Our Homeschool

Understanding that we have been given the responsibility for our children's spiritual training and their education as well, we have felt led of the Lord to homeschool our children. In Deuteronomy 6:6-7 the Lord commanded the children of Israel saying: "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." (NASB) We desire for our children's education to be Christ-centered and for them to realize that faith permeates all areas of life and cannot be compartmentalized. So although we have "formal" school, we are about the business of teaching our children throughout the day, the week, and the year.

While still in our planning stages, Jerry's parents gave us a book called Beyond Survival written by Diana Waring. Through that book we were introduced to Five In A Row, a wonderful unit-study approach to early education based on outstanding children's literature. Five In A Row (FIAR) integrates lessons in Christian Character from the Bible with lessons in Social Studies, Language Arts, Applied Mathematics, Fine Arts, and Science.

We complement our FIAR studies with Making Math Meaningful (which emphasizes the development of reasoning skills in mathematics) and language arts. For Claire's kindergarten year we used Sing, Spell, Read, & Write (which systematically presents basic language arts and handwriting in an enjoyable way, utilizing music and games to teach and reinforce concepts). If you'd like to read more about our experiences with SSRW check this link. Justin will continue with SSRW in modified form and Claire will be using English for the Thoughtful child, complemented with Spelling Power and Daily Guided Teaching and Review (the first book in the Daily Grams series). This fall we will also be beginning the Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History to help establish the foundation that God's Hand is seen throughout history -- from the Beginning. We see all of these curricula as tools for teaching and adapt them freely to suit the needs of our children. Check out this page for suggestions on choosing curricula.

If you'd like to know more about my planning and record-keeping system (both for FIAR and for school in general), check out my Planning & Record Keeping Page. It has links for my FIAR planning sheet (organized by subject rather than by day of the week) and my weekly planning/record keeping pages.

You can check out my geography envelope system here.

Here are some highlights from our studies: Click on any link to see more about what we learned with that book or activity.

• In the Spring of 1999 we did a unit on Creation from Genesis 1 & 2.
• We set the tone for our school year with Amber on the Mountain.
• We learned about using the unique talents that God has given us with Lentil and Grandpa Brauer played his harmonica for us.
• We took a field trip with our church's homeschool group to the Blue Bell Creamery and a miniature horse farm. Here are some pictures.
• Grandma Brauer helped Claire make a quilted wall hanging as we studied The Rag Coat.
• We made our own matrioshka dolls while studying Another Celebrated Dancing Bear.
• We sponge-painted our own version of the Yangtze River and counted ducks for The Story about Ping.
• Grandpa Lathem helped us make our family tree to go along with They Were Strong and Good.
• We participated in the Colonial Day event with our church's homeschool group, dressed as a pilgrim girl and an Indian boy. Here are some pictures.
• We baked cranberry bread and dyed some lace to accompany our study of Cranberry Thanksgiving.
• We chose to use an adaptation of The Jesse Tree as the basis for a unit study during the Advent season
• Warm as Wool was a perfect follow-up to the kids' performance as lambs in the children's Christmas program at church and our holiday visit from Uncle Don and Aunt Amy.
• A New Coat For Anna provided a great backdrop for the purchase of a new coat for Justin.
• Visiting Madeline in Paris opened up new vistas of exploration in many areas.
• Goodnight Moon was a great introduction to our field trip to Houston to visit the Space Center and some other sites.
• Truman's Aunt Farm reminded us of Aunt Donna and was also a very special tie-in for Claire's birthday.
• Mrs. Katz and Tush was an excellent lead-in for our pre-Easter study of The Exodus, Passover, and Holy Week.
• Miss Rumphius was a special spring opportunity to study seeds and planting with a special Texas connection that our state flower, bluebonnets, are a variety of lupine.
• With The Giraffe That Walked To Paris we revisited Egypt and France and learned about being ambassadors for Christ.
• We made cheese and learned some basics about nutrition with Little Nino's Pizzeria.

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