Books are great tools for homeschoolers. It seems there is no end to the creative possibilities. But sometimes the choices can seem a bit overwhelming, or the process is complicated and you stress about creating content that will be worthy of the container. How about trying a book that is made from one page, a little book that can be cut and pasted and scribbled to your heart’s content. Fill it with poetry or facts or drawings of plants. Use one of the directions below. Make them for friends, create a zine and sell some copies. They are fast and fun and oh so easy. I bet you can’t make just one. Continue reading »

If you don’t make books with your kids you are missing out on some fun! Books are a great alternative to lapbooks or notebooks. There’s no way you can not have fun making and filling books with stories, songs, poems, math tables, pictures, essays and anything else your children can produce. Here are a few links to whet your appetite. Continue reading »

My most exciting times as a home educator have come under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Without the help of the Holy Spirit my lessons become dry and frankly pretty boring. I thought I would share some thoughts concerning this.

If you are a Christian teaching your children at home, you probably already have experienced spirit-led lessons, even if you didn’t know it or call it that.

When you are teaching multiple grades together you can relax. Just as happens in a church full of individuals, the Holy Spirit has a wonderful way of tailoring the lesson to fit the needs of the hearer. I never cease to be amazed that a room full of people can hear the same sermon, the same words and scripture, and get something intimately personal from it. Only God’s living Word can do that.

The Holy Spirit is here for, among other things, education.  John 14:26 Jesus says that when He left the Holy Spirit would come and “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” “All things” there means in the Greek just that–all things. So rejoice that the Holy Spirit is there to teach you, to teach your kids, and to teach you to teach your kids all things.

If you are struggling in an area such as math or history or even how to schedule your day or deal with a difficult character issue, help is a prayer away. God gives wisdom liberally if we will only ask (James 1:5). And when we don’t even know what we need the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26) and Jesus (Rom. 8:34) both are praying God’s will on our behalf. Praise God! If you are weak in an area let God show Himself strong. I can tell you from experience those are the most exciting lessons of all because I cannot do that in my own ability. (2 Cor 12:9)

I encourage you to be careful not to put your lessons in a box and think there will be amazing revelations every day in every subject. That won’t happen. Many days will be pretty average. But that’s what makes the special times so special. And God’s grace is in the every day, speaking in quiet whispers through His Word in every subject.

With the Biblical Principle Approach that places God’s Word at the center of every subject, you can’t help but have Holy Spirit inspired lessons each time you pick up your Bible and read His life-giving words to your family. It’s rhema.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.      Hebrews 4:12

Principle: God’s Principle of Individuality 

I have to admit we have not been on good terms. I have poo-pooed her ideas and rolled my eyes at her suggestions. Her penchant for school supplies and compulsion to write on the chalkboard drove me to distraction. I wanted to change her altogether, reshaping her into more of a ”fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” individual, tossing every hint of traditional education out the window. She was having none of it.

Through much prayer and seeking I have come to realize something. It’s really okay the way God made me. That may be a “duh” to you but I’m a little slow on the uptake. God’s Principle of Individuality highlights the beauty of true diversity, and that includes the way I educate my children. God knew what temperaments my children would have, how they would learn best, and how that would work together with my teaching style to develop strong American Christians. And just because I may do a lot of things like a traditional teacher does not mean we operate just like a school. We enjoy our home education and celebrate our unique way of learning.

I need not put myself on the scale to see how I measure up to other home educators. There is a specific bent that God gave me, which happens to look very much like a school teacher. I enjoy detailed planning. Our pencil sharpener is one of those ones like I remember from school that is screwed into the wall and I love using it. School supplies make me giddy and I enjoy standing at the dry wipe board and pointing to the map from time to time.

There is nothing more liberating than realizing you are okay just as you are, “schooly” or not. To me, that’s the beauty of home education. I am done comparing my kids and my lessons and my teaching style. 

I am off to get my inner school teacher a hot cocoa and a comfy chair–so she can get busy with those lesson plans.

In our house we LOVE all things artsy and craftsy, so I thought I would share some links to help you add more arts and crafts to your daily lessons. If you would like to add a link to this list, please share it in the comments section.

Bible

• DLTK
• Making Friends
• Teacher Help
• First School

History

• History for Kids
• Suite 101 printable crafts

Science

• Kids Create
• Science Crafts
• More Science Crafts

Mathematics

• Math Cat’s Math Crafts
• About.com math crafts
• Danielle’s Place math crafts and games
• Tessellations
• Tangrams

Geography

• Enchanted Learning
• Family Fun

Literature and English

• Suite 101
• Preschool: fairy tales
• Language arts crafts

Music

• Enchanted Learning
• About.com
• DLTK Kids
• Kaboose

American Sign Language

• Signing Time
• ASL 4 Kids
• ASL coloring pages

The first Biblical principle we study, and the overarching principle as well, is “God’s Principle of Individuality.” This principle can be seen everywhere, and we focus on seeing it in the subjects.

If God cares about individuality, then if we study the subjects individually we are enjoying the distinctiveness of each subject. There is a rich history, diverse vocabulary and important principles that each subject contains. A goal of learning with the Biblical Principle Approach is not fact mastery but subject mastery (through principles).

We are not discussing facts but principles, so multiple grades are able to learn together. There is no need for complicated lesson plans for each child. A little modification and all your children can learn at the same time.

How can we understand the unique vocabulary and rudiments of a subject if they are all lumped together? Each subject has its own language and foundation. It is important for children to learn these in order to master the subject.

When you understand the rudiments of a subject, along with its vocabulary, you are able to see how the subjects naturally overlap and fit together. There are common principles that bring the subjects in harmony and bring a richer appreciation of all the subjects.

For more reading on the subject, these two PDF handouts are available for download.

Selected Quotes Concerning the Individuality of Subjects

My personal notes concerning unit studies vs. individuality of subjects

I have nothing against unit studies per se, I just prefer a distinct subject methodology with natural subject integration. What I mean is I do not rally around a topic but around the principle of a subject. I may pick a certain topic that several subjects will naturally fit into but I do not try to contrive lessons to fit a topic.

Once or twice a year I will do a study on a subject and the subjects will naturally integrate, such as a study on Bach (which we are starting this week). HisStory, geography, literature, English and music are all naturally covered as we read through the book, adding to our enjoyment and understanding of the life and times (and character) of Bach. The subjects add to our understanding of cause and effect, of the things that made Bach who he was. They are not disjointed facts but parts of the whole under the principle of individuality. We see how, where, with whom and when he lived contributed to his character. Along with this study we continue our math, Bible and science separately.

The subjects are beautiful and unique. I don’t want my children to miss out on the treasures that each subject contains. 

I hope this post will spark some conversation regarding the topic.  I will begin over the next several weeks to go over each of the individual subjects, beginning with history. Our Thursday chat will also correspond to the weekly subject.

I enjoyed Cindy Rushton’s last seminar so much I wanted to tell you about her seminar coming up this weekend. It’s called “Does Homeschooling Through High School Scare You?” Her workshops are live chats and a web site with links to articles and lots of info that you can have access to in the future. Here’s what she says about it:

Want to homeschool–but wonder about what to do about High School? Do you want practical, real-life, proven ideas for teaching throughout the high school years? Or, maybe you could just use a big dose of encouragement? Real help is available from real homeschool moms who guarantee to help you to homeschool the easy way through the high school years. 

 There are two ways to enjoy it. You can attend live for F*R*E*E. That’s right. It’s free to attend live and get in on all the great door prizes and goodies she gives away. Or you can buy a ticket. This will give you access to the recorded audio, chat transcriptions, spacial giveaways and lots more from the membership site.

It would be a good thing to attend even if you don’t have kids in high school yet. We are all looking to the future and her seminar may be just what you need to hear.

Click here to read all about it and to sign up. Hope you will consider going. Her semiars are always lots of fun and chock full of great information.

So once again, I’m sort of at a loss here to write something I haven’t already said. This blog is all about the Biblical Principle Approach, so you can poke around the archives ad nauseum and read more than you probably ever wanted to know.

The Biblical Principle Approach places the Word of God at the center of every lesson. Here it is, in my own words.

Again, please read here or visit this site, this site or the blogs in my sidebar.

Some things I have tried before (in various doses): Five in A Row, Konos, my own unit studies and Heart of Wisdom. There are too many reasons why I didn’t keep with any of these, but the gist of it is that I simply cannot do anything but BPA. It is too dear to me and I feel like once the door was opened to me and I saw the possibilities, I couldn’t do anything else.

Why did I choose BPA? Well, it was a journey here, beginning with using BPA as a student myself in high school. After much prayer and trying many things over the years, I settled into what is most comfortable for us. And really I use it because I believe it is the best. (But that’s my totally biased opinion. Ha!)

It is wonderful to home educate these days. There are so many options for curriculum and resources that one can be quite easily overwhelmed. If you are struggling with your curriculum choice, I encourage you to pray and ask the Lord for His Wisdom. He knows your children and your situation even better than you do. I pray this will be your most joyful and rewarding year yet, whatever your curriculum choice will be.

Well I sort of hate to do this, because as soon as I post it here, it probably won’t get done as written. ha! I am looking forward to this year more than I have in a while. I have renewed vision and I have studied hard to prepare myself. Also I have accumulated many resources so I have enrichment activities at my fingertips. (I am NOT going to get into a lecturing rut this year.)

Our over-arching principle is the Christian Principle of Self-Government. All we do this year will focus on being more self-governed in our spiritual lives, in our lessons, in our chores, in our personal lives, in our speech and in our service to others. More than anything else, I want us to increase our self-government this year. If this time next year we are more self-governed, I count the year a raging success.

As for our actual lessons, I have taken a decidedly low-key approach. I am not going to overplan and overschedule. I am planning less material so we can actually savor the material, and work on doing an excellent job as we increase our capacity for Christian self-government. I am tired of rushing from thing to thing. We will do less to do more. What I mean is we will get more in-depth with the principles and not just stick to the surface with facts. Here is our schedule:

MWF:Bible, literature, science (M and W), math, Princess G will do this reading program

TT: Bible, HisStory/geography, art, math (reinforcement)

daily: creative writing, reading aloud, family altar, Spanish

This is very manageable for our family. I try to do Bible and academics in AM and enrichment in PM (after lunch). Science works well for us in the afternoon so we have more time for experiments and walks. Art and writing are also good in the afternoon when we have time to enjoy them. Spanish will move to the evenings so we can do it as a family.

Here are my resources:

Bible: JBC–love this curriculum, but it is an investment of time, because you have to do the work yourself. There is a support group too.

HisStory: my own plans with the help of Lisa’s Freedom and Simplicity in HisStory materials (although I do love Mrs. Smith’s HisStory books for kids too!)

Science: Dr. Worthington Hooker’s materials

Literature: my own plans, lots of good literature, main study will be Bach (I think!)

Geography: various stuff from HomeschoolEstore and other sources

Creative writing: this book

Reading aloud: many books, along with some help from this book

Art: various sources, including this excellent book. Also we will make many books by hand, along with ATC’s and other various paper arts. Also I like to use art cards, so we will work them in somehow.

Read this post about how I actually plan my lessons with the help of Mr. Rose’s book.

One book I highly recommend is Managers of Their Homes. I read it often for help with ordering our days.

Please leave a note if you’d like me to list the resources I use to enrich my lessons. There are so many great books out there and they are so much fun!

In the younger grades I emphasize American His Story for several reasons:

•  We strive the think governmentally. Even young children can understand the principles inherent to America’s founding. We can discuss cause to effect, internal to external and expand the principles as they grow. These principles apply to many things, but they are expressed in our form of government, so we can look there.
• Symbols of America are in all of society. We are surrounded with flags, portraits on money, sayings, holidays and more that lend themselves to curiosity and teachable moments.
• To restore America’s Christian history.
• Children enjoy learning about their country. They want to know all about it; the geography, the founding, the Pilgrims and Presidents. We are all naturally curious to know about where we live.
• It is easy to find good literature related to American history.
• It can be easier for young children to relate to than ancient history.
• Because we are Americans. No matter what our family’s heritage, we are Americans and should know our own heritage. This seems to cause a problem for a lot of people. If they were to hear about French or Peruvian children studying their histories they would encourage that. But somehow if we want to learn about our own country’s Christian His Story, something is wrong.
• They can trace God’s Providence readily, so it can be applied to other areas of their lives. They can follow it straight to themselves and see that they fit into God’s plan for His Kingdom, America and the world.

To make myself clear, we follow the Chain of Christianity each year, so we do talk about all time periods from Creation to today, I simply choose to spend a little more time on American His Story in the younger grades.

When they are older we discuss the Greeks, Romans and other ancient history in depth when they are able to reason as we are thinking governmentally. I look forward to those days. I just hope I can keep up! lol