Bible usage for homeschool curriculum bible open on table
|

Our Home Education Program


I think it is pretty safe to say that most homeschooling mothers are always on the look-out for the perfect curriculum. One that is wholesome, well-rounded, simple, attractive, comprehensive, preferably inexpensive. The very existence of bustling “vendor halls” across the nation testify to this fact and we’ve all known the disappointed feeling as our hope that was placed in the promise of success has been dashed.

I’ve been officially homeschooling for a decade now, and I’ve yet to make my way down vendor hall. Having never been to a homeschooling conference, I’ve never really felt any more lure to curriculum hop than during the few minutes I peruse a Christianbook.com home education catalogue and I quickly learned that if I stuff it in the drawer and wait a few weeks, the temptation has passed. I think that my aversion to traditional, mainstream homeschooling curriculums stems from my overly independent nature and the general skepticism I feel about spending that much money without the guarantee of a fit.

Over the last few years this has really molded me into the type of homeschooling mother I am, one that stays simple, doesn’t get into all the bells & whistles but rather is more relaxed, simple.  Having known the truth that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life, allowing my children to be children and to learn gently and through experience as made the Charlotte Mason style approach a wonderful fit for our family.

But most of all, I appreciate that the journey of finding who I am as a homeschooling mother has led me to the point where if I were asked, “What is your curriculum?” my most truthful answer would be be, “Bible.” But no one wants to hear that. And I think it’s been easier for me to associate myself with the method rather than the curriculum. Perhaps that ought not to be so. May God be pleased to make me “bold as a lion.”

There are a handful of reasons the Bible makes the best curriculum. And may I humbly submit that I believe the King James Version would provide  the most well-rounded education.

How to use the Bible as the basis and center of your Christian homeschool curriculum

{Inexpensive}

Thankfully a Bible can be acquired with very little cost even if every child in a large family gets their own personalized copy, yet it is far from cheap.

{Diverse}

Think of the broad range of subjects covered in just this one book-  History, Poetry, Literature, Geography, Science, and more…

{Timeless}

It’s the only curriculum you can take into eternity without regrets and the only one suitable for all of time- past, present, and future.

{Builds Character}

In fact there’s a whole book dedicated to just character building. And the Lord was good enough to make lesson planning easy- 31 chapters for the typical 31 days of the month.

{Comprehensive}

In fact, it’s the only curriculum you’ll ever need since it spans all grade levels and yet still leave the children with  more to learn.

So what does this look like, or rather what is it supposed to look like (because we all know nothing ever goes to plan!) in our home?

In the past, during our typical homeschooling week, I had been covering a wide variety of different subjects. My goal was to address the following courses for a determined amount of days similar to what I outlined a couple years ago.

PhonicsLiterature, Copywork, Dictation, Enunciation, Spelling, Vocabulary, Grammar, Writing, Poetry, Prayer Journaling, Letter Writing, Geography, History, Government, MathScience, Nature Journal, Nature Diary, Life Skills, Art, Composer Study, Artist Study, Hymn Study

I have taken all of those lessons to the chopping block and dwindled them down to just:

Bible, Literature, Writing, Math, Science, Phonics

All of those other lessons will no longer be lessons in themselves, but rather within the context of the other lessons. Allow me to illustrate.

I made myself this convoluted flow chart to comfort myself when I began to feel guilt seeping back in convicting me that I was neglecting this lesson or that…. It’s been very helpful.

{Phonics}

Phonics is necessary to my goal of teaching my children to read well. My driving motivation is that they have access to go to the Word of God themselves, searching the Scriptures to see if these things be so, rather than relying on their teachers. The sooner the better, but they have to love reading when they get there so I’ll go as slow as I need to in order to make that happen.

With my oldest, I used TATRAS with amazing results. I also had a great deal of more time to devote to exclusively teaching him with that method and he was able to fluently read the King James Version of the bible by 6. The problem was that until that time, he could read very little else. It seems that the way the program works by giving you all of the pieces of the puzzle and once they’re all in place, the child can suddenly read.

My second child I’ve taught to read with much less success. I’ve been working on it for 4 long years and she cares little to devote the time to practice reading well. As my busy child, she would simply rather do something more productive. Like a busy little bee myself, I’ve flitted from one method to another trying to find something that appeals to her taste, and in the end we settled on using McGuffey’s readers. I’ve no particular method I’m following for going through it. I’m simply applying the phonics principles I learned all those years ago as we go through one lesson at a time until she achieves fluency before moving on to the next lesson, reviewing a couple of older lessons each day. I devote no more than 10 minutes to the reader each day otherwise she can become discouraged, often to the point of tears.

Last  year, I purchased a boxed set from Simply Charlotte Mason I discovered after having read Miss Mason’s method for teaching reading. I shared with you how I tackle the alphabet, teaching pre-readers, and thoughts on elementary reading & more.

{Bible}

I love that I’ve managed to make the Bible my primary curriculum! I use the Bible to encompass the following subjects:

Copywork-  Done three days a week, this is usually a memory verse or a portion of that day’s Proverbs reading. For my older children I will have them begin working through their Journibles.

Dictation-Done twice a week, my two oldest dictate to each other a Psalm or a portion of a Psalm. They seem to have very little patience with one another, so perhaps I can categorize this under character building as well.

Enunciation- We rotate the reader for our morning Bible reading encouraging their “public” speaking skills.

Vocabulary- As I mentioned, we read the King James Version of the Bible and I love its rich use of the English language. My experience has been that children raised on the KJV have no difficulty understanding the passages and it’s not often that we have to narrate it back to them. Particularly challenging words can be added to vocabulary notebooks.

Poetry- Psalms are the most beautiful poetry ever written!

Prayer Journal- My oldest child is encouraged daily to write in a prayer journal well thought out and articulate prayers.

Hymn Study-  I’ve learned to allow the children to choose a hymn they’re interested in learning and then we go over one stanza per week, reviewing the words, explaining meanings, if necessary, after devotion time. This helps mostly with the little ones who don’t always understand what words they hear, but primarily we study hymns by integrating them into our lives. I set about learning it myself simply by singing it aloud throughout the day. It’s hard to have a grumpy day when we’re all singing together!

Geography- The Bible is of course a wonderful source for Middle Eastern & Asian geography. As we move into post-Biblical times or different regions, living history sources should cover geography nicely. General geography concepts are covered here and All Through the Ages categorizes literature by region as well as time.

History- I should hope this is self-explanatary, but as we go chronologically through history, the Bible is worked in where applicable. Reese Chronological Bible is an excellent resource for assisting you to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together. Last year, I officially abandoned all history curriculums after being thoroughly disgusted as I worked through it the second time. I’m on my own, starting from the beginning of time and working through, I’m putting together our own curriculum comprised mainly of the Bible (of course) and living books. The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History has been an amazing resource to help me get started.

Government- Full of the rise and fall of nations, God has recorded many principles upon which a just government would stand. (For example in 1 Samuel chapter 8, the Lord says that a tyrannical government will tax a tenth of your income)

{Literature}

Apart from our history reading, I won’t deny my children access to great literature even if it happens to be irrelevant to what we’re studying elsewhere. I think to limit my oldest in particular would be akin to telling him he couldn’t breathe anymore! I keep it twaddle-free, slightly above their comfortable level, and stray from typical CM & classical education advice and don’t permit fantasy. (Gasp people, there’s even no Tolkein or CS Lewis tales allowed here since I think that the concepts of Christianity can be introduced and explored without needing to resort to the types of parabolic stories & characters that are so general even mainstream Hollywood can reproduce them and still appeal to the country at large without their making the connections.)

Some of my favorite book lists: 

Twaddle-Free Free Kindle Books
Classical Christian: 1000 Good Books List
All Through the Ages
Simply Charlotte Mason Book Finder
Ambleside Online Booklist

I cover vocabulary by choosing words they’ve asked the meanings of and if they don’t ask, yet I suspect they don’t understand the word, I’ll ask them to define them.

{Writing}

We do occasional prompts for fun using Story Starters by Karen Andreola. These are not your typical story starters but are excellent, in-depth ones that excite the child’s imagination and make them want to give the story an ending.  I’ve tried to seek out penpals who are being raised in Christian homes for my children. Ideally, I’d like them to be writing to enough penpals that they could write to one a week, once every month or two. Otherwise, daily writing will be in the form of prayer journals or nature journals/diaries. I skim their writing not so much for grammar errors- they learn good grammar by reading great books with good grammar- but will pick out spelling errors and make them write them 10 times in an English Notebook.

{Science}

My favorite way to do science for most ages is through nature walks, observation & journaling. It’s Miss Mason’s favorite way too. I rounded out our “curriculum” for that this year by purchasing regional field guides covering everything from animal tracks to wildflowers to fish. This will help them to learn to seek things out on their own rather than relying on my internet searching abilities.  “Green caterpillar with black dots.” Who has time for that?!

Still specialized area need to be covered. Astronomy, geology, anatomy, etc… I do my best to seek out resources that won’t be using the “E” word, but a firm foundation in creation science makes them laugh and mock those silly publishers who think they come from  seashells.

Nature journaling easily allows me to check off “art” for the day. When the weather is just too inclement, they can sketch from Dover’s Copyright-Free Animals or Plants. We also do an artist study for art which is very little work with a great reward at the end. (We don’t bust out the paints often, and I’m learning that for our family it’s best to stick with watercolor.)

{Math}

I don’t fuss with math too much for the under 9 crowd unless they really are interested. Charlotte Mason gives us a gentle way to approach this subject that seems to trip up most little ones. After that age, when they know their tables and basic concepts, they jump right into Saxon. As far as math textbooks go, it’s better than any one I used growing up and it’s given me no reason to search for another. I really found Dive to be a helpful tool for the advanced math.

We handle Composer Study much the same as we always have, usually listening to various works from the composer over lunch… and do I need to cover how we learn life skills?

I do recognize and am thankful that I live in a country and state where I still am at liberty to make these choices for educating my children. Please understand and know that if you have to go above and beyond what I have laid out above and make your children’s homeschool more inline with what is seen in the modern system,  you are in no way less (or more) of a good teacher to your children in any way.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

29 Comments

  1. I too like someone else who commented just happen to stumble or rather was lead to this post through pinterest. I read it but did nothing further as I was looking for something a little more focused and planned out -curriculum wise. However, it has now been months since I came across this post and had not thought of it anymore until I was enjoing a Bible study by Elizabeth George call A Woman After God's OWn Heart. And in the study I was prompted to be a more devoted Bible teacher to my young ones, and was asked to think of ways I could be completely devoted to teaching them God's word. And this very post was the very first thing that came to me! It was like God had taken it and stored it up somewhere inside me so that when this day came- the day I would feel so lead to teach my children more of God's word- I would remember that months back I had seen this post and could recieve legitament and practical advice through it. I am very thankful to have been lead to it the first time and am even more thankful to have been lead to it a second time, and now I am not just going to skim it and pass on by, but take it and apply it to my home, and homeschool. Thank you for following God's precious words in Deut. 6:7 "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
    God bless you an yours.

  2. Just found this post. I'm planning on homeschooling my daughter when she's older and this is just what I was looking for! <3 There's just so much going on in schools now that contradict our faith and I want to insill the Christian values into her education. I had the basic idea and just didn't know how to put it all in order 🙂 Thank you so much for this, Elizabeth from North Carolina <3

  3. No one knows your children better than you do and if you're not comfortable reading those stories you absolutely shouldn't. For me I know most of my children are far too naive for those types of stories and I've learned to be ok with that even though it doesn't perfectly fit the CM mold. I'm so thankful that by having read this you're able to feel at ease with what your gut is telling you. Many blessings to you on you home education journey 🙂

  4. I know this is an old post- but I have just accidentally (maybe providentially(?!) stumbled on it and it's everything I've been wanting to do but too scared to do in our homeschool…. Even down to the no fantasy! I have not seen one other Christian CM home educator say this, yet I cannot reconcile my conscience to allow the magic, myths and legends (fairies, magic, Tolkien, Lewis, Harry Potter) that everyone else says is good and necessary to some degree- so I want to say thank you for sharing it all because it's like someone has finally given me permission to do it this way! I'm off to look at some more of your blog 🙂 gratefully yours, Jo in the UK x

  5. It makes total sense Cassandra and is something we really need to work hard to guard against all the time. I struggle most with that during our school breaks when we're all scattered and busy. I'm thankful that because of this structure it's much less effortless during the greater part of the year to have opportunites to incorporate the Bible into our lives.

  6. It makes total sense Cassandra and is something we really need to work hard to guard against all the time. I struggle most with that during our school breaks when we're all scattered and busy. I'm thankful that because of this structure it's much less effortless during the greater part of the year to have opportunites to incorporate the Bible into our lives.

  7. Love that I stumbled upon this while searching Pinterest for ideas for implementing more bible in our days… beautiful. I've been feeling this way as well and my husband and I just had a chat about how God's word NEEDS to take a much more central role in our homeschool, not just act as one 'part' of our day, if that makes sense. Thanks. Cass The Unplugged Family

  8. I know this is an old post here but I always come back to this because it’s so helpful, and just what we’ve been envisioning for our homeschool. We recently read Teaching the Trivium, by the Bluedorns, and it was such a refreshing and helpful book… the best we’ve ever read regarding homeschooling!
    And by the way, I see someone already mentioned this same thing here a while back, but I desperately looking for TATRAS and can’t find it anywhere. If you or anyone else reading this happen to know of a source for it, even a used one, please let me know! Or, Quinn, do you happen to know of a phonics program that is similar to TATRAS? I’m so sad that I can’t get it.
    Thanks so much for this post again!
    Rebekah

    1. I imagine you checked out their website, right? I thought it used to specifically say that you couldn’t get them anymore, but it doesn’t look like that right now. It has phone #’s & ordering info, etc… I hope you can find a copy!

      1. I know, the website looks functional, doesn’t it? But I called the phone number and tried the email address, and no one responded to either. I emailed the Bluedorns (Teaching the Trivium) and found out that Frank Rogers passed away last year and it looks like his family has no plans to reissue the program. But in God’s kind providence, I was able to find a copy… I tried so hard I actually ended up with 2 copies! This looks like such a wonderful phonics program, it’s so sad to me that it is not available any more. I think so many people could benefit from it.
        Thank you so much for replying!

  9. Thank you so much for sharing your collection of resources and your thoughts. You are exactly what I have been looking for and hoping for 😀 We plan to start a bit of "school" this year then actual homeschooling next year, but I need that degree of flexibility that you show – also the cost-effectiveness! Really, you are a lifesaver.

  10. Thank you so much for sharing your collection of resources and your thoughts. You are exactly what I have been looking for and hoping for 😀 We plan to start a bit of "school" this year then actual homeschooling next year, but I need that degree of flexibility that you show – also the cost-effectiveness! Really, you are a lifesaver.

  11. Might I suggest that the Geneva Bible is even more appropriate than KJV? The reason is that Geneva is the original English-language Bible, pre-dating KJV. In fact, something like 80% of KJV is lifted verbatim from Geneva (though, of course Mr. Tyndale was not given due credit for his work). So if one wants true authenticity in the earliest English translation (though modern-language accurate translations are not “lesser” versions), the Geneva is the way to go. I’ve decided not to use KJV precisely because it’s a plagiarized version of the Geneva.

  12. Might I suggest that the Geneva Bible is even more appropriate than KJV? The reason is that Geneva is the original English-language Bible, pre-dating KJV. In fact, something like 80% of KJV is lifted verbatim from Geneva (though, of course Mr. Tyndale was not given due credit for his work). So if one wants true authenticity in the earliest English translation (though modern-language accurate translations are not "lesser" versions), the Geneva is the way to go. I've decided not to use KJV precisely because it's a plagiarized version of the Geneva.

  13. Thank you! It wasn't easy to share and I have gotten some harsh, unkind comments about how my children will turn out as a result of this post. It's good to be mentally prepared for the criticism that will come from being so radically different. (Especially when it's for the glory of Jesus Christ.) But at the end of the day, I know it's the right way for my children to learn! Blessings! 😀

  14. Thank you for posting this!! I have been praying about what to use as our families choice curriculum. God showed me several months back in the wee hours of the morning that his word is sufficient. I have succumbed to fear and my own educational experiences and gone back to textbooks which makes everyone miserable. Christian families walking in this light are very hard to find and I appreciate your openness.

  15. I was homeschooled all of my life. This is a very wonderful idea. Love it. Sounds like a great method.

  16. Granted I only did a Command+F search & re-read what I wrote under the “Literature” heading, but I can’t see where I said no “fiction.” Cause we read a LOT of fiction. Reading a wonderful Lamplighter to the kids right now called The Wide, Wide, World by Susan Warner & The Jungle Book too.

    I do see where I said no “fantasy.” Though I know they have sparked an interest in reading & the Word of God for countless people, I personally struggle with them for the reasons I mentioned and because I think that the personalities of some of my children would not do well with them. A few are extremely sensitive, easily frightened and a lot of the horror that comes with some of these types of stories would terrify them. Whereas when we’re dealing with talking birds & raccoons, for example, they can look to the reality of those creatures and know it’s make believe since they can see that animals don’t really talk. That’s not the case with the “creatures” (that aren’t creations of our Creator) so they’re left to flesh reality out in their minds.

    Because I have not read these books myself, am not interested in them, and haven’t the time to pre-read them for my older readers, we avoid them. With so much excellent literature outside of that genre, there is no shortage for us to choose from. It’s there for them to explore when they’re grown and if they turn out to love it, hopefully they’ll understand my motives and forgive me. 🙂 Take Care!

    1. I really like how you clarified this point. I thought it sounded kind of stuffy, at first, but it does make sense. I have no experience with reading fantasy and do not want to pre-read them for my kids. My oldest son is extremely sensitive as well. He is 6 and still can be frightened by very mild excitement in stories or videos. I know my husband plane to read the fantasy books that his dad read with him when he was young so, until then, we will stick to fiction with talking animals and the like.

      1. So glad that helped Amber! You have to do what’s best for YOUR individual children uniquely created by the Lord instead of what’s found on a booklist somewhere of what all homeschooled children MUST read by the time they’re X years old. So thankful for the freedom to do so. I applaud your husband’s involvement in the children’s education! So many dads leave that up to mama and aren’t involved. Good for him!

  17. Quinn! I love the way you have outlined things here! I am currently expecting our first and realized the other day that in two or three years I was going to be responsible for the education of little ones. I will be a third generation homeschooler and have planned to homeschool for years. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, because it is a bit of a daunting task to plan for. Thank you for this article! It has really helped me put things in focus and start to formulate a plan of action!

    1. Third generation!! That’s amazing! 🙂 Congratulations on your baby! I hope you’re feeling well enough! What an exciting time in your life to be planning for! May God bless your vision Kate!

  18. Random question. I’ve been trying to get my hands on TATRAS for my two youngest children ages 4/5 who want to learn how to read. I’ve spoken with Mr. Rogers daughter, but haven’t heard back. I ordered it from a company only to find out they didn’t have it in stock and were unable to get it from Mr. Rogers who is now battling cancer and unable to keep up with putting orders together. Their website is down now too! I’m kicking it for not buying it when I could have but I wasn’t homeschooling at that time. Is there any chance that you or someone you know would be willing to sell their TATRAS copy?? Please let me know!! Thank you so much
    Rachael Wilson
    [email protected]