Our decision to homeschool was a tough one that we did not make over night. Mike and I had many conversations about it and prayed about what would be the best decision for our child. We wondered could we give him the education he needed and deserved. Could we teach him the social interactions that needed? What is the best decision for our family?
After all the conversations, prayers, thoughts, questions, and talking to other homeschooling parents, we decided it would be best to homeschool. I can teach him everything he needs to know and more. I can not only teach him social interactions, I can show him how to interact with others. Homeschooling is the best decision for our family! So in 2012 I started teaching Bailey K4 and have not looked back.
Are my homeschool children socialized?
The number one question I get asked when I tell people that I homeschool my children is “How do they socialize?” My normal response is, “Do you send your children to school to socialize or to learn?” My experience is that most kids do not get to socialize much at school anyway. They cannot talk during classes, in the hall, in the lunchroom and even on some school buses. They get to see kids, but are not allowed to talk much.
My children are very well socialized. Bailey and I started volunteering at a local food pantry when he was two years old and continued until 2016 when it closed. We attend homeschool events, parties, and field trips. Our homeschool group even does a yearbook. We attend events at our local library and both children are involved in sports. Bailey has been involved in a sporting activity since he was three years old. He has taken gymnastics for three years, participated in soccer for three years and is still active in taekwondo. Bailey will walk up to anyone (with us standing near by) stick his hand out to shake their hand and introduces himself. He can interact with anyone from a baby to a 100 year old. He is not shy or scared. Bekah was at the food pantry in her baby carrier and when she started walking she would help pack boxes for the recipients. She continued to help until it closed. She has started soccer and gymnastics this year. She also attends all taekwondo events with us. So I think it is safe to say my children do not lack in the socialization department.
Homeschool is not just sitting at your kitchen table teaching from books. It is so much more. Homeschooling goes where you go. I teach lessons when we are on vacation, at the grocery store, in the backyard and so on. Homeschooling is continuously learning no matter where you may be. That is one of the joys and benefits of homeschooling.
10 Types of Homeschooling
- School-at-home Homeschooling is when you mimic public or private schools in your home. Most new homeschooling families start with this method until they figure out what works best for them. Most of the time, when you buy an All-In-One curriculum or School in a box this is the type of method you are doing. This is what works best for us, but it does not work well for everyone.
- Classical Homeschooling focuses on literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, art, and languages.
- Charlotte Mason Homeschooling was developed by Charlotte Mason. It places emphasis on literature and she even coined the phrase “Living books”. She believed in sparking the imagination of a child through subject matter.
- Montessori Homeschooling is also known as Montessori Method of Education. It was developed by Maria Montessori and her method focuses on the development of children, physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.
- Unschooling Homeschooling is informal learning where the student learns though life experiences. “The term “unschooling” was coined in the 1970s and used by educator John Holt, widely regarded as the father of Unschooling,” according to Wikipedia.
- Unit Studies Homeschooling is when math, spelling, science, art, history are taught on one single topic.
- Eclectic Homeschooling is when you pick and choose from many different books, websites, and so on to teach your children.
- Waldorf Homeschooling, also known as Steiner education is based on the students’ intellectual, artistic, and practical skills.
- Natural Learning Homeschooling according to Wikipedia, “Natural learning” refers to a type of learning-on-demand where children pursue knowledge based on their interests and parents take an active part in facilitating activities and experiences conducive to learning but do not rely heavily on textbooks or spend much time “teaching”, looking instead for “learning moments” throughout their daily activities.
- Informal learning Homeschooling or Self-Directed Homeschooling is learning that happens through everyday life participation and creation. Anything from planting a garden to baking a cake or even talking to a technician at work about the installation of new software can be considered informal learning are some examples from Wikipedia.
What homeschool curriculum did I choose?
I chose to use a Christian based homeschool curriculum for my children. We use My Father’s World and I love it! It comes with all the lessons planned out for me and all worksheets needed for the lessons. I love how the Bible and God’s word is incorporated into the curriculum. My Father’s World even suggests what math and language to use for the older grades. The history curriculum was created for teaching multiple grades at once. I love My Father’s World!
I wanted to know more about My Father’s World so I contacted them to find out more about their history and this is what they sent me. “My Father’s World was founded by missionaries David and Marie Hazell. In the early 1990s, the Hazells moved to Russia to work for the Institute for Bible Translation. While living in Siberia and later in Moscow, the Hazells became involved in translating, printing, and distributing children’s Bibles, copies of the New Testament, and Bibles in many languages.
Prior to moving to Russia, Marie, a speech and language specialist and teacher, spent years teaching language development kindergarten, and later kindergarten and first grade. Her experiences homeschooling her children inspired Marie to develop a Bible-based curriculum for use with homeschooling as well as Christian school classrooms. In 1998, a home school educator and writer contacted the Hazells in Russia to inquire about purchasing a copy of a kindergarten curriculum Marie had written. The Hazells worked with friends and family back home in the United States to set up an online store through which they could sell the curriculum.
In 1999, Marie created a unique curriculum for first grade. The Hazells began to sell this curriculum through the online store. The Hazells’ kindergarten and first grade curriculums became popular with homeschool families. By 2000, the business became too large for their friends and family to manage on the side. The Hazells moved back to the United States to help focus on selling the curricula. A year later, the Hazells quit their jobs to work full time on this business, which became My Father’s World.
The Hazells eventually incorporated their business, forming MFW Books and MFW Inc. MFW Books sells curricula and resources. MFW Inc. owns various rights to products. As used herein, ‘MFW’ refers to MFW Books and MFW Inc. collectively.
As educators, the Hazells studies pedagogy and various pedagogical approaches. For homeschooling, there are multiple approaches to education, to include the classical style of education, unit studies, Charlotte mason’s philosophy for educating children, textbooks and workbook studies, literature studies, and unschooling. Most homeschool curricula focused on one of the these styles of learning and educating.
The Hazells recognized that combining several approaches would result in better learning opportunities for students. They set about creating an educational program that combines the classical approach to education, unit studies, and Charlotte Mason’s teaching philosophies. Other homeschool curriculum creators were not using this type of fusion approach at the time the Hazells developed their curriculum. Today, most curricula still favor one learning style while the MFW continues to combine several pedagogical philosophies.
In deciding which books to include in each of its curricula, My Father’s World strive to select books that teach a Biblical worldview to encourage children to live purposefully and on mission for God’s kingdom and glory with a strong academic foundation. Each book is considered individually as to whether the content helps accomplish these goals. Every book My Father’s World considers is read cover to cover to determine if it would further the messages My Father’s World seeks to teach.
My Father’s World obtains books to review for inclusion in its curricula by researching through many sources. My Father’s World uses its local library systems and routinely maximizes the number of books an individual may check out at one time. My Father’s World also reviews publishers’ catalogues, scours vendor booths at homeschool conventions, conducts online research, and obtains suggestions from friends and colleagues. My Father’s World ‘s offices house 600 linear feet of shelf space containing a small fraction of the books considered for My Father’s World ‘s curricula. My Father’s World has researched and reviewed thousands of books and resources.
When My Father’s World believes it has developed a strong curriculum, it works with pilot families to try the curriculum. The pilot families provide feedback to My Father’s World . Based on that feedback, My Father’s World may add or remove items from it curriculum to create a better product.
My Father’s World selected and arranged resources in its curriculum based on My Father’s World ‘s pedagogic goals, mission, and worldview, with an eye towards helping students achieve academic excellence.
My Father’s World ‘s curriculum includes instruction as an element of its curriculum. My Father’s World thoughtfully and artistically arranges the materials included in its curriculum in a manner so that they are interconnected to each other and draw on a related theme. For example, instead of reading a resource straight through, from front cover to back cover, some lessons may use only portion of a resource, and some resources may not be read or studies in order.
My Father’s World ‘s curricula includes literature, history, geography, science, reading (read aloud, read on theme, read at grade level), Greek and Latin roots, character development, Bible, art and music. My Father’s World was among the first home school curricula to add chronological science, art and music to its curricula.
My Father’s World design its curricula to be flexible for different ages to allow families to learn together. Drawing on the historical one-room schoolhouse, My Father’s World developed a curricula for grades 2-8 that could be used for all the children within those grades at one time. For example, if a family has a 2nd grader, a 5th grader, and a 7th grader, the family could use the same curriculum for most of their subjects, such as social studies, Bible, and science. A graphic depicting how the 2nd-8th grade curriculum may be used at various levels is shown below:
Because math and language arts are age-specific subjects, for example, a 2nd grade math level and a 5th grade math level are different, My Father’s World provides the resources for these subjects by grade level. As a result, homeschool families can educate their children efficiently and effectively.
My Father’s World works with various publishers to develop books that are acceptable to the general public as well as to Christian homeschool families. For example, some Christian homeschool families prefer to teach creation science as opposed to evolutionary theory. My Father’s World works with publishers to change evolutionary language to language that will work with both audiences. Publishers working with My Father’s World change the phrase “millions of years ago” to “many years ago.” As way of a second example, My Father’s World asked book publishers of its world cultures curriculum to add information to enhance cultures and countries studied in that curriculum, and the publisher did so.
In addition to the resources it selects and arranges from third parties, My Father’s World creates, itself and through publishers, unique resources that are only available through My Father’s World. My Father’s World combines these element to create original curricula.
My Father’s World writes its own math curriculum for preschool, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade. Starting in second grade, for each curriculum, My Father’s World recommends parent us particular mathematics resources.
My Father’s World Kindergarten
My Father’s World created and developed a unique, original curriculum for Kindergarten students called God’s Creation From A to Z.
My Father’s World created and designed God’s Creation From A to Z to teach kindergartners about the natural world using the Creation story from Genesis. My Father’s World created and developed hands-on units about plants, animals, geological features comprising creation. My Father’s World chose hands-on exercises, classic literature, fine arts, and character development resources for each of its units based around Creation.
My Father’s World First Grade
My Father’s World designed a first grade curriculum entitled Learning God’s Story: Complete First Grade Curriculum.
First Grade is designed around the them of Biblical history from Genesis to Revelation. My Father’s World selected and arranged resources to be part of this curriculum in a way to create units that enhance and support the themes of Biblical history generally as well as the particular occurrences specifically being studied.
My Father’s World Adventures in U.S. History
My Father’s World created a curriculum focusing of American history for second and third graders called Adventures in U.S. History.
My Father’s World selected Exploring American History, which includes narratives of United States history and strong visual such as photographs, maps and reproductions for engaging students.
My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures
My Father’s World decided to develop a curriculum that could be used with 2nd through 8th graders to teach world cultures. To that end, My Father’s World developed a curriculum called Exploring Countries and Cultures. The Hazells recognized that students should learn about the world’s geography and its diverse cultures before starting to study history. This would both give students a better foundation for their later work, create awareness of diversity, and helps instruct about God’s heart of the world.
My Father’s World Creation to the Greeks
My Father’s World created a world history course focusing on ancient civilization for use with 2nd through 8th grade students. My Father’s World ‘s curriculum is designed to focus on how the Biblical account in the Old Testament fits with other civilizations of the time, to include Egypt, Greece, and Babylon. My Father’s World named its curriculum Creation to the Greeks.
My Father’s World Rome to the Reformation
My Father’s World created and developed a curriculum that can be used with 2nd through 8th grade students focusing on the time period from the Roman Empire though the Middle Ages, and ending with the Renaissance and the Reformation My Father’s World titled this curriculum Rome to the Reformation.
My Father’s World Exploration of 1850
My Father’s World offers a curriculum for 2nd through 8th grade students entitled Exploration to 1850. This curriculum examines the New World starting with early explorers as Leif Ericsson and culminating in the California Gold Rush.
My Father’s World 1850 to Modern Times
My Father’s World offers a curriculum entitled 1850 to Modern Times. This curriculum discusses U.S. and World History form 1850 to the present.
My Father’s World Ancient History and Literature
My Father’s World created a curriculum called Ancient History and Literature. Ancient History and Literature is a one-year curriculum that integrates history, English, and Biblical Studies. My Father’s World also provides science and math programs that should be used in conjunction with Ancient History and Literature.
My Father’s World World History and Literature
My Father’s World created a curriculum called World History and Literature. World History and Literature is a one-year curriculum for high school students integrating world history form Rome to the present, church history, English, and Bible Studies.
My Father’s World U.S. History to 1877
My Father’s World created a curriculum titled U.S. History to 1877. U.S. History to 1877 teaches government, American history, American Literature, and Bible Studies. My Father’s World considered hundreds of resources to select what it would include in its curriculum.
My Father’s World U.S. History 1877 to the Present
My Father’s World created and developed a unique curriculum titled U.S. History 1877 to Present.
My Father’s World elected to include economics in its modern U.S. history curriculum. My Father’s World created an Economics Package that includes the resources Common Sense Economics, Money Greedy and God, and Economics for Life.”
I know I have given you lots of information about why we decided to homeschool, Types of homeschooling and My Father’s World. There are lots of homeschool curriculums out there to choose from and I want to share as much information about My Father’s World as possible. I have been using it for 6 years and have loved every year.
I have posted a link below to our homeschool YouTube playlist for you to see how we homeschool and why we love homeschooling.
How to Homeschool in 4 Easy Steps
