We are Christians. We are homeschoolers. We are NOT Christian homeschoolers. Rather, we are secular homeschoolers who are Christian. What I mean by this statement is that we do not homeschool for religious reasons, we do not use a Christian-themed curriculum or teach from a Christian worldview. We do not (or rather will not, since we are still only at the kindergarten/1st grade level) teach Creationist science. Our reasons for teaching at home are academic – we believe that we are better equipped to give our children a thorough education at home rather than let them get an average (at best) education in the public school setting. We can work at our own pace, we can give individual attention and be aware when something is not working for our children. We can spend time learning about subjects that are important to us, rather that teaching to an annual test.
Even though we are not “Christian homeschoolers,” our Christian faith is still important to us. More importantly, it is important that we teach our children about our faith. We have not had a church home since we left Florida. We really clicked there, and we have struggled to get plugged into another church since then. Kyri’s Sunday school experience has usually been limited to supervised playtime due to her age, and so she has not had a strong foundation layed – we talk to her about God and the basic tenets of our faith, but she hasn’t learned a lot of the stories and details she might get in a Sunday school class.
I have started introducing some Christian activities during our weekly lesson plans to teach Kyri basic Chrisian concepts – memory verses, stories about Jesus’ parables and miracles, etc. We have devotional books that we read at bedtime to work on character issues. My feelings about religious education are in line with my feelings about academic education – its my responsibility as the parent to take charge of this.
I wanted to share some of the resources we have found.
Five-Minute Devotions for Children: Celebrating God’s World as a Family
Listen to the Animals: Devotionals for Families with Young Children
Jesus of Nazareth: A Life of Christ Through Pictures
Michelle Home Scholar 