Hi, I’m Steve Willing, a retired neuroradiologist. My wife and I have been homeschooling our son from grades 5-7 with 8th coming up. He will probably go to a full-time school in one more year.
We took a different approach, by not using any formal homeschool curricula. I didn’t want him indoctrinated in young earth views (although by way of disclosure, I’m in the RTB camp and recently served as a visiting scholar).
For science, we’ve been using The Great Courses and I can only sing its praises. It’s an untapped gold mine for middle and high school science instruction. If only they had workbooks and testing to go along with it.
Grade 5 we did geology, based on their two courses, Geology of the National Parks and Geologic wonders of the world. Since we were free to travel, this was supplemented by many visits to the actual parks.
Grade 6 we did chemistry, using their basic Chemistry 1 course. This actually did come with a very helpful workbook, and we supplemented with a chemistry set.
Grade 7 we did biology, using a potpourri of courses: Botany, Birding in North America, Biology. We got the Nowicki high school biology text and workbook and gave him workbook assignments.
In May he took the Stanford 10, and scored at the 99th percentile for 7th graders for science, so the system seems to be working well enough.
I would like to poll the group. For the upcoming year I am thinking about a Church History course. Can anyone recommend a good one that is in depth, will take a year, and is Christian-oriented but not sectarian? We want him to respect all Christian traditions.
For church history (which we did alongside a two year world history cycle) we used the History Lives books, which have chapters that dramatize an incident from the life of a key leader in Church history. They included a nice variety of Christian traditions and covered the major figures you hope your kids recognize.
We also went through The Story of Christianity by David Bentley Hart. He is an orthodox theologian, so he gave a more inclusive perspective on the history of the church than some other books I’d looked at which tended to see everything through the lens of the Reformation. Some of the articles needed to be unpacked a little for my junior higher, but it was not too difficult of a level, especially considering we were reading the History Lives stories alongside it.
Hey! Been lurking around for a while, reading Biologos stuff, recommending it to anyone who’ll listen, checking in from time to time here on these forums.
Homeschool mom of 2 kids, 9 and 6. We move pretty regularly for the husbands job (every 3-5 years). Our science learning is still pretty basic, but I’m loving having this as a resource. I didn’t really grow up “in” the church in the ways that some have, but I certainly didn’t hear that there was any other way of thinking than YEC once I was older and had started going. Thank goodness for this resource.
Welcome! Thanks for coming out of lurkdom, and feel free to start a topic if you have specific questions or observations as you go. I’ve really benefited from the resources on this site too.
Welcome, Kate! BioLogos has also been very helpful to me as I try to figure out how to guide my children through science and faith discussions when my background was purely YEC. I’m glad you’ve found freedom and the ability to not “wear armor” when engaging with scientific topics!
Hello all! I am a new grandmother who, when we were raising our children, had many dear friends who homeschooled. However my husband and I sent our own children to excellent public schools (quite some time ago!). We supplemented their education at home and “deprogrammed” when we felt it was needed. But times have changed and if we were parents of young children today, we would most definitely homeschool now. I’ve enjoyed the Biologos site for some time and joined the forums to get feedback on a homeschool enrichment project we’re considering for our Texas ranch. Thanks to those who’ve already responded to my thread geared towards parents of eager learners!
Hi! I’m new here so I’m going to throw my info on here. I’m a second-generation homeschooler with three boys, currently age 9 and under. I would say we began homeschooling mainly because we liked the flexibility and being able to customize our kids’ education (and because I wasn’t ready to “outsource” it just yet when my oldest was 5!). Within a few years after that, my oldest was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, so now I would say a large part of our desire to homeschool is to provide him with a more controlled environment and to be able to more effectively address his unique abilities and needs. We attend the local chapter of a national, classical co-op that meets weekly (Classical Conversations). Our oldest also receives services through the public school system for additional reading support and speech/social skills. I am a big advocate for not being afraid of the public school system and for taking advantage of the opportunity to collaborate. We’ve met so many wonderful teachers there who have been so supportive and helpful.
What brought me to BioLogos? It’s very recent for me (within the last year) and I am still processing and gathering information. I was homeschooled myself from a very strong YEC perspective and attended a small Christian college that also taught YEC, so it was never really challenged. In my mid-20’s I had a pastor that I really respected put forth the idea that a faithful reading of Genesis does not require you to believe that creation happened 6,000 years ago to uphold the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. I said “huh, interesting, that makes sense” and filed it away for years.
Then a couple things came together for me. As I read books to my kids, I was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the young earth vs old earth question. I’d edit books on the fly from “millions of years ago” to “a very long time.” My oldest in particular is VERY into science and asks lots of VERY good questions. I realized I was going to need to have good, solid answers for him. I didn’t feel like YEC was a hill I wanted to die on, but I was uncomfortable going straight to “millions of years.”
Then COVID happened, and as I started seeing Dr Collins more on the news and hearing his interviews, I appreciated his perspective and remembered that I had always wanted to read his autobiography, Language of God. I started reading it with completely NO CLUE that it would lead me straight into the YEC/OEC/evolution issue. It really resonated deeply with me and I started to connect a lot of dots. In discussing all of this with my husband, he made a connection to the current COVID controversy (people downplaying it or being anti-mask): “you see what happens when people are anti-science.” That was a pretty big light bulb for me in seeing that 1. my YEC upbringing had taught me to be suspicious of most science and 2. that attitude has far-reaching effects.
I definitely don’t have it all figured out, but I’m committed to continuing to ask questions and to valuing science as a way to appreciate and understand God’s creation, and to not be fearful of it! It’s also important to me for my kids to see that Christians can have a range of interpretations on these issues. I can easily envision my oldest ending up in a science-related career and I sure don’t want to set him up to think YEC is the only way or that he would have to choose between an anti-science faith or an anti-faith science. Anyway, I appreciate this community and am learning a lot! Thank you!
Amen! I think this is where most of us are at. Welcome to the club! So many people got pushed out of their comfort zone because of Dinosaur Train or kids’ library books. The slope is not as slippery as we have been led to believe, fortunately.
Second-generationer here too. It’s a lot to process when something that’s been a part of your educational foundation for your entire life starts to shift… I’m glad you found your way here!
Yep… I grew up doing that in books I read, so I kept doing it for my own kids, but eventually started to question why. I’ve heard it said that there’s nothing that tells you what you believe better than having to teach it to someone else. It’s definitely worth asking why YEC is so important that we have to censor vast swaths of information to keep it up…
I’ve been a long time Biologos reader, but thought I’d join the forum now since I expect to need more specific and immediate feedback from the community in this newer phase of life. My wife and I stated homeschooling our oldest with Kindergarten in the '19-'20 school year (Right before COVID made homeschooling cool), with a preschooler right behind and a third standing by. We are a bit overwhelmed with all the material to wade through and our small-town homeschool community local community leans hard YEC.
I found Biologos after being caught on my heels in a small-group that was using YEC material. It was shocking. I had been exposed to a touch of flood geology and Gap-Creationism growing up, but through Highschool and college developed more of a progressive-creation, theistic-evolution perspective without ever being taught that dinosaurs rode on the ark or that “long-yomers” were compromised Christians. If I was exposed to Today’s YEC material in elementary school I am sure I would have swallowed it whole and can only imagine what a difficult time I would have had separating those “ideas of men” from my faith as I grew up and learned more. As such I’m now worried that the rigid doctrines YEC promotes will eventually shatter for many of our youth and leave them with damaged faith-foundations as they grow.
It is encouraging that a few other local homeschool parents we know are open to faith and science working together and that some of our church leadership was supportive when I raised my concerns about their YEC material. I’m hoping this Forum bolsters that local support and I am praying that we give our children the best education we can.
Welcome, Thomas! Your kids are at such a fun age to marvel at the wonders of creation together and indulge the natural curiosity that reminds you how cool the world is. It is a great phase to be in when you don’t feel the need to censor all the science out of the library books and nature documentaries because it “contradicts the Bible.”
We discovered the world of Biologos when a biology prof at our Christian university gave us Language of God back in 2007. Been grateful for Biologos ever since. I’ve been listening to the podcast for years now.
We homeschool because there’s no local school option that is both of decent quality and affordable. (Our home since '07 has been in a certain very large country in East Asia. We’re temporarily exiled in Taiwan due to COVID, but we’re trying to get back so we’re not inclined to enroll the kids in school here.)
I’ve come to the Biologos forums because we were recently surprised by strong anti-evolution comments from both our 9 and 11-year-old. (But I’ll ask for advice about that situation in another thread.)
I have 3 kids (6, 4, and 7 months). I was homeschooled myself through highschool, and loved the freedom, pace of life, and ability to explore my own interests. I homeschool my own kids to help instill in them a love of learning, curiosity, and wonder at the world around us.
I was always decent at science, but honestly wasn’t that interested untill I became an adult (and married a scientist!) We recently moved states so I haven’t found a homeschool community yet (there’s only one other family in our new church that plans on homeschooling). I was kind of freaking out over how to teach biology/evolution/Genesis to my kids (they ask a LOT of questions), so my husband recommended I get on the forums here. So…here I am! 🤷
Welcome, Courtney! Glad you found us. Feel free to look around the forum and ask any specific questions if they come up for you. Have you checked out the BioLogos Resources page yet? K-12 Educators Resource Center - BioLogos I found it very helpful for finding curriculum suggestions when I was trying to figure it out for my own kids. We’ve been using Pandia Press materials for the past two years and are enjoying it.
Welcome, Courtney, we are so glad you are here! The homeschool forum is not super hopping on a daily basis, but people rise to the occasion when someone wants to commiserate, so don’t be shy.
It’s a lot to process when something that’s been a part of your educational foundation for your entire life starts to shift… I’m glad you found your way here!