am at a place now that I believe I can modify as I need to as the year progresses. I feel no pressure to complete everything in the lesson, or even in the way they suggest. But I am thankful they offer these to help me proveide an excellent education to my children without wearing myself out. As the year progresses I hope to offer updates on how thigns are going.

In all my planning sometimes I have to remind myself of the important things. While the math and the grammar are important, they are not the end, but a means to an end. I made this list so I can always remember that these things are what really matter.

1. Love of God and His Word
2. Their reason for being here
3. Reasoning from God’s Word and its application to everyday life
4. The pleasure of independent study
5. The power of self-government
6. Care and compassion for God’s creation
7. Life skills
8. That life is precious
9. The value of the past
10. Love of learning

If I can provide the enviroment where they can absorb all of these, then I think my job will have been a resounding success.

The way I study and educate my children is the root from which these 10 things spring. The fruit comes when they incorporate these things into their lives. And what sweet fruit that is!

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in Truth. 3 John 4

places God’s Word at the center of all subjects. We do not tack some scriptures on to a canned curriculum, but we discover the principles from which the subject is derived and teach those. I love using the Word of God as the foundation for all subjects. I enjoy it for many reasons.

First, it keeps me in the Word more than any other type of education would. My philosophy of education requires me to study and prepare my own heart before passing principles on to my children. Like a momma bird, I am breaking down the meat of the Word into something their little tummies can digest. This preparation keeps my mind on God’s Word and meditating on Him.

Second, I see the Bible through a series of lenses, or filters, if you will. I view the Bible in different ways for different subjects. In JBC we are looking governmentally at God’s Word. It is also our mathematics primer–we can see that math comes out of God’s nature. The Bible is the highest form of literature, so we view all other written text compared to it. It is also a science text, even allowing us to be present at creation to see how God put the Earth and its inhabitants together. I also see its excellent grammar and manner of expression, which elevates our standard of grammar and sentence structure. And it is a big, beautiful window to His Story. We can see providential history played out over thousands of years.

Third, because it is God’s written instructions, I can find everything I need there. Trouble with a child? Look for the answers there. Struggling to grasp a subject? I just check my concordance and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the wisdom I need. I never need to be stressed or concerned, for His Word has the comfort and encouragement I need to make it through. I know what my duties are as a parent, and my children know theirs also. This structure is very reassuring to me. His will is not mysterious or unattainable. God makes it all plain for me in His Word. His Word says

2 Making your ear attentive to skillful and godly Wisdom and inclining and directing your heart and mind to understanding [applying all your powers to the quest for it]:
3 Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
4 If you seek [Wisdom] as for silver and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures,
5 Then you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient God].
6 For the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He hides away sound and godly Wisdom and stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him); He is a shield to those that walk uprightly and in integrity,
8 That He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the
way of His saints. Prov. 2: 2-8 AMP

 

This is my scripture for my own home education. It is comforting to know that
as I teach my children to seek skillful and godly wisdom that we will not be
disappointed. All this hard work has eternal rewards. As we pursue these
subjects using biblical principles, I am not just teaching science or grammar,
but God is revealing “skillful and godly wisdom” to them. Hallelujah! That’s all
I want for them: to know the Wisdom that comes from above. All the rest is
gravy.

Together, the school subjects give me comprehensive view of God’s Word that I would never experience otherwise. I can see the “whole counsel of God,” enjoying His wisdom and insight on matters like economics, interpersonal relations, education and home and family life. It is an understatement to say that there is no better manual for education and living than the Bible. If you never taught from another book you would get an excellent education.

My mom gave me lots of BPA material. I’m not sure exactly where these notes came from, but they were good so I thought I’d share them here. This is full of Biblical Principles, although I didn’t take time to note them here. Feel free to leave a comment and share your own study with us.

How to Set Up Your Home for Learning

1. Attitude of approval–even when you correct, do it with approval.
2. Kids learn best where there is a single authority figure. Bonding is necessary. If there is no bonding, no learning will take place. If the child is not convinced of a person’s authority, they will not learn from that person.
3. Predictable environment. I believe that means to have a consistent schedule and place to work, whatever that means to your family.
4. Freedom to explore and manipulate their environment. Involvement is necessary for self-motivated learning. Learning is “answered curiosity.” In the final analysis, all learning is self-motivated.
5. Be careful to avoid over-stimulation, that is, too many things going on in the home while learning is taking place. It destroys the ability to concentrate and causes more mental confusion.
6. Initiatives and acheivement should be stressed. The value of achievement should be emphasized.
7. A clearly defined values system gives the child wisdom.
8. Teach the value of learning through reading.
9. Verbal exchanges between child and parent are important. Even a baby can remember words, they just can’t repeat them (subliminal learning).

According to the wisdom of Hebrew rabbis, the beginning of teaching a child is to study them for six months before you start.

The strong, structured family remains stable, no matter where you might move.