One of the advantages of having a large family and a wide range of ages is that you have the opportunity to explore lots of methods and options in how to teach the subjects. Just for math I have used Saxon Math, Making Math Meaningful, Professor B’s, Mott, and those are the ones that come to mind quickly. I know there have been at least a dozen over the years. and that is just Math!!
Same with Language Arts or History or Science… In the past two years though I sort of settled. I have used CLP for their Math and Language Arts workbooks mostly because I wanted to make sure that my children got all the basics well covered.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t “edit” the plan if something seems overwhelming or really picky. I didn’t learn to diagram sentences when I was a child and I manage to keep my subjects and predicates straight. So we skip teaching that part.
And another thing is that years ago I read Ruth Beechick’s books on how to teach the 3 R’s. So her voice is always there to encourage me. Her words remind me that education is for the whole child not just the math facts and writing tools.
You see, I think we tend to get lost in the details and maybe lose sight of what we are after when teaching our children. For example, as a Christian, I want my children to know the Savior but they are going to get exposed to someone else’s idea of what that means in some predigested book on doctrine or even in a reading or science book. So, my goal is that they will learn to read and discern so that they will know who He is and make their own decisions on why they love and follow Him.
So much of what is in any ready made text and workbook is tainted with opinions and doctrines of the author or publisher. It doesn’t matter if it is a Christian publisher or a secular one, they all contain someone’s worldview that may or may not agree with ours. So, we always discuss the many ideas that come up.
But in our earlier home school years, I never used to even think of bringing in anything secular into our home. But over time I realized that by completely filtering our books and curricula, I was depriving our family of the opportunity to exercise our faith. “Clean” books would be like feeding my kids baby food all their lives. Sooner or later they need to get some more meaty stuff with a bit of bone and gristle that they need to discard.
Now, for the first years we do feed baby food, as it were. But over time we introduce secular items and we talk about what is going on. We leave some of the “bones and gristle” in the books so they can exercise discernment and wisdom.
So as you can see, home schooling isn’t just for the children – it’s almost more for me. Lots of growing and expanding and reassessing ideals and values. Some might say we have compromised our values. I say we came to realize what truly is valuable – a heart truly turned toward God. And that doesn’t come by forcing a growing soul into a box but guiding that soul to respect boundaries; to meet the Lovely face to face in everyday situations; facing the ugly side of life with discernment and wisdom.
I’d say that the day I stopped trying to teach my kids in stuffed up boring curricula and decided to walk with them daily was a most freeing day. We talk, argue, research, and discover together. That is true learning.