Thank you! My kids are 6 and 8. I’m intrigued by the Peace Hill curriculum. I read a book by Pete Enns a year or two ago and didn’t love it but I think it had more to do with where I was at spiritually at the time.
This gives me some options to investigate, thank you! It’s good to know Bookshark is owned by Sonlight so hopefully wouldn’t push an evolutionist perspective (as in, evolution explains all aspects of life and the idea of a creator is necessarily null and void). That’s comforting because while I obviously don’t want to use YEC materials, but I also get frustrated with books we read from the library that have hints of evolutionism. I usually stop reading and explain to the kids things like "okay, this book says gravity is the reason the planets came together… God is the reason the planets came together, but he used the force we call ‘gravity’ to do so) My son has gotten so used to it that recently he has just started saying “yeah, I know mom, I know!”
Anyway, thank you so much for your response, and for going to such extreme and arduous lengths to make it
I agree! I find so much more wonder and awe at the process of evolution than the idea that God ‘poofed’ things into existence. Perhaps that is an unfair caricature of the YEC position… but I just feel that the idea of evolution and deep time is more in keeping with the awesome and overwhelmingly majestic and BIG character of God that I see revealed in His word and in The Word, Jesus Christ! There are still plenty of things I don’t understand, of course, but as you say, one day we will see face to face and the “hows” will either fall away or come into their full majesty and redemption in the full coming of His kingdom. That is one of the reasons I find it upsetting when people conflate YEC beliefs with faith in Christ, as though you can’t possibly truly have the latter without the former.
And wow! You have your hands full! What an amazing thing to be doing - taking in your two foster baby relatives. I pray you have plenty of support! I will pray right now for God’s best outcome for the situation, whether that be reconciliation and rehabilitation for the birth parents or loving adoption.
Oh, I totally forgot that Biologos has a curricula suggestion page as well!!! I think I investigated it before a year or two ago and most things seemed too “old” for my kids but I need to re-evaluate that.
We slacked off a bit this winter schoolwise - I believe I mentioned this before, but my sister died of a drug overdose in October. That was pretty devastating and it took a few months just to resume a normal routine. I’m finally feeling excited about learning with my kids again and thinking we might just school through summer in a somewhat more relaxed mode.
Ooh, thanks for that recommendation! Sonlight uses “Leading Little Ones to God” for first grade, which doesn’t look terrible, but it also seems a bit old-fashioned and maybe too “systematic” for my tastes… I really like the previews I’m seeing of that Enns one… I might just have to switch.
Oh, good to know! Yeah, blogger Pete Enns was a little snarky for my tastes. You are saying it’s the same person but using a very different tone and style, and not literally a different Pete Enns, right?
Thank you!
I am homeschooling/unschooling in Australia.
It is great to find this forum as I do not know any other Christian homeschoolers who teach their children both the Bible and accept evolution.
It will be great to get some tips how.
Welcome, Zach. We hope we can be of help and support. It is sometimes tough to know how to approach difficult subjects in a loving manner with friends and loved ones, especially when the reaction received may not be so positively inclined. We all pray for God’s wisdom in life’s journey.
Welcome from one who reads a lot here but is often very late in responding. Do you live in Cairns? I’d be interested in learning what the homeschool scene is like there, or more generally in Australia. My son wants to visit your part of the world, as he wants to see a saltwater crocodile!
Please do let us know if there are specific “tips” you are interested in. This forum has been a wonderful source of ideas and encouragement for me.
Warm Regards,
Bruce Holt
Washington, DC (but soon to be Frankfurt, Germany) area
Hi Zach. Welcome to the forum from a homeschooling father. I hope you are able to find lots of encouragement through your interactions here, as I have.
If you are willing to share, I would love to learn more about your background with homeschooling and learning about science. Does the rest of your family share or support your EC thinking? I’m curious partly because my wife and I are not in accord in our thinking about these matters, and my son probably feels caught in the middle more than he lets me know. So I’ll be able to relate if that is a difficult issue for you.
I’m also rather obsessed with geography and like learning where people live.
I know some who come to the forum prefer to maintain some anonymity, so no worries if you don’t want to respond with more details here.
Thanks so much! My dad is not opposed to evolutionary creationism but leans towards old-earth stuff. My mom is more young-earth but not anti-old-earth. So I’m the only evolutionary creationist I did do the Answers in Genesis curriculum in elementary/middle school but now just study normal college texts for science.
The issue does come up a lot! I’m in IL by Wheaton College.
This will be our third year homeschooling. We have three children, ages 6, 6, and 7.
We are a bit of a lone family as far as a homeschooling community goes, because the nearest co-op is an hour away and we have very snowy winters. However, our children are in various activities (swimming, karate, scouting), which helps.
We use a Charlotte Mason-influenced approach to homeschooling and use almost all free resources.
We are a secular homeschooling family, but enjoy incorporating/addressing religious topics (in art, music, prose, etc.). We currently use underthehome.org for most of our subjects (reading, math, science, history, geography, art, music, prose, poetry). We also use khan academy for math review and Salsa Spanish for foreign language.
When we started, we weren’t sure how homeschooling would work for our family, but now it’s hard to imagine sending the children to school outside the home every day.