I am beyond excited about our upcoming homeschool year. Back in the spring I heard Mark Hamby from Lamplighter Publishers speak at my local homeschool convention. He was wonderful. Since I was speaking at the same convention, I must admit though, I had my mind preoccupied during his first presentation. However toward the end, he captivated me with a statement he made, and that stuck with me all summer. He said if he could go back and do it all over again with his children, at around age 12, he would put away all of the textbooks and just study the Bible. Wow. What a thought.
As I continued to have this idea in my head all summer, I kept thinking this was something I wanted to do, with some tweaking. I wasn't planning on only doing this with my oldest (11 years), although that would be a great idea too. I wanted our whole family to study the Bible together. I was thinking how could God not work if we were in the Bile everyday for hours at time, as a family? Imagine the transformation that would take place!
But how would this all look actually day to day? Especially with various age groups. I wanted to figure out a way to do this to some degree, and to do it with all of the kids. Not an easy task. I put aside the idea for a bit, but it just kept coming back. So I took that as the Lord's leading and pursued it.
At one point I even contacted Mark Hamby about his input on how this would look. He was very helpful with some ideas. He inspired me.
There are many different books out there and curriculum that are Bible based. Yet I wanted to go a bit deeper. I wanted to really study the Bible with the kids. Not just Bible stories. Not just Bible-based. But really dig in verse by verse. I prayed, I researched. I prayed more.
Well, I have somewhat of an outline prepared now for the first two months. I have figured out a way to cover all subjects but to be in the Bible mostly.
Most importantly, I am letting God lead us in this. If one day He wants us to just stay in a certain verse, we will. I will be open to letting His Word transform us.
I can't imagine how we can lose? If we were to do nothing but read the Bible everyday for a few months, then we still win. God's Word is more powerful and active than any textbook.
So here is what I have planned so far. I will be blogging along this journey so be sure to subscribe so that you can follow along this fall. We will begin right after Labor Day.
We will be studying Genesis. I have the following resources to use with our Bible:
- Genesis: Finding Our Roots, by Ruth Beechick
- The New Answers Book 1 by Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis
- Several commentaries
- A Child's Geography, Explore the Holy Land
- A is For Adam, Answers in Genesis
- Adam and His Kin, by Ruth Beechick
- The True Story of Noah's Ark {beautiful book!}
I have gone through each passage and selected spelling words for each child directly from the verses. I have then taken the words and made lists on SpellCity.com. Oh My.Word. Why didn't I use this free resource sooner? You can customize spelling/vocabulary lists, the children can play games based on their lists, and you can make printouts. Wow. Awesome resource. I have several weeks worth of lists already entered in and am continuing to do more.
Copywork. I have chosen passages directly from the text we will be studying each week for each child to use.
Each child will have a binder to keep the spelling words (I have already printed all the lists), copywork, and additional notes that they learn as we go through each passage.
Writing assignments. I have several assignments already planned for each age group. For example my middle schooler will be these assignments: 1)Write what you would tell an atheist about creation. b) Write what you would tell a humanist about creation 3) Write what you would tell an evolutionist about creation. These are just some of the many ideas from Beechick's Genesis: Finding Our Roots.
Word study: learning the original Hebrew or Greek words to really understand the text
Additional Reading: I am assigning books for each age group. My middle schooler will be reading Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick. I also hope to get lots of Lamplighter books in there for lovely reading with character lessons weaved throughout.
Science: I will be getting this book to do these experiments based on the days of Creation.
Geography. We will be doing some map assignments comparing the ancient map to our current map. Also discussing where the Garden of Eden actually took place, Noah's Ark, etc. We may use A Child's Geography, Explore the Holy Land once a week. I am not sure how we will fit it in yet.
Art: There are several paintings and ancient artifacts that I have photos of to study based on Genesis.
Math: We will be using separate math (Math U See and Life of Fred) yet I have found many math activities to go along with out studies!
Preschool: My little guy will be making a days of creation mini book, learning the days of the week and the calendar, and learning about different animals and plants as they were created. Lots of fun crafts and coloring pages to go along with Creation and Noah's ark. We will also learn about dinasours and the biblical history of them. Of course lots of playing in the dirt, mess making, play dough, worm catching, and exploring nature as every 3 or 4 year old should be doing too!
I also have several videos bookmarked from Answers in Genesis that we can watch on demand about various topics as they come up.
Genesis 3 and 4: Here is where we will spend a good amount of time. Here is where we see the fall of man. Sin enters the world. Yet, here is also where we have our first glimpse of Jesus in the Bible. This is the Truth that we are base our lives on and this is what I want my children to truly grasp. That God planned Jesus to enter into this world in order to save us. This is our salvation and God's plan of redemption for all mankind.
This is an overall glimpse of what I have so far. There will be lots of details to cover and I will share with you along the way.
Most importantly, besides all of these assignment will be our discussion time. We will truly be studying the Bible, and breaking down the verses to really dig in. If this takes all morning, that is fine with me. We will be right where God wants us to be.
All of this is new to me too, so I know I will make mistakes along the way. I will share with you what is working and what isn't as we take this journey.
I am linking this post with iHomeschool Newtwork's Not Back to School Blog Hop. Be sure to visit over there and link up your posts as well!
Coming soon...It's almost here!
Letting God Lead Your Homeschool:
Finding Freedom in the Calling
and Homeschooling His Way!
I have spoken about this to homeschool groups, and now it is time to write about it!
I can't wait to share with you what He has taught me through His Word and through our experiences, about who is really in charge of our homeschools!
I am hoping to have it completed by the end of summer...Just in time to encourage you as you head back to school!
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9 comments:
I have to tell you, I saw Mark Hamby at a homeschool convention a couple years ago, and he inspired me, as well! I went the route of new curriculum, mostly from AIG, and I have to tell you, when you are doing something to be closer to the Lord and especially study it with your children, the enemy takes note! We have had some battles, but are pressing on. You have revived the passion in me to continue in this journey of training my children in the ways of the Lord. Thank you so much, and blessings on your new adventure! May He come alive in a new way to all of you!
Looks like a great plan! (and lots of work for you)
I have two boys ages 14 and 9. I am thinking of doing all 39 books of the old testament. I was thinking of doing 1 a week. And then doing New Testament next year. And going back and doing both again each following year. That way we will all have read through the Bible twice in the next 4 years (in 4 years my one son will graduate high school and my second son will graduate 8th grade.)
I like your idea of adding books and also using actual Bible words for vocab and verses for copy work.
My boys both know how to read and comprehend well, plus are at grade level or above in most other areas; but we have heart issues. Using the Bible as our core curriculum daily will certaintly help replace the sin issues with His word.
I was thinking each day in quiet time boys have to read todays verses, then we can reread together and discuss, then we can listen to them on audio Bible in car and such to really reinforce.
I will also continue with my boys Math U See, but adding any math that I can glean from using the Bible (I am thinking building a to scale ark would be a great one that my boys would enjoy, where can I get some gropher wood? LOL
I am really excited about this venture.
A bonus is as a single mom with little resources this will keep costs down.
Wow Karen, everything you are doing sounds incredible. Love how you are digging deep and studying Genesis through the whole year. You will have to keep us posted on how it goes. Definitely something to possibly consider as my children get older.
I think its exciting! It seems a daunting task to me but like you said, how can you lose?
Amazing! This sounds so phenomenal. I will definetly be following along with interest as I plan to start our new school year in January. You really can't go wrong.
Karen, I love Mark Hamby, heard him speak a few years ago and I love Lamplighter Publishing.... You're speaking my heart language here...and yes, I spend more time reading from the Bible to our children than anything else...we're slowly moving the way you are writing about...I can't wait to read through this again and again and really absorb it!
Keep it up! It's worth every bit of hard work. It's really simpler, once the planning is done. The conversations with your kids are sweet, yet they're thinking on very deep (and adult) levels. As 2 Tim. 3:16-17 says, this is exactly how our kids will be prepared for *every* good work!
~Anne
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing what you are doing.
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