Seven Years, Seven Lessons - Lesson 3

God Is The Foundation

While there are many types of homeschoolers today, and many that homeschool for a variety of reasons, I homeschool for God.

When I first felt like I wanted to homeschool my children, I didn't come up with the idea because of problems at the local school or because I thought my child would learn better at home.  We faced school issues with a child a few years later. Yes, my children learn better at home than in a classroom.  However, the first tug in my heart to homeschool was from God.

I was teaching Sunday School.  In my class were three young children that seemed to stand out from the rest.  They were polite, smart, and soft-spoken.  They had manners.  I realize that this had just as much to do with their parents as it has to do with homeschooling, but these children impressed me.  They were knowledgeable about the Bible and showed a heart for the Lord.  These homeschooled children stood out, and I liked what I saw.  They didn't meet the typical image of "homeschooled" children that I had preconceived in my mind.

For weeks I thought about and prayed about homeschooling.  I researched everything I could find.  Approaching my husband with the idea, I was nervous.  When he told me he wanted to think about it, I was petrified that he would say no.  I was just as nervous that he would say yes.  After a few days, he said he thought we should "try it for a year". 

All along this journey, I have had a deep desire to have God be the center in our school.  I want to teach my children from a Christian point of view.  I have chosen curricula over the years to support this.  I have learned just as much as my children... maybe more... about the Lord and His work in science, history, and even math.  I have worked to ensure we always had Bible time.  I wanted my children to be grounded in the Lord, to KNOW the Bible, not just about the Bible.

Bible Story Book

In the beginning, I would use Bible storybooks and devotionals for our Bible time lessons.  This worked fine with my then third grader.  I eventually moved to other materials that were more study material that stories.  We've used many different things.  I loved Heart of Dakota's materials where the Bible lessons went with the history.  However, right now we are using a workbook program that has slowly gone through the Old Testament.  Next year we will begin Life of Christ, and the following year the Gospels.  I truly believe that God's Word will not return void.  The more we study the Word of God, the more I feel this impacts the hearts of my children.

One thing that has made all the difference is studying the Word of God together.  Even my eight year old has listened in on lessons for years.  I will go over the lesson with my older girls, letting the youngest listen in.  We go through the questions together.  Many times the youngest will know the answer.  Later, she will read the lesson in her Bible workbook, which is written at a lower level.  She will then have her own questions or project to coincide with the lesson.  Obviously, the older girls' material is much more in-depth.  There are days that the younger child won't have a Bible lesson because it isn't material that most would schedule for a second grader.  That is fine.  She has still listened to her sisters' lesson.  Plus, we still do devotionals and have a lot of Bible material in our everyday schoolwork. 

I absolutely LOVE our Bible time.  I have gotten so much from my years of teaching and reading.  In the early years, I hadn't been a Christian for long, and much of this material was new to me.  Over the years, I have discovered that these "children's lessons" have given me a knowledge that, sadly, many adult Christians don't have.  I read recently that 95% of all Christians have never read their Bible all the way through.  This makes for a lot of Biblically illiterate Christians.  

How can you follow something you don't know?  How can you serve a God that you only know through Sunday sermons?  Much of our schoolwork takes us to our Bible.  Bible time for us has evolved from stories to actual reading the Bible, answering questions from our Bible reading, and discussing.  

I use a curriculum for a couple of reasons.  First, the lessons are broken down into manageable sections.  When I study my Bible for me, I tend to get lost and take a long time.  While that is fine, it might create problems if we never get to any other subject in school.  Also, the curriculum has stuff that I wouldn't think to add... like geography of the area, cultural lessons about the time period and various people groups, and archeological evidence and artifacts from the time.  

My son-in-law, a pastor, looked at our Bible curriculum recently.  He was looking through it one day and stated that He hadn't learned some of what we were learning until Bible College.  To me, that meant the world to me, because I know I am giving my children quiet a bit of theology and Bible history, and those lessons will remain with them the rest of their lives.

It has become very popular for Christian homeschoolers to attempt to use the Bible as a basis for all lessons.  I think this is wonderful... if you can do it.  For me, I like having everything simple and easy to plan.  I like adding extras occasionally, and having variety in our learning.  However, I tried to stem our history, science, and even English lessons from the Bible, and I was overwhelmed.  I bought the entire Weaver curriculum (including the high school levels), because it does just that... but found that it didn't flow well for us.  I have kept the curriculum, however, because I love to use it for ideas for projects and even just notes about what we are learning.

Right now we are using CLE Lightunits for our Bible.  My youngest is in the second grade level.  My older two are using the Sixth Grade Level.  Christian Light Publications has this amazing Bible program that goes all the way up through the High School Levels.  I could have easily picked the upper levels of study.  However, I chose to use the lower levels for a couple of reasons.  First, since we do our Bible study together, the Teacher's Guide is very  important.  The high school levels only have an answer key.  The wealth of information in the Teacher's Guides is simply amazing. 

Secondly, I wanted to go through the Bible slowly.  A couple years ago I was praying for direction for our homeschool.  I knew that my time was limited with my step-daughter, since she would only get to homeschool for high school.  I was stressing about academics, since she had been labeled in public school as LD.  God told me to not stress about the academics, but to make sure that she was grounded in the Word of God.  Her Bible teaching had been sporadic, and I felt that the Lord wanted to make sure she had a solid foundation before she graduated and went out into the world.  The lower levels of CLE's Bible begins in Grade five with a two year study of the Old Testament.  Grade Seven covers the Gospels and Grade Eight covers from Acts to Revelation.  The lessons allow me the ability to go more in-depth if I desire.  There are suggested activities the students can do listed in the Teacher's Guides. Sometimes we will come to a point where I will want to add to the study, and that is easy to do.  For instance, we just covered Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue.  I had some extra information on what each level of the statue meant and how it related to history and even to prophecy and current events.  All of this easily bumps the level of work to the high school level.  Like I said, my son-in-law is a pastor and graduated just a couple years ago from Bible College, and he was impressed with the depth of the studies.

My step-daughter used a different program her freshman year for New Testament Survey.  She will only make it through the Gospels (or Life of Christ) before she graduates.  And, when the Lord told me to not stress over the academics, I still stressed... a little.  But homeschooling has given my step-daughter a great education.  She gets the one-on-one she needs when she needs it.  If she doesn't understand a concept, she can slow down and repeat until she does.  She is doing well in her schooling.  God was right.  I didn't need to stress.  And, she is getting a great foundation in the Word that she will have with her the rest of her life.

None of this "Bible" time that we do for school includes what we do for life.  Our lives are entrenched in the Word.  Nearly every school subject is approached from a Biblical worldview.  Our  daily lives and our home is filled with the Word. While I hope and pray that they never falter in their devotion, I also realize that, eventually, I can only pray for them and encourage them.  They will have to make their own choices.  My hope is that the disciplines and habits they have built now will only increase their hunger for the Lord.

The last seven years has brought about many changes in our Bible time.  I have learned so much from teaching my children the Word of God.  There is something about teaching the lessons, reading them and planning them and speaking them out for your children, that impacts the teacher profoundly.  I don't know if I would have grown as much as I have if I only studied for myself (which is important) or listened to sermons.  The very simple lessons, often with a physical object lesson, has stuck with me more than it has my children, I believe.  Yes, they have absorbed and learned and grown.  I see them following Christ, wanting to impact the world for Him. But I know that my journey with the Lord would not be as deep, as solid, and as devoted if I had not obeyed the Lord in homeschooling my children for Him.