Homeschooling for His Glory

Homeschooling is a venture. As such we often need a lot of help on the way, and fortunately there is a lot of it available on the web to make this homeschool journey feasible. One of those is the Christian HomeSchool Hub, also referred to as CHSH-Teach.com. The crew was blessed with a one year subscription to the  CHSH Download club , which gives you unlimited access to everything on the site (over 50000 downloads) - a $25 value. There is also an option for a lifetime subscription. Now if you are a resource and curriculum junkie like me, you will want to check CHSH out! What is CHSH? CHSH is, as the name suggest, a hub where homeschoolers can find a wide array of helpful resources and material to use in their homeschool, as well as load of encouragement. At the CHSH site you can find resources for all grades from kindergarten to high school. Here are a few highlight of what CHSH offers: Math, Science, Language Arts (with Literature Studies, comprehension units, rea...

We have been homeschooling for about 6 years. From the start, our goal has been to give our kids a solid education. We wanted to raise kids that knew how to think, and had a solid base of knowledge of the world around them that would allow them to be equipped to judge philosophies out there. Our search led us to Classical Education and since then have been following that path. That said, Classical Education can look different from one homeschool home to another. Today I will walk you through our classical homeschooling typical day. I like to classify our way of schooling as 'relaxed homeschooling' and you will see why. Morning: We all wake up anytime between 7-8:30 sometimes 9 or 9:30 for the boys (especially since puberty hit), each day varies. We almost always eat breakfast as a family, which ends anytime between 9:30-10:30 depending on the day. That time is concluded with our aloud Bible reading time. After breakfast the boys tend to go and do their own leisu...

Our third installment of the Journeys into Classical Homeschooling series features Lisa from Golden Grasses. I have been aware of classical education for decades and always equated it with great books. Our homeschool has always been literature and history rich but my understanding of classical as a pedagogy was really expanded and broadened by reading The Well Trained Mind 15 years ago and by meeting and hearing Leigh Bortiens speak, about 9 years ago. I went home from that meeting, read The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers, along with everything else I could get my hands on about classical education, and we haven’t looked back since. We are currently in a Classical Conversations Community and will have our youngest two kids in Challenge this year; A and 1. In the past we have relied heavily on Memoria Press, Peace Hill Press, IEW, The Lost Tools of Writing , and lately Roman Roads Media , which has recently produced Old Western Culture , re-released The Grammar of ...

Next up in my  series on Journeys into Homeschooling , we have Beth from  As He Leads Is Joy   talking to us about Classical Homeschooling at her house. This fall I will begin my 7th year homeschooling. I have two children. My son who was adopted from Eastern Europe when he was 7. He is now 14 and beginning high school work. My daughter just turned 11 and has Down Syndrome. My daughter was born in Asia. My husband and I are both from America but met in Asia. We lived in Asia for a number of years and now we are living in England. We are missionaries working with Chinese students in England.  I was impressed and intrigued when I listened to the things that my friend's son who was just a few years older than my son had learned in Classical Conversations (CC). I thought that would be a great foundation for my own son. My husband has said that he wished he had a classical education. I attended a CC meeting and the big question in my mind was what to do with my...

Today I am starting a new series on Classical Homeschooling, on how different homeschoolers came to homeschool classically and how they each implement it. Though I follow a classical homeschooling approach, I do it my own way. I typically call myself a relaxed classical homeschooler. You can see what I mean by reading my series on Relaxed Classical Homeschooling. Now I thought it would be nice to hear from other people about how they implement the classical homeschooling philosophy in their own school. This series will run every Tuesday in August, so we will visit with four homeschoolers in total. First up this week is Christy from Unexpected Homeschool Classical Education with Chronic Illness Our path to choosing a classical homeschool education for our currently 13 year old daughter, Amber, started after abruptly removing our only child from parochial school in January of her fourth grade year. We knew we wanted to homeschool for fifth grade, but shocked even ourselve...

On our last post in this series, it is now time to put things together. How can I talk about a relaxed classical homeschooling style? The way I see it, classical and relaxed can work quite well together. Classical homeschooling focusses on what needs to be achieved and sought for. It is about goals, that of teaching my kids truths, values, beauty, goodness. Relaxed homeschooling addresses the way or atmosphere in which education is pursued and done. As much as I hold to a classical philosophy of education, I do not think that it has to necessarily be done in a very rigid way. The way I make sure that my kids are classically homeschooled is in the kind of material or curriculum we use. I am very eclectic in our curriculum choices, but I usually tend to choose material that emphasizes the areas I mentioned on day 3 of this series. Materials that focus on: Language Arts skills Critical thinking and logic Good books of literature History and humanities Even as I make sur...

Now that we have explored Classical Education, it is time to turn to the notion of relaxed  homeschooling. What is relaxed homeschooling and what do I understand by it? Relaxed homescholing can be understood as a way of life and a mindset toward education which really is what homeschooling is all about. In practice a relaxed homeschooling focuses on an atmosphere of learning. Education and learning does not have to be fun but it does have to take place in the context of everyday living. That is one of the reason why we homeschool. The intention is not so much to do "school at home", as much as to "home educate". There is a difference. The difference lies in the structure and form of doing school. Relaxed homeschooling is not equivalent to unschooling. In relaxed homeschooling there is structure, goals and plans. The way this is followed through is where things get different and creative. In a relaxed setting, more than the goals, philosophy, methodolog...

" Christian education has become something of a lost science. Not only have Christians done very little to prepare their children to become godly intellects, but intellectual incompetence has been seen as the true helpmate of vital spirituality. A soft mind has been seen as a vital tool in the pursuit of a soft heart. In our day, mental rigor and a vigorous intellectual pursuit have became equated with doctrinal rigidity and cold spirituality . " (Fritz Hinrichs) This quote is reflective of the reason why we have opted for a classical education in our homeschool. We do not desire, nor aspire to raise kids who do not have a mental rigor and are intellectually incompetent. We have lost our way through the ages as to what we as christian should be doing. We have turned our christianity into a set of rules, into moralism, instead of the proclamation of the kingdom of God, and of a reigning king that rules and owns all things. " Until a hundred years ago, Christians...

So what is Classical Education? This question can be a challenge to answer. Classical education can be understood as a method, a school of thought or as a philosophy. Really it is all of the above.Classical education has a history, into which I will not enter in here, but at its essence classical education is a philosophy or a model of education as I mentioned in my post yesterday. Classical education gets its roots from a medieval model of education. It centers around a goal, and a pedagogy to accomplish and attain that goal. This goal can be defined in two ways: to teach children how to think and learn for themselves by giving them the tools of learning and foundations for interpretations. In this light Christian classical education wants to " produce students who have a solid intellectual understanding of the Truth, have passionate hearts to the Truth and have the ability to express this understanding and love to a needy world ." (Biola University Article)....

When it comes to homeschooling, the methods and philosophies abound. That is why each family has to know for itself what they are trying to accomplish and how they intend to accomplish it. From the start Classical education attracted me and caught my attention. In order to understand where I stand I will start with our family's definition and understanding of education and what we as parents are called to do, and that from a biblical point of view, since we are a Christian family. Education : A dictionary definition would be "the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction." We all recognize that life is a learning process from the time we are born to the time we die. One is never finished learning about himself and about the world around him. Our task as parents therefore revolves around equipping, guiding, and coaching our kids in that ever ending task of learning and growth as individuals. As believers our task is even deeper than that, given that w...