Walking Therein

The Heart of Wisdom approach to Bible study is quite different

The info below is take directly from Robin's blog. I don't think she'll mind that I am letting you all in on it!

I love the Approach. I came to an understanding of the Greek vs. Hebrew Education models about a year before discovering the HOW Approach. Robin does such an excellent job of explaining and simplifying the differences of the two and why a Hebrew model is God's way of teaching. I could not put the HOWTA down the whole first week after I bought it. I went through whole chapters; I skimmed info; I repeatedly went back and read things over. It is fabulous.

There is a list of resources to use for each year, and each year's topic is given in the order of the Word and how it appears. I love it. The main thing I am sticking with is the Bible-First. Obviously. That is the most important. Since reading her book and reading about a Bible-First Approach, I have found other homeschoolers who do not use the HOWTA, but do use the Bible as their main textbook. Paul Suarez explained how they use the Word in their teaching when we fist spent time with them in February. I do not remember his exact words, but they were so true in the essence that we must use the Word as a basis for learning. I ran acrosss a blog the other day that just said outright: We use the Bible as our main textbook.

I have not been very successful in taking a total HOW Approach. I think it has to do with the fact that we have not gotten in the routine. I am not sure that our lives will allow it at this tome, but we are using the HOW curriculum. We were doing the approach during the winter months, but since we spent weeks in the barn after the goats were born, we have been in the barn with building projects, gardening, sick animals, and we have not gotten back inside, really. Also, my children being older, I had a hard time merging the approach with the Littles. It is not the approach; I am sure it is a mental block on my part, because I know Robin and many others practice it with different ages.

We also had a hard time doing lapbooks. That is only because the older girls just aren't interested. I, being inexperienced with the different and neat ideas - along with not having clip art, just made it too baby-ish for them, I think.  I just need to work on it with the Littles and let Amanda and Jocelyn do their own projects. I had a hard time understanding the whole idea of Scrapbooking to learn at first, but through their Scrapbooking site and the lapbooking video I found on youtube, I have gotten some really good ideas.

So, here is a synopsis of the HOW Bible study:

The Heart of Wisdom approach to Bible study is quite different than the typical “half hour in a workbook” approach. With our approach, as a family, you will use a chronological Bible reading plan daily, to read through the Bible each year. Our goals are

Bible First: For homeschoolers to put the Bible first and make the Bible the focus of the school day: God’s Word (direct Bible studies) and God’s world (derived studies). Read More

Entire Bible: For families to read though the entire Bible to gain a view of the whole picture of God’s Word. Read More

Learning Together: For family members to interact while studying together. Children of all ages benefit from their parent’s wisdom. Also, parents learn with their children; Read More

Bible Study Tools: For parents and children to learn to use Bible study tools (Bible atlas, Bible dictionary, lexicons (word studies), chronology charts, concordance, etc); Read More

Four Step Bible Lessons: For parents to present Bible reading systematically. Studies show that this four-step method motivates students to comprehend the material better and retain the information longer. The steps will occasionally overlap each other; they are just a general outline to organize the lessons. Read More

Creation of Portfolio: For each student to document what was learned, on his or her own level, through the creation of a portfolio This provides parents and their children the opportunity to look back through the portfolios and observe the spiritual growth over the years. Read More

Understanding the Bible Culture: For families to study God’s Word in the light of the ancient Hebraic culture. We study a Hebrew book written by Hebrews; we serve a Hebrew Lord who had Hebrew disciples; we desire to follow the first century church which was first predominately Hebrew; and through Christ, we are grafted into a Hebrew family. It makes sense to study the Hebrew culture. Read More (more…)

Blogged under Bible Study, Heart of Wisdom News by admin on Thursday 7 June 2007 at 12:06 pm

Untitled Comment

3:20 PM, Tuesday, June 26, 2007 .. Posted by quietcajun

I REALLY like these ideas and their family togetherness focus! :)

I love curriculum!

9:33 AM, Thursday, June 28, 2007 .. Posted by hsmom210

I had seen Robin's Heart of Wisdom study years ago...it looks new and improved! Will take a look at it this summer.