ISRAELITE ACADEMY
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:
Children are not born with perfect personalities and characters. Righteous characters have to be developed like as a gardener would do if he wanted a beautiful garden. It is a daily task where the right seeds are planted and nurtured to bring forth the desired characteristics of holiness.
So I share with you some of the things that I did to help me successfully build righteous children for the kingdom.
Every home should have an altar. What I mean by that is, a place where morning and evening prayer and devotion could be held. Start at birth and gather your little ones and sing spiritual hymns, and read good quality artistic Bible stories. As they grow try to keep your devotions short, for children's attention span is limited. This is basically all you need to set the foundation until they are two years old, then you can move onto something more interactive, like biblical character felt boards. Never introduce mainstream television programs while teaching children. Children will become bored and will not listen to you when you are ready to teach them academically. Occupy children's time with indoor, and outdoor interactive play and discovery.
HOME SCHOOLING
Many think home schooling is hard, and requires a lot of money, but keep reading, and I will show you differently. Keep it simple, low cost and manageable.
Home schooling was one of the best decision we had made for our children. I have home schooled for 17 years and I can say I don't regret a moments time spent using what Yah had given me to fulfill this responsibility. We had so much freedom and control and I was not going to let anybody dictate what our children was going to learn and when. Parents if you decide you want to Home School, go for it and don't let anybody try and stop you, because we have to answer to the Most High about how we trained our children. Remember our Israelite children need the best education without compromise to truth, and moral values.
DEVELOPING A CURRICULUM
The easiest way to develop your curriculum is straight from the glossary of the books, or computer program your going to use. No need to search online for one, because it won't match up with the books, or program your going to use. Just neatly type, or print out the glossary from the books onto a sheet of paper for submission with your affidavit to your school district. Cover subjects required for their grade level, and you get to choose what you want to teach out of the books you have chosen. Remember, lessons generated from the glossary is your curriculum, and gives the school district an idea of what lessons may be covered in your teaching. Never think that you have to cover every page in the books you choose to use. No guesswork. Its just that simple!
MULTI GRADE TEACHING
Multi grade teaching allows a child to complete more than one grade at a time. If your child is capable of doing this, you may have this option when home schooling. Benefits of multilevel teaching reinforces learning, and allows students to complete their home schooling earlier.
CHOOSING BOOKS AND HOME SCHOOL PROGRAMS
When choosing books and programs you want to make sure that it adheres to pure moral values. If your choosing online based programs be careful of Charter Schools and the like, because many of them are a replica of what they teach in the public schools. Remember, you choose what your children are going to learn, and not the school district, or the teachers in the public schools. Know your state, or country requirements for home schooling and nothing more. You are only required to comply with your state requirements, and not your school district requirements. Here is the guidelines given by the most High Yah for our learning:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever is true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Phil 4:8
Learning in mainstream learning institutions violates Yah's guidelines. Let us not sacrifice our children to devils. The consequences of doing so is detrimental to our existence as an Israelite people.
Examples on what I did to keep it simple, low cost and manageable:
Teach children how to sight and sound with phonics the whole alphabet starting age 3. Never teach sight reading. It takes up a lot of long term memory and exhausts the brain. children will not become good readers with this type of method. Use the phonics system. My father bought the whole set for them (1st-12th grade) and they was finished with it by fifth grade. By the 3rd and 4th grade they had 10th grade reading levels. Obtain library cards, and use them every week to get books and free online resources through a local and major city library. You can also get a free electronic library card from your major city library online, or other state libraries who resources may be better than your state. I hardly ever bought books and the library often has free educational trips you can take your children to.
Purchase inexpensive laptops, or computer for your children to utilize computerized educational programs. This will save you a lot of time in the long run for completing education requirements for your children. You don't need to always use hard copy books, which can become expensive to many families income. A list of education resources will be outlined on this site.
HOME SCHOOL RECORD KEEPING
Home school record keeping may be required by your state. This may consists of a minimum of 180 days school term record, or 1080 hours school term. Choosing the minimum 180 day as oppose to using the 1080 hours creates more flexibility, and is easier to calculate then trying to manage increments of learning time. Remember your children's education can take place on any day of the week, and at anytime of the day, or night. As long as you have completed the 180 day minimum school term requirements and covered the necessary subjects; this is all you need to be concerned about. Your not required to cover all subject on any given day.
You may teach math 3x a week, reading 4x week, science 2x week, art 1x week etc... Add up each lesson you are going to teach from the curriculum of each subject, and divide it by 180 days. Assign a day for each lesson for each subject on your curriculum. Figure this out before the school term begins. It is for your reference only and not to be a part of your year end portfolio that may be required. Then you will know what you need to teach for that given day. Some of your subjects might get completed before the 180 days are completed, but you still will have lessons to complete for the remainder of 180 day requirement. When creating a school day log to hand in at the end of the school term, use days instead of dates. Briefly document subjects taught on that given day, not individual lessons taught.
Example 180 Day Log Book
Day 1 - Math, Science, Reading, Art
Day 2 - Math, Reading, Art, Physical Education
Day 3 - Math, Reading, Science
Day 4 - Reading, Physical Education, History
Day 5 - Math, History, Language Arts
Day 6 - Language Arts, Physical Education
And so on . . .
HOME SCHOOL PORTFOLIO
Some states may require you to submit a portfolio at the end of the school term. This portfolio should consists of sample work from each subject taught. I would limit it to 7 work samples for each subject. Whatever you choose to give, be consistent year to year, so the School District doesn't expect more from you. Get a notebook binder, and dividers for each subject, and arrange your work samples orderly. Choose 1 work sample per month from each subject taught. Make sure you take time to correct the work being submitted, and insert into your child's portfolio monthly. Reading log books should be kept on a separate sheet. Briefly document what was done for Physical Education on a separate piece of paper. Keep this simple (trampoline exercise, jump rope, soccer, bicycling, etc.). A copy of your affidavit and curriculum, and evaluation if required, should be included in your portfolio.
CHOOSING A HOME SCHOOL EVALUATOR
Some States may require you to have your child evaluated by a Certified Teacher from your state. You will choose this at your discretion. He/she will look at your portfolio and briefly interview your child, and may ask them to read something from a book. A fee is charged and once completed an evaluation statement with their credentials are given to you for submission with your portfolio. Choose your evaluator before the school term begins, and set a time maybe a month in advance before the school term ends to get your child evaluation completed.