Ideas for an Orthodox home-schooling programme

[Ken McRae]

Dear Friends of God ~

I've decided to withdraw my 10 year old daughter from the Catholic School System, and home-school her this year, for the first time, this coming September! My problem now, though, is that I find myself a little behind in my curriculum preparation, and September is just 'round the corner. What I need is the names of any and all suppliers of Eastern Orthodox home-schooling materials. If you know of any, please post them here, as it would ge greatly appreciated! I'm thinking about dedicating the first Tri-mester mostly to reviewing Grade 4, and firming up some of her weak spots a little, before introducing the Grade 5 material.

If I cannot find an Orthodox curriculum, I may just purchase a Catholic one, instead of Protestant. All Secular Humanistic curriculums are automatically disqualified (for reasons only too obvious)! The first hour of every school day will be dedicated to prayer and religious studies: Catechism, Church Tradition(s), Church calendar, and readings in the lives of the saints. As I believe in a Western Orthodox 'Rite', I'll also be teaching her Latin. If the opportunity ever presents itself in the future, I'd like for us (my family) to attend a Western Rite Orthodox Parish. However, I am not aware of the existence of any in my part of the Country.

The second hour of every school day will be dedicated to physical fitness: 20-30 min. of theory, plus 30-40 min. of physical application. She'll have at least 1 field trip every week; and I'm also exploring some form of charitable program for us, where we visit the sick and elderly, to provide some form of charitable assistance, in the name of the All-Holy Trinity, once every week, for about 40 mins. to an hour at the most. This hour might also be spent in some form of Letter exchange or correspondence with orphaned children of the Third World. I'm open to your ideas regarding charitable activities.

humbly,
Theophilus

[Antonios]

Good for you, Theophilus! I think what you are embarking on is wonderful! In fact, it has me think about my own daughter's future (she still only 18 months old). I found this on the web that may be helpful:
http://www.oca.org/RHArticle.asp?SID=15&ArticleID=167

I'll keep looking and posting if I find more...

[Antonios]

http://www.paideaclassics.org/index.php

[Ken McRae]

Many thanks Antonios for those very helpful links! I hope you decide to do the same as well. The rewards will far surpass your expectations, I'm sure!

[Mary]

I'm homeschooling my kids. Still new to it. Only in our second year of 'formal education'. There are TONS of resources out there for homeschoolers. Most will turn up if you do an online search. But it's hard work to read through all the reviews, because you usually see only the positive ones and everything you read sounds wonderful.

If I cannot find an Orthodox curriculum, I may just purchase a Catholic one, instead of Protestant.

Don't write off all Protestant curriculum. Most are not heretical - in every sense of the word - just incomplete. They have most of the resources anyway. The only one that I was totally turned off by was the 'Christ Centered Curriculum'. I also don't buy any of the Bible Curriculum - you don't have to buy an entire curriculum - you can pick and choose bits and pieces and put together something that works for your daughter.

My reason for not buying any Bible curriculum (I've only been orthodox for two months) - was simply because I didn't want 'Bible' to become a compartment in our school life, like Math, Literature, etc. Bible isn't a subject. It's Life. We learn it in church, we learn it while living in Obedience. And while I agree there has to be a regular amount of Biblical teaching, I dont' see why it has to be any different from the teaching that I am receiving as an adult. So we read the scripture portions from the lexicon, we read about the saints, we do our morning and evening prayers with a psalm for the morning and one for the evening and we have TONS of theological discussions that sort of go on all day and all night (sometimes!)

My son's only in the 2nd grade so I dont' have any advice for higher grades. But - from some online homeschool groups that I'm a member of, I hear that it takes a while to unwind after having been at school. So, don't expect too much of yourself or your daughter - which will only end up frustrating both of you. Homeschooling isn't 'doing school at home' so it wont' work too well if you try to structure it the way schools are structured.

I was homeschooled for the first five grades - out of necessity - no schools. I started going to school in the 6th grade. I tested at the top of my class that first year and for about 2 years after that, but then, my interest in learning started to drop and in high school I graduated at the bottom of my class. So, what I'm hoping to give my kids - is what I had during the first 5 years of school - a love of learning. I'm not so sure how well I'm doing!

Anyway - depending on what your goals are for homeschooling - it would be best if you write off at least this one year as an experimental year. Try different things, see what works, and don't be afraid to let go of the things that don't work. Curriculum fairs are the best way to see a lot of books for FREE. Although you can't really judge whether something will work or not until you try it out, at least, it would give you a better idea than online reviews.

If you go to www.hslda.org you should find information about all the state requirements for your state and also homeschool meetings/curriculum fairs in your areas. I haven't been to one yet because the timings weren't all that great, but I hope to attend a fair soon.

Let me know what specific things you need and I'll see if I can tell you where to get the info. Have you sent in a 'letter of intent' to the school district? They need to know that you're going to be homeschooling. When they receive your letter they should send you a few forms to fill out. Depending on which state you're in - that might be real easy, or real hard!

Welcome to homeschooling

Mary.

[Ken McRae]

Let me know what specific things you need and I'll see if I can tell you where to get the info. Have you sent in a 'letter of intent' to the school district? They need to know that you're going to be homeschooling. When they receive your letter they should send you a few forms to fill out. Depending on which state you're in - that might be real easy, or real hard! Welcome to homeschooling

Thanks for the helpful tips Mary! I live in Ontario, Canada. I went to one Fair, which was hosted by a Methodist church; but I got there late, and had less than an hour to look through the materials being offered. I have a couple Home-School resource books which provide lists of several Suppliers of Catholic and Protestant curriculums, but not even one Orthodox supplier. I did a few Online searches for Orthodox curriculums, but came up dry. That's when I decided to start this thread. I have not registered yet with any Home-School online support groups, though I've looked at a few, but did not see or notice any threads or discussions about Orthodox programs. I was planning to hand deliver, in person, my 'Letter of Intent' on the first day of School, to try and avoid unnecessary complications. Would it be better, you think, to get 'the Letter' in earlier?

[Mary]

Thanks for the helpful tips Mary! I live in Ontario, Canada. I went to one Fair, which was hosted by a Methodist church; but I got there late, and had less than an hour to look through the materials being offered. I have a couple Home-School resource books which provide lists of several Suppliers of Catholic and Protestant curriculums, but not even one Orthodox supplier. I did a few Online searches for Orthodox curriculums, but came up dry. That's when I decided to start this thread. I have not registered yet with any Home-School online support groups, though I've looked at a few, but did not see or notice any threads or discussions about Orthodox programs. I was planning to hand deliver, in person, my 'Letter of Intent' on the first day of School, to try and avoid unnecessary complications. Would it be better, you think, to get 'the Letter' in earlier?

I'm not sure how things work in Canada. I don't know if HSLDA extends its service to Canada either. You'll need to find some homeschoolers in your area to find out when to send in your letter of intent. As long as homeschooling is legal, we dont have to be worry about avoiding unnecessary complications. But we do need to be aware of the homeschool laws so the school districts don't overstep their boundaries and burden us with requirements that the law doesn't require.

Here in NY, we have to submit a letter of intent by the end of June. The school district responds by sending out an IHIP (Individualized Home instruction Plan) form for each child being homeschooled. And that is due to be submitted by Aug 15. After they have reviewed it, they need to send another letter, approving my plan for the year. In other states, only a letter of intent is required.

I too looked for orthodox curriculum, schools, etc. It seems we are slow to gather together and support each other. While I was searching for orthodox schools (on a bad day, when I didn't feel like homeschooling anymore!) - I came across one that was too far away, but it's history was interesting. It was started by a group of orthodox parents who were first homeschoolers. I hope that'll happen in more areas! I sure could use the support and my kids could use the interaction with other orthodox children. But starting a school is not small task and you need a LOT of motivated people to help and back you up.

While I was thinking about the lack of orthodox educational resources, I realized that I could call that school that I found and talk to them about their educational material - perhaps they'll sell it to us! I'll try to find it again. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it this week, so if you beat me to it, just post what you find out, ok? You'll have to do a search online for them, because I don't have the name or any info about it. When I saw that it was too far away to send my son to, I lost interest in it...

To find homeschoolers in your area, you could probably go back to that Methodist church and find out if they know where the homeschoolers are. Just at thought. I hope you find someone soon. I found out that it was VERY helpful to be able to talk to someone who had already done the paper work at least once, and could tell me what I should worry about and what I shouldn't worry about.

Mary.

[Bratislav]

Don't write off all Protestant curriculum. Most are not heretical - in every sense of the word - just incomplete. They have most of the resources anyway. The only one that I was totally turned off by was the 'Christ Centered Curriculum'. I also don't buy any of the Bible Curriculum - you don't have to buy an entire curriculum - you can pick and choose bits and pieces and put together something that works for your daughter.

My reason for not buying any Bible curriculum (I've only been orthodox for two months) - was simply because I didn't want 'Bible' to become a compartment in our school life, like Math, Literature, etc. Bible isn't a subject. It's Life. We learn it in church, we learn it while living in Obedience. And while I agree there has to be a regular amount of Biblical teaching, I dont' see why it has to be any different from the teaching that I am receiving as an adult. So we read the scripture portions from the lexicon, we read about the saints, we do our morning and evening prayers with a psalm for the morning and one for the evening and we have TONS of theological discussions that sort of go on all day and all night (sometimes!)



Mary.

Dear Mary,
Only Orthodox two months?! For someone so new to the Faith you sure "get it" pretty well. The true Spirit of Orthodoxy comes through your writing. This is not the first time one of your posts has made me smile.

Thanks for all the great tips, too.

-Bratislav
Milwaukee

ps. sorry about the public personal message(or should that read personal public?)

[Mary]

Dear Mary,
Only Orthodox two months?! For someone so new to the Faith you sure "get it" pretty well. The true Spirit of Orthodoxy comes through your writing. This is not the first time one of your posts has made me smile.

Thanks for all the great tips, too.

-Bratislav
Milwaukee

ps. sorry about the public personal message(or should that read personal public?)

Hmmmm......... Dear brother Bratislav, you're testing me, aren't you? Ok, I fail. There's hardly any humility in me, and I needed that note to see how prideful I am. The first picture that came to my mind is from the nursery rhyme of a little boy sitting on a chair in the corner, with a bowl of pudding on his lap and a plum (I think) on his thumb, saying something like: "What a clever boy am I!" Sometimes I feel like him - the bowl of pudding is Christianity as it is today, and the plum is the Orthodox church. I tend to forget that I'm not the one who put the plum there, and I found it entirely by accident, because I wasn't truly searching for it!

If you do see any "spirit of Orthodoxy" in my writings, it's only because I've had the best orthodox teachers so far, and in my 'previous life' I've had the best protestant teachers. God has been embarrassingly good to me and sometimes that scares me, because I wonder what He's going to ask of me, since it says somewhere that much will be asked of the one to whom much is given.

My favorite quote on pride (which I heard on Our Life In Christ): "The sun shines on all alike, and vainglory beams on all activities. For instance I am vainglorious when I fast, and when I relax the fast to be unnoticed, I am again vainglorious by my prudence. When I am well dressed, I am quite overcome by vainglory. When I put on poor clothes, I am vainglorious again. When I talk I am defeated and when I am silent I am again defeated by it. However I throw this prickly pear, a spike stands upright." - St. John Climacus

Getting back to homeschooling - I skimmed through the article posted by Antonios - the first one. The author recommends the books by Mary Pride - The Big Book of Home Learning. I'd like to add my recommendation too. Of all the resource books that I've read, that one has got to be the BEST. The first volume: Getting Started - gives you a good overview of the various styles of homeschooling and the curriculums that fit under each category. It also includes testimonials from homeschoolers on how they implemented the curriculums in their own families. I found that helpful, because I was able to see from testimonials, which families most resembled mine and was able to narrow down the curriculums that would work best for us. Every time I've ignored my logical annalysis and tried something because the review was great, and I wanted my kids to be geniuses like their kids - it didn't work!

Volume 2 reviews in detail all the programs that are available for preschool - elementary education. I just got one for under $2 at ebay and noticed that there are 4 volumes altogether! You should get yourself at least the first two. They're quite expensive if you buy them new. I saw some really good deals on e-bay. Don't think about it - just get it!

Besides curriculum, you'll also find reviews on books written for homeschoolers - like the one about how to figure out what type of learner your child is, etc. What I like best about these reviews is that she does not compare one curriculum with another - she just gives the details of how it works and lets you decide which one is right for you. I like that. No judging.

I hope this is slightly helpful.
Mary.

[Ken McRae]

My favorite quote on pride (which I heard on Our Life In Christ): "The sun shines on all alike, and vainglory beams on all activities. For instance I am vainglorious when I fast, and when I relax the fast to be unnoticed, I am again vainglorious by my prudence. When I am well dressed, I am quite overcome by vainglory. When I put on poor clothes, I am vainglorious again. When I talk I am defeated and when I am silent I am again defeated by it. However I throw this prickly pear, a spike stands upright." - St. John Climacus

It is a great quote. Many thanks for it. I've read somewhere, if memory does not fail me, that the beginning of simplicity is learning to bear this inner cross with patience and humility. It will cultivate inner suffering and pain of heart, which will produce tears that cleanse inwardly.

Getting back to homeschooling - I skimmed through the article posted by Antonios - the first one. The author recommends ... etc. I hope this is slightly helpful.

Many thanks, Mary, for all the great help. It is deeply appreciated!

[Justin Frank]

The second hour of every school day will be dedicated to physical fitness: 20-30 min. of theory, plus 30-40 min. of physical application.

Great idea!

[Ken McRae]

Hello again ~ I've been looking at children's texts on lives of the saints, for my home schooling program, and I was giving some thought to one entitled, A Child's Paradise of Saints. However, it covers the lives of Sts. Mary Magdelene and Mary of Egypt, which is causing me some personal difficulty. While I see clearly the great spiritual wisdom and benefit of adults knowing the life of St. Mary of Egypt, I fear I'm completely blind to the wisdom and benefit of exposing innocent children to the sordid details of her worldly life. I'm a little curious to know, though, how others feel about this? And if someone has read this particular book, it would be very helpful to me if you'd take a few minutes to briefly describe for us how it treats the details of her life in the world. Many kind thanks!

humbly ~ Theophilus

[Father David Moser]

A Child's Paradise of Saints. However, it covers the lives of Sts. Mary Magdelene and Mary of Egypt which is causing me some personal difficulty.

I'm not familiar with this particular book but I do have some thoughts.

I can't really see what problem there would be with the life of St Mary Magdalene (unless it asserts the patently false presumption that she was a prostitute - she was not: From an article in the June 2006 issue of the Smithsonian "Beginning with the threads of these few statements in the earliest Christian records, dating to the first through third centuries, an elaborate tapestry was woven, leading to a portrait of St. Mary Magdalene in which the most consequential note—that she was a repentant prostitute—is almost certainly untrue." http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/i.../magdalene.php )

As for Mary of Egypt, her life is read in Church during the 5th week of Lent (Matins of the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete) so the "gory details" are certainly "edited" to give it a "G" rating, even in the adult version.


Fr David Moser

[Dr Elizabeth Riggs]

Dear Theophilus -

You have had many good responses.

May I suggest you join a listserv dedicated to Orthodox Homeschooling?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OrthodoxClassicalHS/

The links and files sections of that list are full of information about not only curricula but references to to how to teach, and the various philosophies of home schooling.

Currently, there are no "put-together" Orthodox Curricula that are "ready-to-go" the way so many of the Protestant and Roman Catholic ones are. What you will find is that many different parts of various curricula are compatible with an Orthodox mindset and with Orthodox education.

I am the grandmother of children being homeschooled. The approaches that my children have used range from Abeka to simply using the listed "competencies" for each grade level from the local school system. Any of these approaches can be successful. Children are "hard-wired" to be little learning machines for the first 8-10 years of their lives.

If you are trying to accomplish children with an Orthodox mindset, it is not so much the curriculum itself you need to worry about - any good curriculum will "work" - it is the matrix within which you teach. It is the life your household is living that will teach Orthodoxy to your children. Whether and what you permit in terms of TV viewing and reading matter, how you address the stressors of the day, how you discipline, how you react to their behavior - especially the "meltdowns," these are just some of the myriad things that will determine your children's faith and behavior.

I wish you very well in your explorations.

With Love in Christ,
Dr. Elizabeth, the sinner
and Perennial Student

[Antonia Colias]

Dear Theophilus,

Dr. Riggs' suggestion of joining the Orthodox Christian homeschooling list is a good one. There are over 300 members, I think, although most "lurk" more than they post. Although the message list title includes the phrase "classical education", the membership expanded to include members who teach according to other educational philosophies. (I do not adhere to that method, although I incorporate elements of it in my work.)

Balloon-burster here, but a "perfect curriculum" does not exist. Each family's preferences differ, each child's learning needs differ, each home teacher's needs differ (and don't always match those of the children), etc. Some of the Protestant curricula are more "tweakable" than others; some are flatly impossible (Bob Jones, for example). That a curriculum is "Catholic" does not ensure that the academic content of all subjects will be of the calibre you might prefer. The most flexible Catholic homeschool curriculum that I ever found -- flexible in the sense that I could substitute products that I preferred to those sold by the provider -- nonetheless turned out to have pitiful support. (It was close to a "full service" provider -- and we never heard "word Boo" from them when we never sent in anything because our life had changed.)

Some curricula work better for an Orthodox Christian family at particular grade levels than they do at others. A case in point (for my family) is Sonlight. We are using it this year for the first time -- (This is our 12th year of homeschooling.) (Orthodox for decades) -- and discovered that the 2nd grade is great for my dd, but the chosen high school program was far less so. I had to ditch seventeen of the included books, on grounds of their content. Still, we march on, "tweaking" as we go, and ds is enjoying his year.

At any rate, my prayers are with you and your family. I hope that you find the materials and local support that you need. I especially hope that you find a "live-people" homeschooling support group that will welcome you without attempting to change your religion -- assuming that they admit you as members in the first place. (Where I live, we are barred from all groups.)

In Christ,

Antonia

[Demetrios Galanidis]

This site may help augment your curriculum for religious needs:

http://www.orthodoxonline.com/

[Christalyn]

Hi,

We too, have used Sonlight www.sonlight.com it is good for some grades. We do not go by grades. I go by what my children want to learn. This year I am using Bob Jones Science with my 12 year old son. http://www.hometrainingtools.com/cat...science-5.html

We are concentrating on math and science this year for him. I have an autistic daughter who is 14, but is about an eight year old emotionally and developmentally. She loves science and math. I am using Saxon math for them. We love Saxon. My 17 year old daughter is using Saxon also.

I use bits and pieces from everywhere. We are History buffs, so I'm using "Story of the World." by Susan Bauer... http://www.welltrainedmind.com/childsworldhistory.html

We just see the world as our classroom...we have a very lax view of home schooling. I see them learning all the time.....just because we put books to it...that isn't the only learning.

Hope this helps.
Christalyn

[Macrina Lewis]

Dear Theophilus and others interested in Orthodox homeschooling or curriculum for young children for Sunday school etc.

Although this original post is old, I wanted to point out that I do have an Orthodox Kindergarten curriculum available called "The Children's Garden of the Theotokos". You will find some links on my website for other places to find Orthodox Curriculum.

Thanks,
In Christ
Macrina Lewis


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