Our Verse:   Titus 2, KJV
This chapter kinda helped me realize why we are homeschooling...how could I protect my children from ungodly influence if I send my kids somewhere? What is our focus while we wait for "...the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ?" How should we teach our children to be? I know we have no control over their salvation, but surely we can be a good example & testimony to draw them unto Him.

Our Views on Homeschooling:   Personal!
There is not a right and wrong way to homeschool...every family is different. But I will say one thing, if you wanna do it, do it! And try to stick to it! I have this "by-the-book" personality, so I tend to read, read, read, google, google, google. EVERYTHING...I guess a better way to put it is: I NUKE EVERYTHING! I muddy the waters by reading so many different philosophies and views, when really, all I have to do is just live life and do right. Pray and ask for help, of course, and keep things simple or I lose sight of why we're really homeschooling. We're not homeschooling to give our children "a better education." We homeschool because we don't want the world influencing our children in ungodly ways...plain and simple and that's it! I'm not attempting to make a "super child." Just by providing the right materials and keeping them at home, I am achieving my goal reguardless of what curriculum or philosophy or method...etc.! The feeling of accomplishment and achievement is great!

Our Curriculum:   The King James Bible & The Weaver for Social Studies & Science; The Victory Drill Book for phonics; Ray's Primary for math.
We chose The Weaver because it revolves around the Bible (kinda--it doesn't use King James Version). I like it because I don't want God's Word to be a part of our children's education, I want it to be their education. Everything we study, do, look at, read...whatever, I want it all to be focused on His word. All the other subjects can be "woven" into it--all other subjects are less important! :o)

We chose the Victory Drill Book because of it's simplicity and I'm not "locked in a box." We used to use Abeka, but it was too much for our family.

We chose Ray's mainly because it was recommended by the folks at www.keepersofthefaith.com. We don't plan on sticking to the entire Ray's Curriculum...we're switching in 3rd grade to Practical Arithmetic by Strayer-Upton. Those books were recommended by Paul Ziegler--www.systemath.com. I was able to communicate with him several times through e-mail and have come to value his opinion on math. After reading an article on his site and actually doing the same "experiment" on my first-born, I became convinced that this was the best way for us to go.

My oldest one used to love school...then we started K5 with Abeka and all of a sudden he hated school! lol (this is where my "by-the-book" personality killed it!) But now, he loves it! I asked him why and he said because we do lapbooks now. My very wise Pastor told me something about homeschooling (actually it applies to everything) that really stuck with me...he said,"Public school, Christian school, Homeschool--it don't matter..the key's the parents." I think my inability to bend to the boxed curriculum is what made my child hate doing school. And I know there's going to be things that they have to learn to do regardless of whether they like it or not for sake of character, but to me, there's going to be plenty of that in life, why not make school a little fun?