@cartophile
Geography: I grew up (and was homeschooled myself K-5) near Chicago, I lived and taught for four years in Virginia, moved back to Chicago and lived and taught there for eight years, moved to Texas for a year and started homeschooling, moved to Mexico for three years, moved back to Texas for this current school year, and this summer, I’m moving back to Mexico where I will be indefinitely.
Hi everyone, my name is Nathan Creitz. My wife and I homeschool our two oldest children (the youngest is 8 months old). Our daughter is a 6yo and our son is a 4yo. We live in New York City and I am the church planting pastor of City Life Church in Queens. Almost everything we do goes against majority culture in some way. Our decision to homeschool is often greeted with polite curiosity from neighbors. But, strangely enough, our belief that God created the world and the science seems clear that He used evolutionary creation as the process meets with more pushback from brothers and sisters in Christ.
My wife and I have found BioLogos to be very helpful in providing resources for homeschoolers. I recently showed my children the video about the Grand Story of Creation from BioLogos and they loved it. We were excited to discover this new forum. We want our children to be classically educated and to be familiar with modern scientific theory of origins and also be intimately acquainted with God’s sovereign work of creation.
We would love to hear what other homeschool parents are using to teach science in the early years.
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These threads have some discussion of people’s experience with various materials, if you haven’t found them already:
https://discourse.biologos.org/t/the-deal-with-homeschool-science-materials/
Hello everyone 
Thread is a bit old I know, sorry for resurrecting it.
I heard of BioLogos a long time ago from /r/Christianity. My faith hinges on Jesus Christ, and I used to live in Vancouver BC which is pretty liberal, so I never really faced rejection and the need to staunchly defend my views on creation. I felt like if I’m wrong I’m wrong, okay, I’ll get you a coffee in heaven. It really doesn’t matter. I just want to know how things work out of curiosity and reverance for the Creator: if tomorrow they find a completely different explaination of evolution, then I’ll go with what’s the most reasonable.
Well, having recently moved to Ontario Canada, apparently “live and let live” doesnt work.
I applied to be part of a HomeSchooling group that I thought happened to be Christian. Cool. But before I can even apply they need my husband and I to sign a document that reads “we reject any notion of evolution”. Right beneath " we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
I sent the form back, truthfully denying to agree to it. If pretty sure we’ll be rejected. Which sucks. Because there are no other groups in my region for homeschoolers, secular or Christian. It really really sucks.
Anyway I’m going to have to start my own group I think. Even if this one group allows me in I feel pretty conflicted about potentially being treated as a leper, or having to keep proving myself to be Christian to them. I don’t know I hope I’m just being too hard on them and hopefully they’re actually cool and have a range of views they accept.
Anyone in Oshawa ON?
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People post on old threads all the time, no problem. Welcome to the forum!
My daughter was in a co-op this year to take one class and although they did not ask about origins views, the application process was more involved than it is for some colleges. In addition to the long and detailed application form which asked some silly questions like “does your child ever misbehave,” we had to have three references (one from a pastor), samples of student writing (so she could take a musical theater class) and a family interview. It was over the top. So my sympathies to you as you try to find a group. I bet if you started your own group, you’d find you weren’t the only disaffected one, you should go for it.
This particular group is for kids as young as 5. There was the aforementioned 6 page 12pt font statement of faith affirmation that we must sign and agree to, a testimony of how my husband and I came to Christ, and only after that will be the home interview. Followed by a one year probationry period during which we can be excommunicated at will, and only then can we wait list for tier 2 membership.
Getting into seminary school and getting baptised were much easier.
I am not a leader type. But this really leaves me with no choice.
What kinda of things are offered at a co-op? I’m so new at this whole thing.
Hi, I’m a 2nd generation homeschooler and extremely enthusiastic to have discovered this forum!
My kids are in the dinosaur phase. They are 6 and 3.5.
I was raised in awe of Ken Ham. My family (homeschoolers/missionaries) attended his seminars and chirped “Were you there?” at any whiff of evolution in books and tv programs. Young earth creationism was a significant part of my Christian identity. (This was in central WA state btw)
In college I met people who were Jesus lovers who didn’t believe that the earth was young. Most influential was my biology major roommate (I was studying English lit) who happened to be a Hugh Ross fan. She regularly got materials from Reasons to Believe. I ate them up. My viewpoint began to change. At this point I’d consider myself an evolutionary creationist. It was a gradual shift; but my death grip on Genesis loosened bit by bit.
I now reside in Boise Idaho and enjoy a robust homeschooling culture here. Unfortunately, the co-ops I’ve looked into use YEC materials exclusively and the state convention has workshops in the same vein. I have not needed to “out” myself as a believer in evolution yet, simply because my kids are very young, but I know it is in my near future as I search for a group. I’ve used some Sonlight materials with my kids but for the most part we are unschooled at this point. I do have a degree in education and an endorsement in library media. I taught in public schools for several years before having kids. I left a ‘dream job’ as a librarian to stay home with my babies.
I look forward to learning and contributing to this forum! I’m not a scientist or a theologian, but I’m an educator and a lifelong learner. Thankful to have found you!
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Hi, Carrie – glad you’ve found some good community here! I’m not official here or anything (and not even a homeschooler 
), but I am an enthusiastic Christian educator. I hope that’s close enough for occasional fellowship here. I guess maybe you’ve been hanging out here a while and probably don’t need introductions, but I just wanted to let you know I resonate with your passions towards kids (especially your own!) and being a lifelong learner. My own two sons are both undergraduates in college right now [is there an emoji for panhandler complete with a ‘donate’ button?]
In any case I’ve always enjoyed this forum for its wildly unrestrictive participation (but not completely out of control --thanks, moderators). But it is quite a contrast to a typical Bible study where answers are well-prescribed and carefully corralled back into the fold should any stray across a line. This can be frustratingly far the other way for people concerned about heresy and imminent lightning strikes – but, hey! It’s not like we’re all standing right next to each other, right? But I do think there is something healthy (even in the midst of existing dangers too!) of all of us feeling safe enough to bring our thoughts, be they orthodox, heretical, or just crazy to the table for other Christians to react to or even correct. There are very few Christian fellowships that are like this. (And yes, I think this qualifies as Christian fellowship even without everybody here being required to self-identify that way – we are all the richer for it.)
In any case, that’s my long welcome.
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Hi Carrie! Some of us never leave that phase.
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Hi Carrie, so glad you found your way here! No science or theology degrees are required. 
And just for clarification’s sake, it’s the open forum where things can be more of a theological free for all. We have asked the participants on the homeschool forum to be people who accept or are least seriously exploring the BioLogos perspective and don’t have a problem with our What We Believe statement.
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@Homeschool_Forum Hello! I’m so thankful for this thread. I discovered Biologos a couple years ago and was so relieved to find it! Our family came to the Christian faith about three years ago. Before that, we were sort of adrift in a new-agey pastiche with a Brahmanistic / pantheistic view of God. What a relief to know that God is very intensely personal! I was very attracted to Biologos as not only a way to reconcile evolution with the Christian faith but also as a community of people wrestling with all the big questions!
I always wanted to homeschool. I grew up attending large suburban public schools (with the exception of high school - private Catholic all-girls) and loathed school from day one. I wanted my children to have a much different educational and formational experience than I did! I have a son, Israel, age 6 (we chose the name somewhat randomly when we were still new-agey, obviously… I love how God works) and a daughter, Arrow, age 4. Last year was our first year of homeschooling.
We are originally from Kansas City but two years ago moved to a very rural area in southeastern Colorado. The a couple months ago, we moved to a small town about forty minutes outside of Wichita. We’ve already joined a co-op here and it looks like our homeschooling support community will be much better than in Colorado, where hs’ers were quite sparse and most were YEC (though very nice people that we had playdates with - just might have been challenging to be in a co-op situation with them, had one existed, since we had some different views). Anyway, I’m so grateful this forum has been established!
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Welcome, Ashley! So glad you found us! I hope you and the family are enjoying what remains of the summer before you dive into school:-) And feel free to ask questions of this group. There are several pretty experienced homeschooling families here:-)
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I am a reluctant homeschooler:). I grew up in a great public school and have been very pro public school. However, in Jan, the local public school started to rapidly become a poor fit for my second grader. He was bored and equated school as a place where he didnt learn. There is something particularly tragic about a jaded 7 yo. He would come home and try to learn as much as he could about math and science just to scratch this insatiable itch of his. And then he would spend 7 hours at school “doing nothing.”
So, after about 6 weeks of trying to figure out what to do and work with the system, we pulled him out. I promised him that he could learn as much math and science as he wanted to (I am a chemical engineer by training, so this is also my first love!). And we have not looked back. I wish we had pulled him sooner, it has been such an unexpectedly good fit for us.
Now my rising 1st grader wants to be homeschooled, as does my 4yo. I told my 1st grader that I wanted him to finish first grade at the local school, and then I would homeschool him if he still wanted it.
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@Jen.R Good for you taking into consideration the needs of each individual kid. I’m always a little skeptical when people think homeschooling, or public, or private school is the only good/rational/Christian/whatever option. Obviously different situations work for different parents and different kids at different phases of life and circumstances.
I’m a reluctant homeschooler too. We moved to rural Mexico, and there just aren’t really any other viable options. I have been enjoying it, but I am also a little daunted by how much work it is to do a good job. Like you said on the other thread, you have to actually teach stuff, and have a plan and goals and not just bake some cookies and call it math.
I was a public school teacher, as was/is my dad, brother, sister-in-law, several aunts, and cousins. I don’t have this big beef with the American education system (in functional school districts that are doing a good job, at least.) I have found the extreme reaction to things like common core standards alignment or even “textbooks” in the homeschool community to be a little mystifying. I know you can’t replicate a classroom experience in your home, and there are definitely aspects that are better not imitated, but it’s not like I’m aiming for the opposite of public school education.
I have a fourth grade boy who sounds a lot like your son. He spends all his screen time on Scratch (a site developed by MIT to teach young kids computer coding.) He asks a million questions I don’t know how to answer, and I’m constantly telling him to watch a Kahn Academy video about X. It is really amazing what curious kids can teach themselves if you point them in a direction.
Welcome to the forum!
Can you send me your “bake some cookies and call it math lesson plan”? I have some students who would consider that a most attractive change of pace.
@Mervin_Bitikofer It only counts if you halve or double the recipe. Or use standard measuring cups and a metric recipe.
My AP Chem teacher had a pre-Christmas vacation lab where we synthesized a couple artificial flavors and made lollipops over bunsen burners. It was the best. 
Thanks for the welcome!
I am familiar with Scratch - what an incredible tool. We just bought Lego Mindstorms which was pricey, but a huge hit. And it uses a programming platform similar to Scratch. I am so very thankful that I am homeschooling in the age of the internet. How exactly does the inner ear work? Youtube! How does the immune system in the blood work? Youtube! Want to know about the different parts of an animal cell and their functions? Youtube! My heavens. I took classes on this in college and I would have learned the concepts much quicker and more thoroughly if I could have watched a 20min video on the lipid layer or mitochondria or whatever. And as a result, my 8yo has a better functional understanding of this and much more than I did, thanks to an unimaginable wealth of virtually free resources.
Plus, the beauty of science curriculum in elementary school is that you can pretty much cover whatever you want as long as you cover something. Science education is woefully lacking in traditional elementary schools, so we are free to pursue our areas of interest without “falling behind.” Or at least that has been my albeit limited experience.
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You just brought that up so you could use the lollipop emoji! That does sound like a great lab, though! I’ve never synthesized any artificial flavors before --that sounds pretty advanced.
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Not to knock “Scratch” – I’m pretty impressed with it myself, but another alternative for those who have dabbled in the free (and now very user-friendly) Linux operating system shells like Ubuntu, there is “Kturtle”. It’s a bit more typing-based than the click-and-drag Scratch, but for that very reason it also gives a great feel for fun graphical programming in a simple environment.
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My father-in-law delegated his Christmas shopping to his new lady-friend last Christmas and she was not clued in to the typical price range (there are only five grandkids and two are babies) and she got my son Lego Mindstorms. He was so ecstatic. This book has been really helpful for him.
The internet definitely beats the second-hand encyclopedia set I was always referred to as a child.