This week I am sharing all about how we homeschool. If you haven't already, check out my previous posts about Sonlight and Math.At the end of the week, I'll share what a real day in our house looks like! There are lots of great Bible studies and curriculums out there, and we've tried a few, but to us they always felt dry and textbookish (is that a word?).
So this year, my girls (who are my only readers at the moment) and I are reading the Bible through in a year.
To me, it's a really neat experience to have my children studying the Bible page by page, and also being able to know on a daily basis exactly what they're reading (since I'm reading it, too).
Bible reading is the first thing on our schedule each morning, before chores and breakfast.
Depending on where we're reading, we will discuss the timeline in history, the geography, the relevance to other parts of the Bible, and the relevance to their current lives. We are using our Sonlight timeline book to mark Biblical events as we read about them. It really helps to open their eyes to where Moses was in history compared to Abraham Lincoln. We also check out the maps in our Bibles, and compare them to current maps. Since the Middle East is always in the news, it really helps to connect ancient times to today. It shows how God is real and has been intimately involved with Man on the same earth, with the same human race, for thousands of years.
I encourage the girls to mark in their Bibles, underlining verses that they like or that speak to them. I also suggest to them that they write down their favorite scriptures for future reference.
For my little ones, I like the book Leading Little Ones to God, along with reading or telling whatever Bible stories they like.
I have a great book, Family Worship, from Vision Forum (again with the Vision Forum!) that I have used in the past, and I would like to implement again. It's got great ideas for devotional times that include reading, singing, and memorization. But, one thing at a time!
It's very important to me that my children know God's word, not just what they've heard me say, or heard in church, but that they know it because they are very familiar with it from reading it day in and day out. I know how that affects each day for me, and I want that for them.
I also like to add a character study to our week. Since my big kids are girls, we read a lot of books together about Godly girlhood. We are currently reading through Beautiful Girlhood (LOVE that book) about 1-2 chapters per week. I read aloud to my girls so we can enjoy it together. The next two books on our list are Raising Maidens of Virtue and Joyfully at Home (both by, you guessed it: Vision Forum).
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