DIY Homeschooler

A Biblical Home Education by Dr. Ruth Beechick has been a favorite of ours for years. Subtitled Building Your Homeschool on the Foundation of God’s Word, A Biblical Home Education takes you through the content subjects and language skill subjects one by one, all from a Biblical perspective. There is so much meat in this book that it really deserves more than one reading to absorb the larger concepts peppered throughout.

When it comes to using natural methods of tutoring our children, Dr. Beechick is a favorite mentor. For example, some publishers include spelling, grammar, writing, vocabulary, reading workbooks — all for one grade! Dr. Ruth Beechick had this right: learn to write, write. Encourage your child to write every day. In the process he is learning grammar, spelling, and vocabulary skills right along with writing skills. Of course, he will need input to create the output. Therefore, at the same time he should be reading — a great deal — and practicing his reading and thinking skills.

Teaching children at home does not have to be as difficult as people make it by trying to follow too much of the world’s schooling system that has developed layer upon layer over the years. We can peel away the excess layers by the one great principle of viewing language learning as different from the content subjects. Language includes speaking, reading, writing, listening, and thinking. These are skills to use for learning Bible and all other content. Children improve these skills by using them in their content subjects. That is more effective and more efficient than adding layers of skill classes.

This title takes a bit of a different approach than some of Dr. Beechick’s earlier works, such as You Can Teach Your Child Successfully or The Three R’s. In those books, the focus was very practical as you would expect from a former curriculum developer. In A Biblical Home Education, the author takes a different approach.

By first covering subjects like world history and science in relation to a Biblical worldview, she then tackles the skills:

• Thinking.
• Reading.
• Studying.
• Writing.
• Grammar (after writing).

She also covers teaching preschool informally and successfully shopping for curriculum materials.

We have referred to this treasure repeatedly:

Tutoring is a common method in homeschooling, and it is the most effective method ever devised. While working with an individual child, it is easy to tell whether the work is within the child’s ability….
 
The power and efficiency of tutoring is that the parent follows the child’s ability and interest rather than following a curriculum plan with its formula for learning skills in a certain order.

Or another favorite:

Parents who give up the struggle with daily workbook lessons and encourage real-life writing and children’s choice writing look back months later and are delighted not only with the progress but with the happy times they had.

Not familiar with Ruth Beechick?

• You can read our synopsis of the writings and methods of Dr. Beechick on our Beechick Basics page.
• You’ll also find a variety of practical applications.

Obviously, not all resources we recommend will work for every family. In this case, there is so much to glean that we highly recommend this favorite from a skilled teacher and curriculum developer who greatly impacted the homeschool community.