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I shared over a week ago about how we do homeschool in less than three hours a day by focusing on the "7 Rs" and by using block scheduling where we focus on a different content area each day.
I want to share over the next few days what that looks like in each area and what resources we have found to support our homeschooling adventure.
I want to share over the next few days what that looks like in each area and what resources we have found to support our homeschooling adventure.
The first R of our homeschool day is "Redemption", or God's redemptive story as revealed in the Scriptures. We have three focus points for this.
Bible Reading
This is not a devotional time, which is separate from our homeschool day. This is a time to read through the Scriptures from beginning to end. Not all at once, of course, but over time and with books that help us do it in a way our kids will understand.
One book we use and love is the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones. Starting in Genesis, she tells the story of Jesus in the Old Testament AND the New Testament. It is easy to read and has delightful pictures. There are lots of resources that go with it for Sunday School classes and other group settings, but we just use the book itself (we have one hardbound and one on Kindle).
| Another book we use is Every Day With God, which has Bible selections from the International Children's Bible translation. It has readings for Monday through Friday and a memory verse for every week. We do not use their verse because we are working on other verses right now, but we may in the future. We go back and forth between this Bible and the Jesus Storybook Bible. |  |
 | We gave our daughter the NIrV Adventure Bible when her reading got to the point where she could manage this on her own. We want her not only to get the story of the Bible, which is often easier to understand in the other books, but also to be comfortable with the whole Word of God. This Bible also has lots of notes, maps, and other study helps. (We added a fun Bible cover to protect it from wear.) |
Bible learning
Our Bible learning time is something we do twice a week to learn about the Bible itself - its story, its structure, and its setting. There are two resources we have enjoyed for this section. We have gone back and forth between these because I like them BOTH so much! (If I can figure out how to use them together, I will write about that!)
 | Grapevine Studies is an innovative approach to Bible study for kids of all ages (and even adults!). It introduces the grammar of the Bible - people, places, events - by having students draw stick figures as they learn it. They have "traceable" books for very young learners and then different levels of complexity as students get older. This page is a good explanation of the levels and where to start. |
| Bible Road Trip is a gem! It is a complete Bible survey curriculum for preschool through high school that allows you to completely survey the Bible from Genesis to Revelation every three years - and can then be repeated with a greater depth now that your child is three years older. The author, Danika Cooley, uses a variety of notebooking pages and other suggested resources to guide families on this "Bible Road Trip". It is free for week-by-week downloads (which can be tedious), or each year can be purchased for downloading as a single pdf file. |  |
 | This is another resource we have used. Leading Little Ones to God is an older book that was passed down to me from a friend, and we have often read it at bedtime. It walks through different aspects of theology for kids: who God is, His attributes, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, salvation, prayer, the church, spiritual growth - it is a pint-sized systematic theology book and it is wonderful. |
Bible living
It's not enough to read or learn about the Bible. We want our kids to live out the truths and values it contains. Learning how to do this is not limited to our school day, of course! We talk about it "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:7). We also use Character Badges to reward and reinforce the qualities we want to see in them. But twice a week, we spend time reading books that let us have specific conversations about this.
 | For Such a Time as ThisMy daughter LOVES this book by Angie Smith. The stories are told in a way that girls can connect to the real-life Bible characters and each story is followed with a message to the girl and to the parent about how to apply it to everyday life. At age eight, she could read it to herself, but we read it together for the discussion. |
Susan Hunt Books
| I am putting all of Susan Hunt's books in the same category because they are that wonderful. She has written many books specifically to help children internalize Biblical truths. Some are about a brother and sister, Cassie and Caleb. Another, Sammy and His Shepherd, is a delightful retelling of Psalm 23. I cannot say enough good things about her books and the impact they have had on my children. |  |
Putting it all together
Overwhelmed much? I have been. There is just SO much I want our children to learn about the Scriptures! And not nearly enough time in the day! Of course, that is the delight of the Scriptures, that learning them is a lifelong task.
Remember the thirty minutes a day that we spend on each subject? We do that with Redemption, too. We spend about 10 to 15 minutes on Bible Reading, and then 15 to 20 minutes on either Bible Learning or Bible Living. As much as I want to do both everyday, my kids (ages eight and three) don't have the attention span for it right now.
One final note about these resources - just because we include this in our homeschool day doesn't mean that they can't be used by families with kids in public or private school. We as parents are responsible for the spiritual learning of our kids - not a school or a church or a kids' ministry. These are good resources for ALL Christian parents!
Up next: Recitation - what we memorize and why and how we make it fun!
Remember the thirty minutes a day that we spend on each subject? We do that with Redemption, too. We spend about 10 to 15 minutes on Bible Reading, and then 15 to 20 minutes on either Bible Learning or Bible Living. As much as I want to do both everyday, my kids (ages eight and three) don't have the attention span for it right now.
One final note about these resources - just because we include this in our homeschool day doesn't mean that they can't be used by families with kids in public or private school. We as parents are responsible for the spiritual learning of our kids - not a school or a church or a kids' ministry. These are good resources for ALL Christian parents!
Up next: Recitation - what we memorize and why and how we make it fun!
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