One of my fondest memories of home schooling is seeing three of my children at these small desks we bought for them, my wife at the blackboard giving spelling words and my youngest child riding on her hip.  The youngest actually remembers riding on her mother’s hip during school.  Cute.

This is the time of year that many state organizations are having their conventions and curriculum fairs.  By typing in the state you live in and looking for home school organizations in a search engine, you can usually come up with their web page.

Here are a couple of examples:

• http://washhomeschool.org/    WHO   State of Washington
• https://www.ochec.com/  OCHEC        State of Oklahoma

There are a great many resources available on line listed below:

• http://cathyduffyreviews.com/

Cathy Duffy is a homeschooling mom who has been doing curriculum reviews and speaking at home school conventions for over 20 years.

• http://www.home-school.com/  Official website of the Practical Home School magazine by Mary Pride, another pioneer homeschooling mom.
• http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/free-online-educational-resources/

For those of you who follow The Pioneer Woman, she also teaches her children at home and her website is a good resource.

• https://www.homeschool-life.com/610/custom/12412

This website gives a list of different educational philosophies used in homeschooling:

• Traditional approach
• The Classical Approach
• The Unit Study Approach
• The Charlotte Mason Approach
• The Unschooling Approach
• The Eclectic Approach

Mary Pride on her website also has these additional types.

•  Textbook/workbook
•  Independent Online
•  Online Academy
•  Traditional distance learning
•  Software – Based
•  DVD – Based
•  Mentor – Based

Although many people use varying approaches to schooling and curriculum, here are some of the curriculum that my wife likes.

•  KONOS Unit studies
•  Making Math Meaningful
•  Math-U-See
•  Teaching Text Books for Math   (They start at 3^rd grade and go pre-calculus)
•  The Writing Road to Reading (Good for the prevention of developing dyslexia)
•  The Little House on the Prairie
•  Exploring Creation   http://www.apologia.com/187-k-6th-grade
•  Understanding the Times http://understandingthetimes.com/

(For High School – Gives a Biblical synopsis of the major world views) Excellent for learning how to see beyond the surface for the underlying goals of the views)

She used a lot of “living” books (good literature) (library — for books about people, science topics like clouds to insects to animals, etc.

She liked the Bible for character development and also Proverbs for Parenting.

She also likes Rush Limbaugh’s books on history.

My wife tried to get their studies done early enough in the day so they could read together in the afternoons.  I remember coming home in the winter time and all the kids are trying to sit on her lap at once as she reads from historical fiction (a great way to learn history and keep their interest).  The dog on the floor and a fire in the fireplace. Quite a nice sight

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_homeschooled_people

Just as an aside there are some very famous people in history that were schooled at home as the Wikipedia site above sets out such as many of our Founding Fathers and US Presidents.  Just so you know, you are in good company.

During our entire home school adventure, we belonged to HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) https://www.hslda.org/.  They are an excellent organization and they fight for the rights of parents in the United States to be able to teach their children at home. They will also defend you against legal charges brought against you as a result of homeschooling. They will keep you up to date as to what is going on in your state legislature in regards to home school laws.  They are a great ally for home schoolers and a formidable foe to the left leaning socialists.

When our youngest child graduated from our home school called Morning Star Christian Academy. We named it so when people asked our kids, “Where do you go to school?” They could say, “Morning Star Christian Academy.” Then the questioner would say, “Wow, I have never heard of that one.” Sharon could respond, “It is a small private school!”  Saved a lot of explaining!

So at the graduation of our youngest, we are on stage with our daughter giving her the diploma and my son-in-law comes down out of the audience with a dozen roses.  Everyone thought they were for my daughter. He handed them to me, and I gave them to my wife and very loudly said to her, “Thanks!” Then to the audience I said “After 22 years, we are done! We are outta’ here.” I was so proud of and thankful for my wife for her perseverance.

Homeschooling has been normal for teaching children for about 5,000 years until the last 150 years. Now we are told it takes a degree in teaching to teach and do it right.  What it really takes is parents that love their child, and then that parent can step back into the traditions of thousands of years.  Moses was most likely taught by his mother as was Samuel and the baby Jesus to name a few.

I will leave you with this from God’s Word:

Deuteronomy11:18-21a Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand,that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.  And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:  That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children.