Making sure my perspective is in order.

Laura and I both seemed to be a bit tired today. It was a long weekend, and I am still recovering from being sick. Work went well. It just felt a little like we were checking things off a list instead of learning. I'm sure there will be plenty of days like that in the future.

I ordered a Science curriculum for Laura. For right now we are learning nutrition and we are going to delve into the human body and the systems.

I got kind of a wake up call this weekend from my Pastor, even though he didn't target his sermon towards homeschooling or me. His sermon was about priorities and being ready for Jesus. I guess I realized that I had been putting a Christian worldview for Laura as second to what she would be getting in school. That's silly because one of the main reasons I decided to homeschool her was so she would get a CHRISTIAN education, not just an education. I want it to be challenging and competitive with what she would get from public school, but I do want it different. I don't want her to be sheltered from other points of view, just to know and understand her own faith and perspective in learning. I want her to have a deep faith in God from an early age, with science and history to back up what she learns and believe. I want her to learn about different views and theories, like other religions and evolution. In learning these things I want to be able to keep focus on our beliefs and challenge her to think and pray things through for herself. I want her to grow up knowing what she believes and why. I don't want her to get older and totally ditch her beliefs because she feels the world knows better or because she was too sheltered from the world to defend her beliefs intelligently.

Her education will consist of lots of living books, not just textbooks. Her education will consist of Christian perspective on things with facts, not just what the world says is true. Most of all, her education will be centered on Christ, building a strong relationship with him, building a strong character, and being well-rounded. I don't believe a well-rounded education has to conflict with being a christian and living out Christ's will in our lives. If anything, I think a well-rounded education will actually bring us closer to Jesus and make us better witnesses to the world.

I ordered parts of a basic third grade christian-based workbook science program. I hope to supplement with living books from the library. I think it will do for now until I find just the right program to do for 4th grade. It will give me something to go off of, since I am still learning about all the different curriculum. It will also let me check out this program, though I wouldn't want workbooks for all subjects all the time.