Integrating Your Worldview and
Your Home Schooling
Thinking about how your worldview relates to choosing home school curriculum isn’t on most people’s top ten questions they bring to a home school curriculum fair.
But it should be. Why?
As a home schooling mom of four, I have found out that to make long-lasting, satisfying choices about home school curriculum, I need to ask some foundational questions about what we believe and how that relates to how I teach our children. Only then will the home schooling materials I choose be what we are really searching for.
You may not consider yourself a traditionally religious person, but let me suggest that you not discount this area of integrating your worldview or world view. What I mean by this are issues that others would relate to faith (e.g. the basic nature of mankind, the nature of truth, and such).
On the other hand, you may be very religious and have firm convictions about issues of faith. Have you thought how you want to translate that worldview into practical home school materials? Would it matter if you used home school curriculum written from a perspective different than yours?
So how does your world view relate to choosing home school curriculum? Let’s take a look at a few possible areas.
Your Worldview and Truth
Probably one of the most fundamental ways your view of the world relates to teaching and home schooling is in the area of truth. Does your world view lead you to believe that there are certain Truths that you want to pass on to your children? That these Truths are discernable? If so, you will naturally want to make them part of your child’s education. But how? There are really two basic approaches to the teaching of truth that I have seen in home school curriculum.
Truths to Be Learned
The first tendency I see is that of Truths to Be Learned, and can be seen in textbooks and workbooks. A textbook's purpose, after all, is to take a lot of information, organize it according to someone’s opinion (or several people’s opinion), and present it to your child in a way that makes it easy to understand. Textbooks help your child process the world through a certain set of "glasses," if you will. You can see this in Alpha Omega Home School Curriculum. For people whose worldview or faith lead them to feel strongly that there are Truths that they want to pass on to their children, textbooks and complete home school curriculums from a religious viewpoint can be an excellent choice for home schooling curriculum. Other complete home school curriculums that integrate a Biblical worldview from this approach would be Tapestry of Grace, My Father's World, Student of the Word, or Heart of Wisdom.
Truths to Be Discovered
There is also another approach to the teaching of truth, that of Truths To Be Discovered. In this approach, you may well believe in absolute Truth, but you would rather use home school curriculum to discover it together with your child. In this case, rather than textbooks which are compiled by someone else, you and your child would read literature and discuss issues yourselves and determine yourselves what you see as truth. A good example of this literature-based approach is
Sonlight Home School Curriculum
.
You can read more about Sonlight's approach to other worldviews here.
Your Worldview and Other Faiths
Another area in which your view of the world relates to home school curriculum is how you will teach about and interact with other faiths. Some people want to concentrate on the truths in their own faith, and not introduce other beliefs until their child is older. People who agree with this approach see their time home schooling (especially the early years) as a time of nurturing their child’s faith and they liken home schooling to raising plants in a greenhouse. Their children can grow strong in their faith in a sheltered environment and then later on, after they have grown strong, the young people are better equipped to deal with faiths other than their own.
It is impossible to list all of the curriculum that espouse this view, especially since people mix and match curriculum based on what their own family needs are. Some examples of more conservative home school curriculum choices to use early on would be Rod and Staff Home School Curriculum, A Beka Home School Curriculum or Heart of Wisdom Curriculum.
On the other hand, you may find that your worldview leads you to want to understand those of other faiths early on in your home schooling experience. You may want to include books and stories that raise questions about how those with different values act. People who agree with this perspective – whether they are Christian or not -- often find
Sonlight Home School Curriculum
to be a very good choice for them. Though this is definitely a Christian home school curriculum, it does an excellent job of raising honest questions about religion and trying to understand different faiths and practices around the world. Many people appreciate this perspective that includes other world views.
Congratulations! You are doing great to take time to consider how your worldview relates to your home schooling. With this as a background, you are well on your way to being able to choose your home school curriculum with confidence.
If you are ready, go ahead and move on to the next level of the Home School Curriculum Pyramid: examining your
core values and beliefs
about how to home school, or bookmark it to come back when you have more time.
Or return to
How to Choose Home School Curriculum.
I hope this information has been helpful to you in bringing joy and success to you in your home school adventure. If you have any comments, please feel free to drop me a note through our
Contact Us
form.
Top of page
Back to Home Page from Homeschooling and Your Worldview
| Looking for something? Search for it here: |
|---|
|
|
