The number of homeschooling households has exploded in recent years as parents have increasingly recognized their children’s education is too important to outsource. Contrary to what you’ve heard, it doesn’t take a village to raise tomorrow’s leaders—it takes a proactive, involved, and steadfast family. Children flourish best within the structure of the family, which is why families have long been recognized as the building blocks of strong societies and why tyrants throughout history have sought to destroy the family unit. Although parents have commonly allowed the government to educate their children without a second thought, more now question this default position. And with the resources and support networks available today, the barriers to educating your own children have never been lower. In contrast to the ancient Greeks who took children out of the home to teach them in the academy, Hebrew culture viewed education as the responsibility of parents. Parents were tasked with instilling values and passing on an ethical worldview to their children, allowing them to gain wisdom, not just knowledge; to learn to do what is right, not merely what’s expedient; to judge truth rather than simply obey authority. This book is about what the author has learned on his journey in home education. It offers his perspective as an engineer and a father and contains a special message for fathers who, like him, have embraced the calling of becoming the full-time educators of their children. It shows any parent, dad or mom, how to provide their children with an exceptional education. Whatever your situation may be, whether you’re a mom or dad, whether the primary teacher or a supportive spouse, the approach to education and lessons shared in this book will help you establish your priorities, avoid pitfalls, think through challenges, solve problems, and create a unique home education program in which your child will flourish!
"Your Child's Best Teacher" is available at booksellers throughout the USA and online, including from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or my favourite, thriftbooks.com.
The following resources were referenced in "Your Child's Best Teacher," and are provided free of charge to assist and inspire you with teaching your children. You are welcome to use them and modify them to suit your specific needs. I have provided a little explanation, but not much. Please be aware that they are offered as is with no support. Some documents may use specific formatting which might not display correctly in your word processor, and thus I have included a pdf to expose formatting mischief. The spreadsheets make heavy use of formulas. If they work for you, I would be very happy for someone else to benefit from the many hours that I spent putting these together! At the very least, they may inspire you as you organise your homeschool programme.
This download shows you what our Family Team Workbook looks like. It is available as both a pdf and a Microsoft Publisher file.
Download PDF Download PUBThese two Microsoft Word documents (and corresponding pdfs) are examples of the syllabus created for each High School course.
Download DOCX Download PDF Download DOCX Download PDFThese are two documents that I have used to organise our high school programme. The first is an overview of our personal requirements for completion of high school. This is provided as both a Microsoft Word document and a pdf. The second is the spreadsheet that I am using to track progress.
Download DOCX Download PDF Download XLSXOver many years, I developed a spreadsheet which I used to print a weekly schedule and keep records. It is not very user-friendly, but you are very welcome to take a look and make use of it yourself. The spreadsheet uses a custom font, also provided.
Download XLSX Download TTFI created some frequently-used templates in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet so that I could print off copies at will.
Download XLSXMathematics is all about patterns, and these are some fun ones. Have your children fill out the worksheets to discover these patterns for themselves.
Download DOCX Download PDF