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arithmetic we need to be teaching the children the basics of salvation, righteousness and holiness under God, at home.
It seems, according to what this society says, not many are equipped to teach their children at home. Don't be too quick to judge yourself, and others, this way. You will have enough trouble with other people judging you for taking a Biblical stand. We have found that even some that should know better try to judge you. Please don't let the church leaders intimidate you. If they try to stop you, in my estimation, you are in the wrong church. Be careful about your fights though. It is not worth leaving the New Testament church for. We must be ready to give an answer, even in this. We are the ones that are accountable both to God and man for the way we raise and train our children.
Nancy and I were able to teach our children, very well, the lower grade levels. At the same time we taught them about things of the world we were teaching them the ways of God through the word. The upper grade levels must be prepared in a different way. You must start, if needed, to learn the high school material, yourself, ahead of time. It doesn't take as much time as you think it might. We found, through experience, it takes some preparation. Depending on you and your child's abilities, start preparing yourself a year ahead of time. Buy the books and look through them, thoroughly. Put extra time into the areas that you know you would have a hard time with. Several (3-5) hours a week is probably sufficient to gain a knowledge of what you want to get across to your children. I have heard of high school dropouts getting the books and teaching their children high school material. It was a benefit to both parent and children.
That reminds me, I haven't said much about buying books yet. We already had the New American Standard Bible to use every day in our Homeschool. I suggest a good modern day translation. You will, hopefully, spend more time in the word and will need something easy for the children to read and understand. Please don't buy a paraphrase edition for this. We avoided all of the denominational Bible studies and stuck with the Bible almost exclusively. You don't need the children learning false doctrine. Along with reading the Bible through, memorization of the Bible is the most helpful studying you can do with your children.
For your other subjects it is a different matter. Spend time evaluating how each child learns. One learns best by listening, one learns best by doing, one learns best by reading and one learns best by demonstration. Men and women often pick up on different things. For each child there will be a mixture of learning styles to one degree or another. For some children it may not be easy to discern their learning styles. Getting someone else to help to evaluate the child's learning style may be helpful.
Next find out what books are available and what teaching styles they use. There are resources for this. Usually you can find resources like the book we used (many years ago) Mary Pride's "Big Book of Home Learning" in you religious book store. We found some limited resources in other bookstores and department stores that carry such things. You may have to buy a different set of books for every child because of grade level and teaching styles. There are workbooks of all kinds available also.
I didn't say this was the cheapest way to teach you children. Stick with a type and style of books for a year or two to see if you are able to use them with you children. Don't be afraid to switch around when you find a type or style of book is not working. There are some excellent books out there but if they don't work for you and your child they aren't worth the money. Don't forget, you have to be as comfortable teaching from the books as your child is learning from them. Don't be surprised if it takes two or three years for your child to establish a recognizable learning style. Don't be disappointed and discouraged if you have not perfected your teaching style and system in the first year or two. Just as a child has to learn how to learn, unless you are an experienced teacher, you will spend some time learning how to teach. Start while they are
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