Category Archives: Getting Started w/ L.E.D.

Helpful tips for beginning L.E.D.

Where to Start?

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I could go many different places with that title. And many of you probably know my ultimate answer – renewing your own mind. But what I want to look at today is what area of learning should we start to renew our own mind in when beginning to apply a biblically principled education in our homes.

I believe we begin with our foundation, the Bible itself. We need to KNOW the Bible, to have it internalized. Learn how to study the Bible, how to deduce principles – find wisdom therein, and apply it to our lives, and also learn the content of the Bible, its unified message and stucture. This will be completely fleshed out in Freedom & Simplicity™ in Bible, and bits and pieces can be found in the L.E.D. Bible & Worship category of this blog and on the L.E.D. webpages.

The other area I believe is key to begin in is HisStory. Just as the Bible reveals God’s Plan. HisStory demonstrates the outworking of His Plan, in the lives of men and nations. Everything we study will connect to these two things – God’s Word and God’s World. In our studies of HisStory we apply our methods of study through reasoning, to apply Biblical principles, apply the lessons learned to our own lives and the world around us. We first lay down the foundations of the origin, purpose, principles and rudiments of HisStory, and then begin to study through the content of HisStory, looking at it through this Big Picture foundation, and studying it through our reflective methods. Freedom & Simplicity™ in HisStory fleshes this all out, leading you through how to learn and teach HisStory. In addition, you will find bits and pieces on the L.E.D. HisStory category of this blog and on the L.E.D. webpages.

What can you do in the meantime, while you are renewing your mind and learning how to teach by biblical principles? Check out this article.

 

What to Study

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What things are really imoprtant to study? What do our children really need to learn well? What facts do they need to remember?

In deciding what to study these are questions I look at:

Why am I studying this (do I need to remember this):
– to know God and His Word
– to understand His Plan
– to understand His Creation
– to advance His Kingdom

All facts we need to remember should fit within one of these categories.

 

Stepping into Freedom & Simplicity

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Freedom & Simplicity™ is truly that. It isn’t hard. But it is intentional! Below are “7 simple steps” – OK I wouldn’t call them that, because L.E.D. is not a check off list, but for those of you who need a list, there it is. Again, it isn’t hard. It is freeing. But you do have to do it. These points below correspond to our 7 Pillars of Excellence in education.

1. Renew your own mind. This is the first and most important aspect in Biblical education (discipleship) in the home. A student will never be more than their teacher. If you want lifelong learners who love to learn, you must become a lifelong learner who loves to learn. If you want a biblical foundation, you must lay one in your own life. If you want biblical thinkers, you must become a biblical thinker. As R.C. Sproul, Jr. says (paraphrased, because I’m out of town right now), “If you can’t teach physics, you can’t teach physics. But if you can’t teach the Bible, learn the Bible!”

2. Bring children along side you in living a life pleasing to God – in worship, praise in song, prayer, planning and preparing nutritious meals, providing modest clothing, changing the car oil, building a shed, studying to show yourself approved unto God, everything! “You follow me, as I follow Christ.” We are not just academically teaching our children. We are training them to live a life glorifying to God. And building relationships with them.

3. Read great books to them. The Bible, stories from long ago and yesterday. Read books with heroes of character! Read true stories, biographies, could-be-true stories, documents, great expressions – to read, listen to and look at – poetry, music, art. Fill your child’s heart with stories that touch their heart, in ways that will inspire them to greatness.  Yes, continue to read to them long after they can read to themselves. Hearing a great story doesn’t end when you can read it yourself. You are sharing more than the story. You are sharing yourself. Our Resources and Recommendations pages are full of great books – it starts here.

4. Copy greatness – literally, both physcially do what they did, and the words out of books. Young children naturally act out the stories they hear. That is great! Encourage it – the little boy who pretends to be Daniel slaying Goliath, or Daniel Boone living in the wilderness, trusting in God; the little girl pretending to be Ruth, gleaning in the fields, or Abigail Adams raising her family on the Word and journaling; the whole family acting out the story of the Sower and the Seed (as mine did last year, and had a blast!) Children will act out, not only in their play, but also in real life, after the heroes they have. See #3 again.

But go beyond just the physical acting out, and actually Copy the words of those great books and documents. Never underesteminate the power of Copywork. It is true learning and has much more value than many give it credit for. It should be a lifelong daily habit.

5. Retell greatness. Become a story teller. Tell the stories you’ve learned in your own way – orally, in pictures, act it out, write it out. Again, you may think this is a simple exercise, of little value. Do not underestimate the power of Narration. The Story (Mashal) touches the heart whether read in a book or told from the heart.

6. Put it in a book – make your own books of your Copywork and Stories and notes and whatever else you produce. Notebooking again is not a difficult thing – and need not be made difficult by worrying about if you are “doing it right” or “putting the right things in it”. Notebooking (Journaling) is a natural thing that all learners do. Journaling,  includes not just your Copywork, or Retellings, or Research findings. It also goes beyond these to include your own thoughts, reasoned from what you’ve learned.

7. Live and tell your own story. Your Journals become your Books, as you share them with others. Your studies and life lessons bring out your own Life Story, who God designed you to be. You Life Story may not be written as a written biography, but the message God has designed you to bring to the world may be written and published in a book – or it may just be lived out in front of your neighbors, whether next door, in a vocation, or around the world. Share the message God has given you to share.

Did you really thing education (discipleship) was harder than that? L.E.D. brings Freedom & Simplicity™ in Spirit LED home education!

If you’d like a simple introduction to breaking out of the school-at-home box, download our “dirt cheap” intro guide,
Finding Freedom & Simplicity™.

De Emoh

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Many home educators, perhaps even most, begin this journey backwards. They decide to home educate and then the first thing they do is pick a curriculum. They may ask friends what they use and buy that. They may pour over catalogs looking for the latest “best”. They may do an internet search to find free.

Now, when we began home educating it was no different, except it was hugely different. We had very little to pour over. There was no internet. We may not have known another home educator. (We didn’t.) And if we did, they were using one of the very few curriculums available.

Today you have it much tougher. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for a new home educator to begin to wade through all that is out there. But I think that is an even greater reason for beginning this journey at the right end of things – and that isn’t by choosing curriculum.

I don’t know why our minds tend to work backwards in this area. Perhaps it is human nature. No doubt it has something to do with the way we were educated. We tend to look at the externals, the effects, rather than, or at least before, the internal, the causes. We look at the what before the why or the how. The problem with that is the why and the how dictate the what. So even if we aren’t discerning the why and the how first, someone else has and the what you choose is based on someone else’s why and how.

This backwards approach even works itself out in how we teach our children.

To be continued… Lord willing, tomorrow.

 

Ideas or Information?

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Which is the basis of your education? What do your goals generally look like? Are they to learn the names and dates of Presidents and Kings or are they to understand the ways men govern and how man’s character affects his governing? Are they to memorize the parts of speech and list of prepositions or are they to communicate clearly God’s message they have to share? Rather than going on with examples I’ll just ask, do you think the goal of education is to memorize reams of information? Do you think little children can’t learn ideas such as these?

Surely you’ve heard the old adage, “Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about other people.” (I’ve seen it attributed to Tobias Gibson.) Think about what people talk about in society – the weather and other trivial facts, other people, themselves (the smallest of people surely fit here), and ideas. Can you not see that the adage is true?

Yes, religion and politics can bring disagreement in discussion, but they are the seedbed of ideas. All of life goes back to the core questions all of man has, whether he seeks their answers or seeks to avoid them, “Who is God?” and “Who is man?” and “What has God done?” and “How then is man to live?” You cannot escape religion and government in discussing ideas, because these are core to life itself. It is in the discussion of ideas that the mind grows – that society grows. And in discussing ideas, a child and a child’s mind grows.

There are educational philosophies that believe in teaching the great ideas, but — only in the later years of education. They spend the early years filling the child with facts to memorize. They believe the child will have something to think on and understand later, if he is full of facts first.

I respectfully disagree. A young child truly can reason and understand. Granted, not at the level of an adult, we grow in wisdom and understanding. But a child wants ideas; he longs for ideas; he continually asks “Why?” We’ve given a child a false misconception of value by granting our exuberant praise for rattling off a list he has memorized, rather than for his question of “Why?” Do we not see that a child who asks “Why?” has a hunger for learning. He desires growth. A child trained to rattle off information for praise has a hunger for self-acclamation. Knowledge truly puffs up. Surely we desire our children to hunger for growth in life and character more than self-acclaim and pride.

Does our basis of ideas mean we do not teach facts? Of course not! That would be impossible. As a Christian growth (not education) seminar I attended years ago taught, “Knowledge does not lead to wisdom. Wisdom always leads to knowledge.” It fits perfectly in our style of education. Information does not of itself lead to anything but parroting of knowledge. Ideas always apply to information. They are studied out in their very applications.

Learning ideas is our goal. We teach information within the context of ideas to give the information meaning. Learning is not just “knowledge.” It is wisdom, understanding, and knowledge – the proper understanding of knowledge and application of truth. As God’s Word teaches, “knowledge puffs up.” Men are “ever increasing in knowledge but never coming to the truth.” Yet, the “Lord gives wisdom, from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” “Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge….” In my words, teach information within the context of ideas, with the understanding and application of the ideas being the goal of the lesson. That is, above all teach Biblical ideas (principles) as the foundation of all of education and life.

 

Writing Your Own Curriculum

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Does that sound scarey to you? Do you think you can’t possibly write your own curriculum? I hope by the end of this series of articles you will change your mind.

Years ago I got a book called, You Can Write Your Own Curriculum (or something like that). It was so common sense and easy to integrate, that once I adapted and developed some forms to suit our needs I got rid of the book. I wish I still had it to share its simplicity with you. But instead you will get my version.

For some the question may not be can I do it, but why would I want to? Writing curriculum is work. It takes time. And who knows if I’d do it right. So why write your own curriculum? In one word, Liberty.

Here in America we’re generally losing the understanding and the care about what that word means. We think freedom is doing whatever I want while someone else foots the bill. But in truth Liberty can be summed up in having self-government so no one needs to control me. It speaks of character and growth. Neither comes without Labor. Both require that four letter word that many don’t like to hear, work. But it is through Labor that we grow in wisdom, knowledge, understanding – and character.

Yes, writing your own curriculum requires work, but that is not a bad thing. It is the thing that will cause your own growth, and help develop good character in you. That which we are handed, whether it be curriculum or welfare, does not cause growth or develop character. It does not cause increase. It is only through Labor that we produce, cause increase.

How does this connect to Liberty? Increase through labor brings freedom. We live in a society that seeks ease above freedom, constantly giving away liberties in exchange for someone else to take care of everything for them. We do not have freedom when we are dependent upon others to take care of us. This mindset can pervade our thoughts of education also. We don’t see that freedom comes from laboring for production for ourselves. Laboring to write our own curriculum brings Liberty by freeing us from someone else’s ideas of what education should look like for our family. It frees us from being dependent upon someone else for our increase of knowledge.

Writing our own curriculum causes us to exercise our creativity through labor to cause us to grow and produce. It frees us from a consumer mentality. It allows our family to operate in the individuality God has created within us. It keeps us dependent upon the Lord.

Writing our own curriculum exercises our faith. We need to trust God to lead us to educate our children in the way He would have them go. We write in “fear and trembling”, acknowledging our own weaknesses and inadequacies but His ever present strength when we are weak that enables us to “do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, and knowing that His grace that is sufficient. He will see us through, and all glory goes to Him. And when we are most glorifying Him we have our greatest joy!

We write our own curriculum because of the freedom, individuality, and creativity, variety, growth and joy in it. It allows our family to show forth who God is making us to be.

I will continue this series, showing you the Freedom & Simplicity™ in Curriculum Writing.

 

Principles, Truths, & Rudiments

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What’s the difference between principles, truths, and rudiments? These may be completely foreign terms to you, but they are basic terms in Biblically principled education that is expansionary. Expansionary education teaches by “planting seeds that contain the whole” by getting to the core principles of a subject and beginning with those and from those the whole subject grows. This is sometimes called teaching from whole to parts.

The definitions of these terms somewhat overlap. But you see slight nuances in them that give us our basis of usage.
Principle: Source or origin of any thing, that from which a thing proceeds; element, constituent part; ground, foundation; a general truth; a law comprehending many subordinate truths.

Truths: (see also McDowell quote below): Conformity to fact or reality; true state of facts or things; fidelity, constancy; real fact of just principle; conformity to rule.

Rudiments: A first principle or element, that which is to be first learnt.
Let’s take a look at what others say about these:
This first came from a discussion with Ellen at the Foundation for American Christian Eduction:

Every subject will have its own individual principles. “THE 7”
Principles (of American Christian History and Government) are basic
foundational Biblical principles. You will find them interwoven
through much of what you study. But every lesson in every subject is
not based upon “the 7”. Utilize them as they fit. Utilize others as
they fit.

This from McDowell & Beliles book “Liberating the Nations”:

“While the Bible contains thousands of truths, these can be broken down into a small number of principles form which the truths spring forth. If these principles are known, this provides complete parameters through which to view life, assuring that one truth is not forgotten while embracing a new one.” And they go on to discuss principles as “seed”.

So how do we use these terms? I don’t know that there is anything magical about the terminology but from the above this is how I use them. IOW, this is a generally the explanation I go with but it is not set in cement.
1) I term the “Universal” or Foundational Principles as the “7”. These are God’s governing principles that overrule so many areas of all of life.
2) The Biblical principles that are specific to a subject I usually term the Biblical Truths (or Biblical principles) of the subject.
3) And the principles that govern the subject (not directly derived from the Bible), the first rules of the subject itself, I usually term the Rudiments.

I will post an example, probably in the subject of math, and add its link here – hopefully later today.

 

In the Meantime

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Much of our Discipleship for Life™ teaching emphasizes the primary importance of renewing your mind. To truly learn, it is necessary to see from the viewpoint of Wisdom, to see the Big Picture, how things fit together. Biblical learning brings forth true Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom. It paints a glorious and non-abstract picture of God and His World. (Of course, we cannot see God completely clearly, but we can know Him as He is.)

But we will not get this clear picture from the ways of the world that we have been taught. From it we will get an abstract, fragmented, unclear picture. The ways that seem right to the natural man not only lead to death, but also bondage, the inability to think and reason Biblically about life, this world and God.

But, where do we begin? We haven’t learned this way. We learned by rote and drill – cram, test, crash and forget – with the emphasis on isolated facts, not unifying Principles. What do we do with our children while we are learning to teach them?

One way to approach this is to start or leave your children in the way of the past – rote and drill, learning individual facts for a test – while you begin to learn this new way. You can do this.

But I believe there is a better way, a way that begins to, step by step, lead them – and you – out of bondage and into Freedom and Simplicity™. These beginnings will ease them into a Biblically principled education for Discipleship for Life™.

As you are slowly learning, renewing your own mind, you can begin to teach them these same new ways. Line upon Line. Can we write perfect lesson plans? No. Can we teach them something? Of course.

I believe the place to start is not with “core subjects” or the “basics”, though you could, but rather with the foundation for all our teaching, the Bible. God’s Word is the primary thing we are commanded to teach our children, and what we are basing all other learning upon.

Begin studying the Bible with your children today, teaching what you learn. Whatever you have internalized from your own study for Biblical wisdom can be shared with your children, and you can teach them how to learn too. Begin to teach your children how to study the Bible. The most important thing you can teach your children is how to learn. You may not know this all yourself yet, but you can apply any part of it you know – in Bible study and other studies as well. Don’t wait until you know it all, teach what you know.

Begin reading with your children, both the Bible and great living books – and discuss what you read. Not just you telling them what was there, but encouraging them to discuss what they saw in the reading.

Begin reasoning with your children. Ask them questions that require them to think. Ask questions that help them to see the connection of what they are learning to the whole of the subject, to the whole of God’s plan.

Begin encouraging your children to reflect on what you (and they individually) read. Encourage them to look at it from God’s point of view. Encourage them to look for how it relates to them. Encourage them to write down their thoughts.

You are wanting to begin the shift, in their minds and yours, to focusing on ideas before details, to seeing cause and effect, to placing everything they learn into a Biblical context. You want to plant small seeds that with nourishment will grow over time and produce a beautiful garden, rather than handing them an unrelated menagerie of cut plants that will soon whither and die.

If you will notice, in the things I recommended to do, just natural, very basic things, you will find the methodology of Biblical learning. In L.E.D. I teaching I term this methodology of Biblical learning “The 6 Processes of Learning”. As stated by Rosalie Slater in the Principle Approach, this is 4 R-ing – Research, Reason, Relate, and Record. Neither is a step by step legalistic formula, but just a way to express the processes of thinking required to learn. There is more to learn of course, but with this you will be off to a great start in Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™.

To begin your own process of renewing your mind, you may want to consider the Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ – The Seminar. It will be held live in North Platte, NE on June 9 or you may purchase it for electronic download on mp3 with bonus doc handouts and powerpoint presentations.

 

Defining Biblical Principles Education

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This pic has nothing to do with this post, but is only included for the Summer Splash BiblePrinciples Facebook Party 🙂

God’s Kingdom is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field. ~ Matt. 13:31

What is Biblical Principles education? I believe it can be summed up in one word, Foundations or Seed. It is about seeking that which lies under, supports, and from which all else is built upon.

It is more than just “teaching based upon the Bible”, although it certainly is that. Biblical Principles education is based solidly on Christianity, particularly as seen in the historical protestant faith beginning in the Reformation, that sought to restore the pure Christianity of the New Testament, that taught that the Law of Liberty begins in hearts submitted to God. It has as its foundation some core teachings of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura–God’s Word alone, and Soli Deo Gloria–for God’s glory alone. Biblical Principles education is a specific philosophy and methodology of teaching based upon the Bible for specific goals.

Foundational Goals

Some of the Foundational aspects of Biblical Principles education are in realizing that what is produced and seen externally begins internally. This is seen in some of its goals:

  1. to be self-governed under God, which requires a heart submitted to God.
  2. to reason Biblically, taking all of life and learning back to “what does the Scripture say” that applies to this.
  3. to think governmentally, determining not only who or what is vying for control, (while realizing that everything lies in the ultimate control of God Himself,) but also discerning what view of government is being promoted.
  4. to see life and learning from God’s perspective, that is in context of the Big Picture. This is wisdom.

Rudiments

Every effect has a cause, and these results are accomplished by seeking out the perspective, purpose and principles of what we are studying. These are the “seed that contains the whole” of our study, the basic elements from which all else (the details and facts) spring forth. These basic elements, Rudiments, are:

  1. seeking God and His purpose in everything learned–the Biblical origin, foundation and purpose of each subject and topic studied.
  2. seeking out the foundational principles of a study–seeing the Big Picture of the study, putting it in context–in both God’s Word and His Creation. I heard it said recently that we can really only study 2 things, God and His Creation. His Word is our Source, His Creation is our re-source. The Principles found will be both Universal (in context with its relationship to all things) and Unique (specific to the subject itself).

Relational Learning

From this “seed” of our study springs forth the entire study. From a foundation of wisdom, we gain understanding and knowledge. From seeing the study in the above context we are able to relate it to our own life (and other things in God’s Creation), learn from it, not just learn it. Then when we learn the facts and details unique to the study, we are learning them in proper context; the facts and details have meaning and relationship. We can look at them both in their universal and unique applications.

The Kingdom of God is like… Seeds

This is Kingdom Education. Have you ever noticed how God so often relates His Kingdom to a seed? (another message for another day) It is whole learning–wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, seeking God’s perspective, purpose and principles, in everything we read and research, so that it is understood in the context of Truth, so we can apply it to our own lives. When we apply God’s Word, in all areas of life, to our own lives, that is growth, true education. What is the final result of the growth of seeds? Reproducing more seed. This is seen in our recording our findings so we can both teach others, and build upon our own learning.

Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™

As you can tell, this is not just a curriculum, in the context of a daily plan and set of resources, you place before your child. It is a lifestyle of education that begins with you renewing your own mind, pressing toward those goals above for your own life. The education of your children is actually “seed reproduction”, planting in their lives from the harvest in our own. This is discipleship. Notice at the end of Matthew’s telling of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what we call the Great Commission, that Jesus told His disciples to make disciples, to reproduce themselves. Notice, the teachers were to first of all be students of Christ themselves. This is what I call Lifestyle Education through Discipleship.

In a Nutshell

To put it into one sentence I could say, Biblical Principles education is seeking God’s perspective, purpose, and principles in every area of life and learning, and applying them to my own life, and journaling all the rich treasures I find therein.

To hear a short clip from our Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ Seminar on how Principle Approach™ and L.E.D. fit together, click here.

 

Are You Ready for a New Start?

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We have returned from vacation, just in time for me to get a nasty sinus infection and headache – uggh. So I’m feeling like I should post, but my brain really is not up to thinking through an article at this point. So I’ll just share some basics on preparing for a new year of discipling our children at home.

Probably the most beneficial thing you can do is prepare a few foundational lessons for each area of study. Some keys I include in prepare these lessons are:
1) the Biblical perspective of the area of study
Every area of study has a Biblical philosophy behind it and can (and should in the Christian home and school) be taught based on that. Giving our children a “Christian” education does not mean just tacking Scripture verses or Bible classes onto your “normal” learning. It means studying everything from God’s perspective and for His glory. A good beginning resource for this is Ruth Haycock’s Encyclopedia of Bible Truths.

2) the foundational vocabulary of the area of study
It’s always good to know just what you are studying. What is the big picture of it? How does it all fit together? Knowing the vocabulary is the key to taking dominion. A good resource for this is Noah Webster’s original 1828 Dictionary. You can also use it for free online.

3) the source/ origin of the area of study and the purpose for studying it
Every area has a Biblical source or origin and reason for studying it. You could simply say, “It started with God.” But it is good to go a bit further than that. Use an exhaustive concordance along with the terms and definitions you got from Webster’s 1828 for this.

4) the rudiments of the study area
What aspects are the basic elements of the area of study? The whole of the study will expand from these – throughout all the years of study. The student that receives these seeds of each area of study will have a stong foundation for all his years of study to be built upon. Much of this too can be determined from the word studies in Webster’s 1828. Further helpful information can be found in the Noah Plan Curriculum Guides and the Guide to American Christian Education for Home and School.

5) the Biblical principles of the study area
Here we look both at how the subject reveals the 7 Biblical Principles of Liberty and also the principles specific to the individual study. These will only be deduced from the above studies – reading and researching, and spending time ruminating and reflecting on the subject.

These 5 key elements form a foundation for each area of study that we can build upon each year. This year perhaps you will only scratch the surface of each, next year you can expand each area in each area.

Mom and Dad, there is only one way you can disciple your children. That is by beginning these studies yourself. You must be headed somewhere before you can lead your children there. That is what L.E.D. is all about – “you follow me, as I follow Christ”.