In my previous post on How would education look in your home using the BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE APPROACH I mentioned that as you continue to study, pray, and wait on God for revelation and understanding He would begin to form in you His vision for education in Your home. I just wanted to clarify this for those who may not understand what I mean. What I mean by that statement is that as God gives you HIS vision for your family with regards to education you will begin to know what your family needs educationally, emotionally, and spiritually, even physically…and you will begin to understand how to meet those needs. God will give u the TRUTHS to teach because He will be teaching you…and as you learn and receive you teach and give out.

These TRUTHS will, of course, be based in His word and you will begin to have confidence to teach them b/c you’ll understand HIS precepts and how to apply them to your children’s education, to you and your children’s life…for Life IS education…the question is are we living it/teaching it the way God would want us to, in a way that would bring glory to Him and would position our children for entering into God’s purpose for them?

I believe this approach gives you a method for how to accomplish that. School and God are not separated. This approach unifies all of life and finds its origins in God Himself.

I see it like this….If you make a cake you

1. dump all the ingredients in the bowl and start to

2. mix it…pour it in the pan…

3. put it in the oven and see what emerges.

The Biblical Principle Approach has been the same way for me…the process I went thru was this…I…

1. dumped all this info. in my spirit and head by reading ACE by J.
Rose, T&L, CHOC, all the FACE guides, join the BPA yahoo group, ask
questions, PROVE EVERYTHING THAT I STUDY FROM OTHER BOOKS IN THE LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE!!!(The
bible was my standard before coming to learn of the Principle Appr. and
is even more so now that I know about it-don’t just accept that what
someone wrote is true…..prove it to yourself FROM THE WORD OF GOD!!!)
and most of all pray. Those are the ingredients to the recipe for
writing your curriculum. STUDY(mainly the bible)!!!

Take the information in. ABOVE ALL PRAY every step of the way…ask
God questions of what u don’t understand…He will answer you. I know
He will b/c He answered me. If you seek Him sincerely You will find
Him and the answers you are looking for-and that is for ANYTHING in
life, not just BPA or education.

2. Prayer and TIME mixes what is in your spirit and as revelation and
understanding come your faith will grow and you’ll study more, seek
more, pray more and WAIT some more…give it time and keep praying over
what you have read…read some more…wait for understanding and
revelation…and keep studying and did I say pray some more??
Keep studying…and let patience have her perfect work so that you’ll
understand what you are doing and allow time for God to FORM HIS vision
in you while you WAIT, PRAY, AND STUDY. Then you would have grown and
be more mature in you understanding and able to accomplish what God
puts on your heart in the way of educating your children.

3. As God impregnates you with His vision(just as a woman is
impregnanted and the baby begins to form…we don’t know what the baby
will look like until it is born) He will begin to FORM that thing in
you. It will eventually begin to take on a FORM and SHAPE. That shape
is the beginning of YOUR INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION of the application of
the BPA in the education of your children. Like I said it is the
BEGINNING, not the full-blown complete version. I believe as the years
go by and we continue to grow in our understanding of applying these
principles to our lives our vision, this FORM, this “baby” God has
entrused us with will also continue to grow. Just as a newborn is not
done growing when it comes out of the womb so your newly-birthed vision
is not fully grown. But if we remain willing and obedient we shall eat
the good of the land and receive the rich reward of understanding the
precepts of the Lord and God’s purpose and origin for education and
that should consist of…and passing that down to our children and then
to our children’s children. Isn’t that a goodly heritage? Isn’t it
worth the TIME and the EFFORT that the Biblical Principle Approach
demands?

What say you?

This seems like it has been a long time in coming-the planning of my
lessons for 2006-2007 that is. It seems like I’ve been planning for a year!!!
Actually I’ve been studying for a year and trying to write little plans
as I go at the same time so for anyone who has communicated with me in
the past you may say, “My God, this girl is always writing lessons”.
Well I did not really receive a breakthru in my lesson planning until
this week!!!!

Even after the many emails back and forth with other BPA moms(Anna!!) I still insisted on trying to fit a square peg in a round hole by trying to use the FACE guides to form my curriculum

instead of just relaxing and trusting that what God gives me would be sufficient. So I went BACK to some lessons I had started before I got all caught up in those FACE guides and have been able to expand on those plans and I’m even seeing some wonderful things emerge.

GOALS: I finally have my goals for each subject…these I kept kind of vague…not too specific and where I was specific I kept it at a minimum so as not to overwhelm myself. If we accomplish these goals early in the year then I can always add more. I’ll post a couple when I get the time.

QUARTERLY OVERVIEW: I have my quarterly overview for the entire year. That ended up being a pleasant surprise to me b/c my intent was to plan for a quarter at a time. Bible, Literacy(english,spelling, reading, writing), and Arithmetic is to be done everyday for the 1st part of our study day..preferrably morning but I’m gonna have to work on that…we are late-risers so we’ll see. The second half of our learning period will consist of our unit studies. I’m attempting to write my curriculum using unit studies which will cover all the rest of the topics but still include much bible and literacy(and maybe some arithmetic) if it fits. History is what drives my units…so for instance if we look at the 10 links on the Chain of Chrisitanity I’ll write a unit on Creation(which will cover most of the other subjects), a unit on Moses, Jesus, Paul, etc. Each unit will have a governing principle. The principle for the Creation unit is God’s Principle of Individuality. I’ll then have several leading ideas for each principle…covering one leading idea per day for each subject….I know u may not be able to picture it…I see it but I still have some gaps so we’ll see how it goes. These leading ideas will translate into detailed lessons. I’ll post what I’ve done as I’m able.

DAILY/WEEKLY LESSON PLANS: As I mentioned before I write my daily/weekly lesson plans from my leading ideas. I don’t know if I’ll cover our unit study section 2 a week or more…again, we’ll see.

Now I just want to say that even though I had to stop using the FACE guides to structure my curriculum that is not to say I don’t use them and rely on them…I do…very much so. These guides are chocked so full of very helpful background info..the biblical history of each subject…lesson planning helps and tools and a scope and sequence, if you will-if you are into that. I use it for the scope and sequence, at times. Other times I just make a lesson for what God puts on my heart whether it’s covered in a lower grade or higher or is even covered at all in the charts, I’m endeavoring to write what God gives me and to truly use these as guides.

The intent of the publisher of these guides did not intend to have the parent BOUND by the guides but LIBERATED into getting ideas from the guides, seeking the Lord as to how to use the information in the guide…if at all…and then construct the lessons that are suitable for their children.

Lord I praise You this morning for Your great love which You have for me. I praise You and thank You for demonstrating that love for me the day Jesus came to earth. I praise You that each and every day I wake up You are there…You are there to greet me with Your loving smile as I see night give way to day…You are there with Your loving touch as I sleepily realize You’ve given me another day to learn of You and to rejoice in all You’ve made and all You’ve done…You are there with a new mercy for a new day that has never been before…You are there delighting in ‘the habitable part of the earth’…delighting in me as I allow You to order my steps…You are there and I see Your joy and Your love for shine so clear even thru the raindrops and definitely thru the sunshine. I thank You for this day and I thank You for Your precious, precious Word…The Word of Life. Thank You for teaching me that I may teach Your wonderful precepts and principles and truths. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefor I hate eery false way. Thank You for leading me and guiding me in discovering Your wonderful Will in Your wonderful Word…

I’m Yours forever,

dee