Piney Woods Homeschool

"It is better that children should receive a few vital ideas that their souls may grow than a great deal of indefinite teaching." Charlotte Mason, Home Education , p. 346 Much of what passes for Sunday school curriculum involves "a great deal of indefinite teaching" and few, if any, "vital ideas."  We want souls to grow, but we have a vague idea of how to achieve that goal.   Our first mission must be to connect the child with the Bible text.  This is the most direct way for the Holy Spirit to speak to the child.  For very young children, this may involve retelling the Bible text in simplified form.  Somewhat older children may be ready for Bible text mixed with some retelling so as not to get bogged down in the passages for which they may not be mature enough or which may be too long for them right now.  Older children can hear or read the text itself and connect with it with very little intervention from the teacher. In a Charlotte Mason...

The Bible for School and Home is the revised name for the series by J. Paterson Smyth referenced by Charlotte Mason under the original name The Bible for the Young.  The completed series contained seven volumes, four covering the Hebrew scriptures and three covering the Gospels.  Although this series is in the public domain, not all the books are apparently available online, exactly, but I have been able to find sources for all of them (I think). Schellermark Ministries has a site called The Writings of J. Paterson Smyth , from which you can order CD's of various volumes for $5 each.  I believe these CD's contain scans of the pages, but I haven't yet received one so I can't say for sure.  Joshua and the Judges is available here as a typed-out pdf which can be downloaded. Hathi Trust Digital Library links to scans of the first three volumes ; see the links labeled Full View at the bottom of the page. Prophets and Kings , volume 4 in the series, can be accessed...

For ease of reference, the PNEU Bible schedules (from the now-defunct Charlotte's Daughters website ): PNEU Bible Curriculum Bible sequence Hebrew Scriptures Grade 2: Genesis 1-15 (1-4; 6-9:17; 11:1-9; 12:1-9; 13) Genesis 17-18, 21-24, 27-29, 32-33 (18; 19:1-30; 21:1-21; 22:1-18; 24; 25:27-34; 27:1-45; 28:10-end; 29:1-20; 32; 33) Genesis 37-48 (37; 39:1-6,21-23; 40-45; 46:1-7,28-34; 47; 48) Grade 3: Exodus 1-14 (1:1-14; 2; 3:1-20; 5; 12:31-42) Exodus 15-20, 32; Numbers 13-14 (Ex. 15:23-27; 16:1-15,32-36; 18; 19:16-19; 20:1-17; 32:1-8,15-24,30-35; Num. 13:1,2,17-33; 14:1-10,18-25) Numbers and Deuteronomy (Num. 23-24; Deut. 31; 34) Grade 4: Joshua 1-10; 24 (1-4; 6; 7; 9; 10; 14; 20; 22-24) Judges 2-16 (2:1-23; 4-7; 8:22,23,32-35; 10:6-18; 11:1-12,28-40; 13-16) Judges 13-14, 16; I Samuel 1-3, 5-8 (I Sam. 4; 8-13; 15; 17) Grade 5: I Samuel 9-17 (I Sam. 18:1-16; 19:1-17; 20-27:4; 29; 31; II Sam. 1) I Samuel 18-24; II Samuel 1-7 (II Sam. 2:1-11; 3:27-39; 5:1-7; 6...

A recent blog post inspired me to think about our Bible curriculum for school.  Long ago, I had planned to have a Bible curriculum for school, separate from what we did for our family devotions.  But when my oldest entered Year 1, we had craziness going on and I didn't do much research--I just used Penny Gardner's list of readings for Old and New Testament because it had been recommended and it was easy.  We read one passage a day and just kept going until we finished.  When my 2nd child entered Year 0.5 (our made-up year between K and 1st), I no longer wanted to use Penny Gardner's list, so I used a list from Calvary Chapel instead, and used it in much the same way.  I've not been completely happy with this, but since it was working and other matters seemed more pressing, we just kept on. I'd like to sit down now and read all the appropriate CM passages plus the relevant PR articles, but that's not going to happen just yet.  I'd like to look at all t...

I use the Ambleside Online curriculum, and for our daily Bible reading AO suggests we use the KJV.  In an article on the AO website , the use of the KJV is defended on literary grounds.   The argument is that since the KJV uses big words and rich language, and since it is often quoted in great literature, we are intellectually improved by reading it. I do not disagree with that argument.  Familiarity with the KJV is almost certainly useful in reading literature and in generally improving one’s intellect and grasp of language.  However, I think that this quote from early in the article is key: "Decisions about which version a) is the more correct translation or b) will most readily help your child understand the truth of God’s Word, should be approached individually, intellectually and prayerfully." Now, the article goes on to immediately add a third criterion, that of enhancing a literary education, but it is my contention that this criterion ha...