Category Archives: Homeschooling

Ancient History Curriculum from a Biblical Standpoint.

This book started it.

I tried to get my boys into it when we studied Ancient History 5 or so years ago but they were too young.

This time at 11&12 I feel like so many doors have opened!

They can comprehend so much, that I struggle with not overwhelming them with material to cover.

The Genius of Ancient Man

This book is a great place to start for some christian apologetics and maybe help an older child see history through a biblical point of view.

If you believe God created man intelligent than all of history makes more sense.

Noah’s Ark, Stonehenge, The Tower of Babel, Indus Valley, all of these things point to ancient man being intelligent.

You  will also notice a giant boom of civilizations after the Tower of Babel. Which would make sense if everyone suddenly spoke different languages.

The author wrote a study guide to go with this book and the boys loved it!

Up until this year I have mostly just had the boys reading a lot for history and science, this year I have been having them actually delve deeper and research.

We have had Life in the Great Ice Age for a while and I learned so much from it.

This year I decided to get the boys the study guide to go with it though to see if they could get even more from it.

This would be a great place to start for Elementary Age.

I found this amazing curriculum from Master Books around the same time!

Biblical Archaeology

It definitely pushes them a bit since they are in 7th grade and it was designed for more 9th-12th but they are learning so much!

I love that it helps them see how the bible fits into history.

All of these resources introduce the idea that maybe the excepted timeline for the pharaohs is off.

If you can open yourself to that possibility then you start finding a lot of evidence to the Exodus.

You can read more about it on Answers in Genesis site, here.

I never really understood how important those detailed lists of “begats” were before.

God gave us a timeline.

At the same time we are listening to this amazing audio adventure series called Jonathan Park.

I have been using this series for a while to help teach scientific creationism but these two new adventures happen to be teaching about the same time period we are learning about!

The Dreamers Tomb touches on the evidence for Joseph and Call of the Exodus talks about Moses and the Exodus.

I always come away from listening with new information to look up.

I love that this series pushes me to understand the bible even more.

I had bought the movie “Patterns of Evidence” a while ago and really enjoyed it. It talks all about the evidence for the bible in the egyptian timeline.

Then when we started this study I bought “Patterns of Evidence for Young Explorers.

Both were a great way to get the wheels turning on timelines and the bible but now I have found that they have a curriculum to go with both of them!

We are currently not doing this curriculum due to how much my boys are already doing but I printed the sample to look at and would love to try it.

Patterns of Evidence for Young Explorers Curriculum for Elementary Age and Patterns of Evidence Quest Curriculum for High school.

You can also find it on the Answers in Genesis, site.

I might be a bit addicted to this time period now.

I am currently trying to convince my boys that we should just keep studying Biblical Archaeology for several years…

My 12yr old is not convinced.

Yet.

I will keep working on him though…

Check out my video on these resources.

Struggling teaching the subjects I love

I love teaching history.

It’s my favorite subject and definitely one of the easiest subjects for me to teach.

But for the past several years I have struggled teaching it.

My oldests boys are getting more and more independent in their learning so they don’t need me to line up projects for them or read to them. I do a little bit with my 4yr old for her preschool but am pretty limited in time and attention span with her.My twins have to learn separately so trying to do things all together does not usually work out.

Every once in a while I try but it usually does not end well.

Add to that we struggle to get the main subjects done with the twins and I had to give up extra ones for now.

They get a little bit from documentaries and sometimes I have the boys read them school books at bedtime but the fun extras just don’t make it right now.

I used to share a lot more of our homeschool on here but this is one of the reasons I don’t share as much.

Do you get to teach all the subjects you want to in your school or do you have seasons that you just have to buckle down and get the main things done also?

Switching from RightStart to McRuffy

After using Right Start Math for over 7yrs I am trying something different for my twins!!!

I am trying out McRuffy Color Math Grade 2.

I love how hands on Right Start is and that part works really well for them but it is a little advanced and it is very teacher intensive.

Which is hard to work around when I am teaching it twice a day and have other kids that need my help at all!

We tried out the sample first before Christmas break and decided to give it a try on the full curriculum.

I liked that the sample included 10 lessons for the worksheet and the teachers manual.

It really gave me a chance to try it out.

It does seem more worksheet based then Right Start but also encourages a lot of hands on tools and I am using all that I have learned through the years of using Right Start (still love using an abacus).

The manipulatives are so similar to Right Start in fact that we did not even buy the ones that go with this curriculum.

We are just using the ones that came with our Right Start curriculum.

So far my girls are liking it but it is pretty easy right now since we started in the front of the book and it is 2nd grade.

I am hoping to get a really good feel for the differences between the two curriculums and let you know what I think in a few months!

Check out a look inside the curriculum on my youtube channel.

Anyone else make drastic changes to their homeschool mid-year?

I have liked Right Start so long that it feels disloyal to switch!

HA