There's Hope!

Greetings! How have things been with you? Our baby is now a few months old and he's doing very well. He gets lots of snuggles among his family- someone is usually snuggling him when lessons are being read aloud or if someone finished their work first.

My little guy. Sigh of contentment.

As I look at him and our other children, it's difficult not to think about their future. It's difficult not to feel concern. I believe that as parents you and I share this same concern for our children. Yet I think there is still hope.

I think there is still hope because there are still people like you and me who are concerned. I think there's still hope because being concerned means that we care. I think there is still hope because children are a heritage from the Lord, and they may take what they learn and apply it to their own lives and perhaps in our government and education.

Out of this concern and hope that we share among each other, this blog was birthed. It has been dedicated to helping others learn of the Principle Approach® method of teaching and learning and also about The Noah Plan© curriculum (which applies the PA method). And out of this concern, this blog will continue.


It's important to understand the why. Why does this blog focus on the Principle Approach®? What is the big deal about it? As believers, we know that we are transformed when we come into faith in Yeshuah/Jesus. Scripture tells us that this is done by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2):

 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

In order for our minds to be renewed, we need to read, study, and learn Scripture. Then we can better walk it out. When we do this as individuals, His ways are lived out in us and it multiplies across our nation. When we walk in... live in the Spirit of the Lord, we have freedom.  Where the Spirit of the Lord  is there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). This is in our personal lives and also translates to government when it follows Bible Principles!

Think of how well our nation has lived and been able to help others during its better years in history. Contrast that with its decline. What has caused the decline? A turning away from the application of Bible Principles has caused the decline. Our Founding Fathers tried to safeguard us with our Constitution-- with the hopes that we would learn of the Bible Principles applied to its founding so that we could keep what they gave us... a Republic.

Who has time to learn? If we care about a chance at restoring our nation, we have to set time aside to learn. I know you're busy! I know you are wrapped up in so many commitments in life. I get it! I have nine children, am involved in volunteering, homeschooling, housework, etc., etc. etc. 

So... as Cool Daddy continues to help me get Principled Academy.com's website redesigned, I'm working on other projects to help you learn with efficiency. Please pray for us as we endeavor to help serve you.

In the meantime, have you heard about The Foundation for American Christian Education's conference coming up shortly? I'm looking forward to being able to view the recordings as I won't be able to be there in person. Here's a link to the information on it. I hope you will be encouraged by it!

 Reason for Hope Conference Restoring Biblical Principles to a Confused and Chaotic World November 11 & 12, 2016

Let us not lose hope!

 

Principle Approach Confidence... and Community...

The purpose of Principled Academy is to help parents teach Bible Principles with confidence.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that this is accomplished by sharing some of our journey, demonstrating word studies via Word Study Wednesday, explaining how to apply the 4R method, and sharing free notebeook pages...

And yet... yet there is something more that is wanting...

What if there is something else that you need? What if it's a sense of community? Would you love to have a Principle Approach homeschool community in your area?

Does this sound dreamy? Would it make your school year?

As we continue to formulate our plan to help you, will you please let us know what would benefit you and your family the most? Please answer these questions in a comment below or by e-mailing us via the Contact Us tab: 1. What subjects would you like in a Principle Approach Homeschool Co-op Community?; 2. How many hours would you like the co-op to be once weekly?; 3. Would you like it to be age-integrated or separated by grades? Any feedback you could give us will be of great help to us as we try to serve you.
 

Stay tuned! We have a special announcement coming up very soon!

Blessings!

GACE Summer Study and Support Group!

Are you ready to better understand how to teach your children how to research Scripture and reason from It? This form of education is the background to America's Christian education and the heritage of education from the Founding Era. 

It doesn't matter where you are at in your homeschool journey or if you have graduated your last homeschool student, or hope to help educate your grandchildren.

Join Stephanie from Healthy Homeschool 101 and myself for a 12 week Summer study! Anna-Marie from Principled Mom is graciously allowing the group to follow a reading schedule which she put together when she studied.

This is a facebook study group.

What You Will Need:

A copy of the Guide to America's Christian Education by James B. Rose.

Optional Reading:

A copy of Teaching and Learning America's Christian History by Rosalie J. Slater.

The Goal:

As a group, we aim to support and encourage each other, to discuss from the readings, and to help answer questions.

When is the Course?

We begin the week of June 9th, 2016 and end during the week of August 22, 2016. Order your books as soon as possible so you can join the fun!

What is the Cost?

Whatever you can purchase your books at and paper and ink. :-) 

If you'd like to join the study group, click on the link for the GACE Summer Study and Support Group.

We'd love to have you join us! 

 

Walking With Jesus Notebook Pages!

Look at what's now available! 

The complete set of notebook pages for Walking With Jesus is here! 

Walking With Jesus notebook pages are beneficial for those who:

• Want to save time by not having to create notebook pages themselves,

• Want to save time by not having their students attempt to create notebook pages by hand,

• Want a cohesive look throughout the notebook. 

If you have visited my About page, you will already know about my passion to share Biblical truths! The Walking With Jesus notebook pages help your students to become more Biblically literate by learning:

• The name of the One True God of Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham in Hebrew. His name is Yahweh (Isaiah 42:8 HCSB), 

• The name of Jesus in Hebrew. His name is Yeshua (which means salvation),

• The word "church" is G1577 and more correctly rendered as "assembly" or "congregation".  

• The Apostle Paul's name is Shaul in Hebrew.

These words are used interchangeably in the notebook pages to help your students build their Scriptural vocabulary. 

You can go to this link here and purchase it individually or as a set with the Walking With Jesus curriculum!

A big shout out to my family as they helped with scheduling so that I could accomplish this goal! 

Click on this link to buy your 247 page copy of notebook pages for Walking with Jesus! 



Blessings!

 

How to Write a Lesson from the Noah Plan Overviews

Greetings! Today's post will hopefully encourage you as you write 4R lessons for your child. I'm picking History from the 6th grade overviews for you because that's what I have been working on this school year. :)

I don't know when I'll have completed lessons to share with you from the 6th grade overviews. My hope has been to have them available by this coming school year though I'm a mother of several children and life has been... happening. I'm still striving toward this goal; I can't guarantee a release date at this time.

So, for those who need to and would like to get the ball rolling themselves, I'll share with you how I approach it.

This is what the Noah Plan's Sixth Grade Overview looks like (in part) for the school year:

I didn't get the very left of the page in the photo, but each box represents a week. And at the top you see the left column is for Quarter 1 and the right column is for Quarter 2. You see that it's scheduled out for you while giving you the liberty to share the information laid on your heart to teach your children.


Step 1:
Let's take a look at Quarter 2, Weeks 7 and 8. In this portion, we continue learning about Ancient History and we're focusing on Rome. This is what we have to go from as a guide:

Don't let that stress you out! 

I know that doesn't seem like much help, "In this week you cover this topic." On the back side of my overview printout is a list of History and Geography resources which help me to teach on such and such a topic. *I don't own all of the books (the budget only goes so far); I did order the books that I thought would benefit me the most to help me teach.

Step 2:
Open the books and find where the information is on Ancient Rome.

Step 3:
Read through the information and decided what I want to share the most with my students (there's lots of fascinating history to read!). Their ages and comprehension levels determine what and how much I share with them. For my High School students, I assign reading time for them from books that give them more information. This way I can keep my other children engaged.

Step 4a:
I sit and ponder and pray about what to pull from for the Leading Idea (theme) and the Bible Principle(s) that I want to impart to them.

In this instance, I'm choosing to use the Overview to help me with the leading idea and this is how I'm choosing to word it:

Leading Idea: "Ancient Rome's tyrannical government prepared the hearts of people to long for a Savior."

Step 4b:
Now that I have my leading idea, I'm going to use the Bible verse mentioned in Teaching and Learning America's Christian History  by Rosalie J. Slater when reading on the topic about the timing of Messiah's birth, "But When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Galatians 4:4

Step 5:
Now is when I can go in and type up excerpts that I want to share from the books that I've read. I can also include the Leading Idea and Bible Principle(s) to help keep my children and the lesson on topic.


Step 6:
Since I prefer a cohesive look throughout the notebooks, I design 4R notebook pages for my children. I will include a word study for them for their research and reason and relate questions.

Some questions for this particular example could be:

• How did Yahweh provide for the Gospel (Good News) to move westward?
• Yahweh's timing of Yeshua's ministry on earth is Providential. How do you know that Galatians 4:4 is talking about the timing of his birth corresponding with the maturing of Rome's government? Explain.
• How could a government of tyranny prepare people to receive the Gospel message?
• How can the oppression of modern day governments prepare people to receive the Gospel message in our time in history?
• Galatians 4:4 mentions that Messiah was "made under the law". The Apostle Paul talks about several different laws. Revisit your notebook work from Quarter 1, Week 6. Which law is is that Messiah was made under?

These are thoughts that came to mind for me as I considered what to have my children search out and learn. You can probably come up with several others.

Here are pictures of some notebook work by a student of mine in our homeschool co-op this year:

 

Step 7: (Optional)
Depending on the budget and how creative I'm feeling at the time, I may come up with a hands-on project of some sort.  

Feeling Better?

I hope this step-by-step with photos encourages you and helps you to feel able to do this... because you can do it! It's not so intimidating now, right? :-) 

The Pay Off:

While it took some time out of my day to read, ponder, ask questions that I personally had from my own research, and to get it all ready for my kids, I learned so much! Which is a good thing! Our Heavenly Father wants us to seek Him and search His Word and using the 4R method helps us do this.

Why is it important for the parent/teacher to bother with all of this? Remember that the student cannot be greater than the teacher! 

Luke 6:40, "A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." 

*Disciple means "taught one"... a student...

So, as I go to the Scriptures in every subject, I learn from my teacher, my Lord and Savior, Yeshua. And I become transformed being trained by His teachings... and become more like His character. Conversely, my children do because they not only have me as their teacher who is continually growing and changing, they are going to the Scriptures themselves and learning from Yeshua as well. 

Do you see how this form of Classical Biblical-Hebraic education is richer than a parroting Greek Classical Model?

This is why I can't let this go in our homeschool! There is a tight grip on my heart to press through toward the prize!

In the end of this age, my children are not going to be examined for what out of context sentence they can parrot back to someone. Rather, they will have their hearts examined and how they chose to be self-governed under Messiah and lived their lives. And so will I... Teaching and learning with the Hebraic form of education helps me to understand not only what happened, but also the cause to effect which in turn helps me to think governmentally.

It's the principles we want to learn and commit to our hearts. 

It's the principles we want to put into practice and live out... because we love and revere Him. 

My prayer for you is that as you carefully consider how to go about educating your children, that you will stay the course and teach them diligently with Bible Principles. And in doing so, that you will grow and mature in the faith in Yeshua as well. 

Blessings from our Messiah be upon you!