Options for a Godly Education

I don't know if everyone is aware of all the options that are actually out there.

• Traditional Christian Private school (Get your phonebook out and look up how very many are in your area. Since some private schools run $10,000/child or more and the "average" private school tuition is $3500, there are many, many schools that cost very little ($1000/child which is less than $100/ month.). Some private schools are full time. Some are part time (1-3 days per week with the parent supervising "homework" the rest of the time much like they do with traditional school).

• Co-ops. These are groups of homeschooling parents that get together and teach each others children. They generally meet once per week. One parent may teach science and another history while another teaches art. The children then work on assignments from each "teacher" throughout the week and report back. The child's parent fills in the gaps with other methods for those subjects that aren't available right now. In large cities you could probably find enough co-ops to do just about every subject at every level you could imagine. Those of us who live in the boonies have few such choices. Hunt up your local homeschool groups and ask around.

• Virtual CHRISTIAN  school. Your school district probably offers a "free" virtual school, but enrolling your child in this option makes them still a public schooled child subject to all the regulations and evolutionary teaching as those in a brick-and-mortar school. They just don't have to show up for classes every day (which does reduce the social problems of public school, but you still have the educational authority telling your child there is no God.) 

A Virtual Christian school will teach creation and is not subject to all the non-sense the public curriculums are subject to. I have found some of these for as little as a few hundred per year up to thousands. The curriculum I use is available virtually as well. In a virtual school the child is assigned a teacher that they communicate with through phone, email, and/or chat rooms. They "attend" lectures through the Internet. Some schools have all their work online, some use paper textbooks also. The child is accountable to the assigned teacher who keeps all the records. The parent makes sure the child actually goes to school (sits at the computer) and may or may not supervise homework. Check out Abeka Book, Bob Jones University, School of Tomorrow, Switched on Schoolhouse and Google "Christian Virtual School."

• Computer School. This is different from virtual school because the curriculum is designed to be the teacher. There is no outside contact (unless you enroll in one of their correspondence schools). The computer program teaches and grades and keeps a certain amount of records. The parent supervises and answers any questions. There is very little difference between virtual schools and computer schools except who the child goes to if they don't understand the work. In fact, the schools I listed above offer their curriculum without teacher oversight making them computer schools.

• Self-Paced Curriculum. These are paper-based curriculums written with the idea of the texts teaching the child. No need for more than a babysitter. They are divided into 10 or 12 packets (each about the size of a magazine) per subject per year (five subjects in the lower grades: Bible, Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Math. More options in High school). You test your child for placement (tests available on the Internet) and buy which ever ones they need for their skill level in each subject. They then proceed at their own pace through each packet.

These are generally a bit cheaper than the online schools but are almost as easy for the parent. The companies have put the curriculum onto DVD and are available as mentioned in computer schools. My favorite of these is Alpha Omega (often available in parent-teacher stores), followed by Christian Light and ACE. There may be others also I haven't heard about.

• Independent Study/ Unschool. Some parents simply provide their children with educationally rich environments and let them study what they wan to, trusting the child to pick what they will need for the future (or secretly guiding them that way.) This would mean a limit to TV and computer games, regular trips to the library, letters to Grandma, and lots of field trips. I am not fond of this method myself, but the children that are coming out of these schools are excelling in college and the working world, so who am I to complain? :-)

• Unit Studies. You take one subject (baseball, horses, cars, etc) and study the history, science and literature involved. The child writes reports (Language Arts) and the parent does the best they can to examine the math involved (though most need to supplement with a math text of some sort.) This is generally done as a family study with the older children simply required to do more work and longer essays. A lot of parents have a lot of fun with this method. Check out the Stewardship line of studies to get started.

• Real Books. This covers Classical, Charlotte Mason, Principal and a couple of other "methods." It is generally a unit study based on World History (though the Principle uses US history.) No "textbooks" are used outside of math and grammar, but learning is accomplished by reading works written by people with a passion for the subject at hand. I have used Classical myself and highly recommend it. Look up The Well Trained Mind, Teaching the Trivium, Veritus Press, Greenleaf, Charlotte Mason, The Noah Plan, or Classical Education.

• Traditional Textbook. This method simply uses the same texts used in Christian Schools in much the same way. Since this is how we were all taught in school, you are probably quite familiar with it. In fact, this is probably what you think of when you think of "school" at home or in a brick-and-mortar. I began my homeschool journey with this method and, after some great years in Classical, have come back to it. At this stage in our family's life, this is the best for us. There is a lot to be said for letting the experts put all your information together for you and having each child's work for the year so neatly laid out ahead of time. I use Abeka, the most used private curriculum on planet earth. Also check out Bob Jones, Covenant Home (non-offensive secular but they include EVERYTHING you need for one year in one box; books, paper, scissors, glue, crayons, etc. Great for those outside the US that have to pay per-box import taxes.), Farm Country Supply Store (miscellaneous curriculum for many, many publishers) or just google homeschool curriculum.

Now, don't be afraid to mix and match. I know one couple that uses Alpha Omega's computer school for history and science but traditional curriculums for the other subjects. I use Abeka for everything but math (Math-U-See works better for us) and early, early spelling (Zane-Blouser has a better first level spelling). I also have my children spend a year or two in the Getty-Dubay Italics penmanship after Abeka finishes penmanship (6th grade). Some parents use traditional for any subject they can't find a co-op for. If I were to use any of the self-paced methods I wouldn't use their Bible, but would continue with my own method there. Honestly there are so many options it's amazing traditional schools even exist anymore!