To read about “Our Twist” in general, please click here.
Our “Philosophy of Education” has more information on the Biblical aspects relating to home education here. And for our Statement of Faith, please click here.
“…lessons that stick with a refreshing touch of sweetness.”
Our Twist on Teaching The Bible –
God’s Word is sweeter than honey! (And that means sweeter than peppermints too!)
We encourage families to learn together daily from the Bible which is refreshing to our lives and “sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb” (see Psalm 19:7-10, 119:103). This can be as simple as taking turns reading the Scripture and praying together, singing together, or memorizing verses to share with one another. Or it can be a more in-depth study time with hands-on or written activities.
We DO provide recommendations and links to excellent Bible resources, both the supplemental and core kinds, as well as teaching ideas for teaching the Bible – See the pages under the menu tabs “FAITH” and “LISTS” at the top of this page.
We are in the process of developing more Bible resources for homes and ministries. Our ministry website (e.g. with audio sermons and colouring page printables) is The Word In Our Hearts.
It is very meaningful when things are personalized to fit needs. The focus of the Bible lessons in your home, we believe, should be with freedom to parent your children with the topics and passages/verses which most apply to your individual family of various ages/maturity and stages of spiritual growth at a particular time.
In other words, Bible lessons should be for you (not us) to choose which sections of the Scripture to emphasize or teach each day when you’re together. God will lead and guide you.
In addition to prayerfully teaching the Bible by reading it together, we also would encourage you to wrap it around and around your daily lives as you interact both as a family group and as a parent to an individual child. Your situations will be unique but your example will be evident as you show (not just tell) about what God means to you in how you respond to things as they come up in your life!
We also do not tend to integrate “Bible” in with academic “school” lessons. This is a difference between us and many other Christian publishers. To read about our reasons for this decision, please click here.
Our Twist on Character Education –
We do not design our academic resources around character education themes. We do not have a “habits-based” or “character education” curriculum approach.
We DO have a teaching posters with notes set, entitled “Christian Character Education…” and you can find that downloadable and printable product in our shop here. We do include some lessons on character education in with “the socials” (e.g. 24 teaching posters in our “My First Social Studies” e-book curriculum). We also offer a colouring booklet entitled, “Be Willing” to help teach a few general things.
But we do not focus a lot on character education topics specifically because they are more personal, depending on the spiritual development of an individual and also we think that one of the best ways to teach character education to your children is to show it, rather than to mainly read it from a curriculum book. As a parent/teacher, we encourage you to have an appropriate transparency to your daily walk (parents aren’t perfect) and lead with a godly example of courteousness, love, forgiveness, truthfulness, etc.. Put into practice Psalm 78 and tell your children about situations in your past of how God worked in your life to develop character.
Often Christian parents want to focus on manners and character education to raise a child to be “good.” It IS very important to teach good manners and right attitudes. However, character education should be taught with the following understanding, as stated by Dr. Howard Hendricks: “To expect a child to live the Christian life when he does not possess it is to mock him. Until the Holy Spirit takes up residence in a person’s heart, he cannot live pleasing to God.” (quote found in Preschoolers Can Know God teacher’s manual, Child Evangelism Fellowship, 2004, page 6.) Dr. Hendrick’s comment is supported by Romans 8:7-8. When anyone, young or old, has Christ in his or her heart by faith (Ephesians 3:17), then God gives them the power to live a godly life. But no one can live pleasing to Him without Him. Even the good deeds that people try to do in their own strength are not acceptable to God for righteousness. (Isaiah 64:6). We need to believe/depend on Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. God doesn’t just “fix” our old nature, He gives us a brand new one when we repent of our sin and believe the gospel! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
So rather than just drilling in good habits to be practiced in human strength alone, why not tell your children about the power that God offers them to make good choices ? This is the best starting point in teaching “character education”!
You see, a real peppermint plant can have a big impact on your landscape. Anyone who has grown this plant in their flower beds know this to be true. It grows very strong roots, comes back year after year with a noticeable spreading habit, flourishes with beautiful mauve blossoms (one of my favourite colours ♥), and when we rub its leaves, we can tell for sure that it is indeed a peppermint plant! It isn’t artificial; it isn’t something else like a weed. It is authentic!
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we depend on God to provide us everything we need in order to live a godly life with godly character traits (2 Peter 1:1-8) and we are rooted and grounded in His love (Colossians 2:6-10, Ephesians 3:17).
Without Him, we can do nothing of lasting value but instead are like an artificial flower that might add colour to someone’s day with our outward-appearance of manners but not really bring glory to God in the process (John 15:4-8, Galatians 5:22-23).
We need those roots and real leaves from Him (not just our self-efforts) to truly nourish others and spread God’s love!
Because of HIM and His grace in our lives, God’s people can have the ability spread the fragrance of Jesus as they are examples to the world of what God is like (2 Corinthians 2:14) AND bring honour and worship to their Creator.
Beyond all of the manners and values that we teach in our words and in our own actions, these thoughts encompass the essential essence of “character education”, in our view.
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