Our Principle Approach®-based Homeschool Co-op

Well this school year is shaping up to be one of the most exciting ones for us yet. In previous years, I was able to share how to use the 4-R Method in Art when I wrote and taught Art lessons. This year, I find that I'm serving others in English, History, and Botany.

“Creative Commons Classroom” by William Creswell is Licensed under "Attribution 2.0 Generic."
Text and overlay are added by Principled Academy.

This is allowing me to put the curriculum I'm writing to the test with grades Kindergarten through 12th grade. We are, for the most part, in a one-room class. We meet with K-12th in one room for English, History, and Spanish. For Science we divide into two groups: Chemistry is taught by a very dear and sweet friend to grades K-7th and I'm teaching Botany to 8th-12th grades.

In English class, we're covering The Foundations of Language and spelling rules along with phonograms in support of the Spell to Write and Read program. We'll be using games for spelling and for English grammar to help reinforce what is being taught at home.

In History, we're covering some of Ancient History to the Protestant Reformation- as directed by The Noah Plan's sixth grade overviews. So far, it's working out well, I think, when teaching the Bible Principles and explaining things in a story-type manner. 


Then we take a 15 minute break-- stretch, get the wiggles out, go potty.


Once break is over, the kids divide into the two groups for Science. In Botany, we're studying the systems and functions of plants. Labs are included, 4-R Method studies are applied, and we are also learning about one of America's first botanists, William Bartram. The students will be writing a paper based on what they learn. In addition to High School credit for science, they are able to get High School credit for a literary study based on Bartram's writings.

Afterward, we all meet in a one-room class again for Beginning Spanish. Vocabulary is sent home so that we may practice conversations in class.

I'm sending the kids home with some notebook pages to do during the week (for subjects other than Spanish)... increasing the challenge of research, thought, and study as the grade levels increase.


It's so lovely how the Bible Principles of each subject are not "grade-based," allowing for children in all grades... all ages... all learning abilities to understand what Scripture teaches regarding the various subjects.

At this point, things are going really well. I'm very impressed with how self-governed and respectful all of the kids are. Teaching them is an honor and I feel very blessed to be able to share with them and their parents the richness of the 4-R Method. My prayer is that they will draw closer to our Lord and Savior as they dig into the Scriptures to learn truth.

So, there are two gifts coming up for you. Yes you! Please be sure to check back soon! :-)

Planning My Principle Approach® School Year- Part 2

In Planing My Principle Approach® School Year- Part 1, I shared an evaluation of our last school year. This post reflects how things are coming along for our 2015-2016 school year, Yahweh willing.

Sorry about the typo! It should say 5th-8th!!!

I've decided to base the school year studies off of The Noah Plan® Curriculum's sixth grade overviews. Why? The following reasons are what I based my decision from:

1. Sixth grade is when the curriculum changes up a bit,
2. I see it as a "middle ground,"
3. Several readers have e-mailed asking for help with lessons and they have kids ranging from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. 

I'd like to have polished lessons from each of the overviews to share with you all, however, that isn't within my abilities at this time. What I can do though is offer what we are using this year as a streamlined approach. 

How does this work? If we remember that the Hebraic mindset is to teach the whole person, that it's a mentoring and discipleship approach to life and learning, and that learning to ask questions and reason Biblically is how believers are to approach life, it works just fine in layers. Kind of like cake layers, I guess one might say. Since there are layers of learning, it works to teach younger children basic concepts and then increasingly build upon that according to each child's age/ability of understanding.

Some need milk. Some are ready for solids. Yes? If you have multiple children you are teaching, serve up the milk (the basic concepts) to everyone at the table. The milk nourishes everyone! While they work on their notebook page, add solids to the portion of milk which your other children are able to digest.

Pictured below, there is a schedule beginning each week. Notice that the days are categorized as Days 1-5 vs. Monday, Tuesday, etc. This way you can easily adjust it to your preferred days. Since we personally use the Spell to Write and Read curriculum, the Orthography days reference to its use. However, you have liberty to use whichever spelling curriculum you find suits your family best. :-) The math curriculum and physical education is the same- left open to your personal preference.

Sorry about the typo! It should say 5th-8th in the legend!!!

How 'bout a sneak peek at the curriculum I'm writing for my family? It helps me to organize by color, which you'll see in the images below:

Sorry about the typo! It should say 5th-8th in the legend!!!

For parents who prefer to teach their children all at once, the color coded sentences of notes for them to copy from the board will be helpful. In the legend, you see "building blocks" of various colors. K-1st grade kids copy the green sentences. The 2nd-4th grade kids copy the green and the blue. The 5th-7th grade kids copy the green, blue, and purple sentences. Lastly, high school copies green, blue, purple, and orange sentences. All of the sentence colors can be found in dry erase markers!

Of course, parents who prefer to teach their children individually are able to do so. In this instance, there isn't a need to copy notes in multiple colors above K-1st grade. They  just need to write the notes on the board in one color for the child they are teaching.

Reason and Relate questions are offered for further discussion. If the parent's preference is for the older kids to journal from the Reason and Relate questions aside from or in addition to the notes, that's totally doable.

Suggested assignments aside from note taking are offered for the various grades. 

More than likely, you've noticed that I use the names Yahweh and Yahshua. I prefer to use the Sacred names. In Isaiah 42:8 He says, "I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols." And in 43:11 He says, "I, I am Yahweh, and there is no other Savior but Me." (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is personal. I have a personal relationship with Him through His Son Yahshua HaMashiach (in English He is known as Jesus Christ the Messiah) and He tells me His name in the above passages of Scripture. :-)

The curriculum is still a work in progress. I'm plugging away at it this summer with every chance I get. In the style of Charlotte Mason, the lessons are short and concise. There's no need for parents to prep any lesson content. However, some suggested resources are mentioned for further study if the parent desires more and would like to be told where to specifically go for more information.

I'll be sharing about our journey with the Open My Eyes curriculum this school year. I hope that you'll follow it and find it a blessing.

What do you think of it so far? Are you interested in it? Drop me a comment or e-mail me via the Contact Us tab and let me know. :-)

Blessings!