We use Bob Jones Bible for homeschoolers. I only use the student book. I gives a scripture we read it and my student completes the little puzzle, cut and paste activity or whatever, while we discuss what we read. I don't use the TM so we can just casually discuss what we have learned and read. In this way the lessons stay very low key, conversational, and address topics that concern and or interest the student. I often ends up being the hardest part of the homeschooling day as the questions can be tough for me to answer. LOL I am not sure how demoninational the program gets if you use all of the materials, but the student book stays very basic and in the K and 1st grade I did not encounter any demonationally specific teachings, however the material was of course Christian. My student feels jipped if we hurry and skip this for some reason. They also get "religion" in Sunday School at church and at the kids meetings 2 hours every other week. This summer the kids are learning about other countries and cultures and are working on raising money for a Heifer Project "Ark" which provide lifestock animals to folks in impoverished villages around the world. Because they get so much out of church anyway, I am letting my students needs direct us in our home Bible studies. It is for her and the state has no say in this one, so we go were we feel led.
Religion is very much a part of our everyday schooling. We have several weekly Bible memory verses, which come from our curriculum. Besides having an actual Bible study that we do once or twice/week, our Science, Social Studies and Reading/Phonics curriculum are Christian based (ACE and Rod & Staff) and use a lot of Christian values as well as passages/quotes from the Bible as a method of teaching. Although not the main reason, being able to incorporate our faith into everyday schooling was a big factor in our decision to homeschool. Our kids do get Sunday school and Kids Club at church, also.
Several of these answers could have been copied and pasted from my own thinking! Here are some more thoughts in response to the question, "Is Religion a subject you work into your HS?" Our religion is a relationship with a living Person, whom we invite to give wisdom and understanding in everything we do, say, think, and are, even if the topic at hand doesn't address Him directly. We study life's Handbook regularly. We also do comparative studies on different religions and have various types of books in our library which are considered the holy books or books of prophets of other religions, some of them given to us by people who were witnessing to us about their particular belief systems.
Thank you for all your suggestions! It warms my heart to know that so many children are growing up with religion woven in their everyday lives. That IS the missing link in society today, and why we are where we are. Sometimes its easy to lose hope. When religion dies, so do the values of a society. Now I can see that religion is alive and thriving in our youth. Some great points were made. I hope to teach my DSD about all the religions of the world because they exist and she should respect all religions though she should share the beliefs of her own. I can see this is the gift I can give her through HS, how to intertwine her life with her religion. Thanks everyone!
Nope. Nope. I am Buddhist & came to realize that on my own as an adult. My husband doesn't know "what" he his & couldn't care less LOL And so we are not leading our kids in any particular religious path ~~ they'll figure out what works for them when they're ready. If the subject comes up & they have questions, we try to answer them as best we can & never sayd "This IS how it is" or anything like that. We answer with "... some people believe so-n-so....". If we can't & it's something they really want to know, we make it a point to look it up from an unbiased source ~~ beliefnet.com is a really good one. You can get all the basics of just about any religion there.
Since we have not technically started hs, I cannot say exactly what we will do. I can say that I sent my eldest dd to Sunday school when I was not a christian, so she could get a basis of the christian idea. She was and is much more solid in her faith than I am. I tend to be a doubter by nature, I am a follower of Christ now... My current favorite prayer is "I believe, help me in my unbelief." I did like the stuff my ds learned in his one semester at private christian school. I plan on having some informal discussion on the bible as history, we are going to do ancient civilizations, and I expect religion will come up a lot!! ds is my philosopher, he comes up with questions!! wow! that have sent me to the bible and computer to try and answer. He is having trouble with the idea of the Trinity. And God's purpose in creating Man. And he is not baptized as I can not come up with an explanation that he really understands. He loves God, and has no doubts about Jesus's attonement. Most of his questions are so deep. I love LOVE just talking to him. And: sorry to be so longwinded, but I have a cousin whose mother is, shall we say spiritual, but certainly not Christian or any other organized religion...He has said he wished she had given him some basis in religion. (He minored in religious studies in college) He felt the cultural references that he did not understand were a hinderance.
Laja, thanks for that site. I love looking at the worlds religions, and it is the best if they are looked at through "open eyes".
OH cool... didn't know I'd get such a response to the website LOL I figured most people knew about it already. But, if you do go there & get bored... that Belief-O-Matic thing is pretty fun. Asks a bunch of questions & what your "importance" scale is to each one... then it tallys it up and tells you how much you match up to a whole list of world religions. My BFF took it ~~~ She's been raised Catholic all her life, but her "real beliefs" came back as Quaker. I went to Sam's Club & bought her a case of oatmeal --- left it on her front porch LOL
While most of the stuff on beliefnet is accurate about my religion, some things are not. The funny thing is the things written by actual members of my church are completely true, while things written by others who are NOT members are false. Looks like a good site, but like all things on the internet, don't believe everything you read! A good lesson for my DSD. Believe what your scripture says, not what other people say that it says. And be secure in your own beliefs, and let no one take them from you.
Laja.. it ranks me as a Quaker too. I won't say where I think I really fit in, my garden is full of tomatos and I don't need any thrown at me..lol, but it definately isn't Quaker.
We are Christians and so we start everyday with study of God's word. We feel that the Bible is the most important book we own, so no day begins without it. Because ds is in 6th, we also study history of God's people as our core.
I did not mention previously, Other major world religions, and the details of the diffences between major Christian groups will be worked into our other curriculum where appropriate, such as with world history, civilizations and cultural studies. I believe it to be very important that my students understand the beliefs of others, and the symbols, customs and celebrations that are involved. I think that such knowlege helps to ward off fear, and the resultant intolerance. Its okay for others to be different, and from our world view even "wrong". We can still love them, befreind them and learn from them.
