Recently, I have been asked about our graduating process. Daniel and TylerAnn are both seniors this year. So people have asked about their plans following this year, and what it means to graduate from our school. To be honest, it means nothing. You see we are not raising students for diplomas, college, or even careers. We are raising students in the Word for Kingdom Work. So, even though we say that Daniel and Tyler Ann our seniors, that is just a label for society purposes. Church, sports, etc. Both Daniel and TylerAnn have no plans to leave home after this year. In fact, they plan to continue in their studies here at home with us. We are raising each of our children to follow Christ wherever He is leading them. This will look different for each of them.
So for Tyler Ann and Daniel that means for right now they will continue to be at home for the next couple of years and continue in their studies here. Why? Because we changed our schooling three years ago, and they want to get all the teaching in. The study that I am writing takes a student through the Word of God chronologically in four years. Both Tyler and Daniel want to complete this study with us. On top of that, we only started copying the Bible two years ago. One of the requirements to say that you finished Hirn Homeschool is to copy the whole Bible. Daniel and Tyler have not had enough time to get the whole Bible done, and so they have a great desire to finish this work too.
Many people have asked what we mean by Copying the Bible. I have blogged about copy work before, but I will try and explain it step by step for those who are wondering about it.
Copying the Bible into Notebooks a Five Step Process
Step one: Read it
Student reads Genesis chapter one to themselves, quickly like a story. This is NOT study the Bible time.
Step Two: Copy it
Student copies Genesis chapter one. Word for word, letter for letter, punctuation for punctuation.
Step three: Draw it
Student draws a picture of chapter one of Genesis.
Step four: Journal it
Student does a one page journal entry on Genesis chapter 1.
Step Five: Correct it
Student exchanges their notebook with another student and they carefully go over the copy work to check for errors. Students then use white out to correct any errors.
This process is then repeated for every chapter in the whole Bible. Typically this process takes about one hour per chapter. We copy at 7 am and 7 pm daily. That means that typically a student will copy two chapters a day. Sometimes depending on the content of the chapter, and depending on the ability of the student more chapters can be done in two hours a day.
The goal is NOT to have wonderful neat notebooks full of God’s Word, nor is it to have great journal entries, or beautiful artwork. No the goal of this five step process is to put God’s Word deep into the minds and heart of the student. This slow deliberate process causes them to truly think and focus on God’s Word.
We then use this copy work to discuss grammar, spelling, punctuation, poetry, character, science, and of course, history. We use it also for memory work, and more.
A student usually starts copying their officially copybook at around age ten. Before this we practice copywork and use the practicing to teach phonics, alphabet, sight words, and numbers. We use our practice work for memory work.
If you want to read more about why we copy here are some posts I wrote about it.
Practical Steps to Godly Education
How to teach reading with the Bible
Katie! This is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing with us! If we do this, would this take the place of a formal Bible curricula/study? I know you use the actual writing for language arts and such, but do you also have your children do more copywork for Bible, as with HT curricula?
Jackie,
I actually have my older ones copy two hours daily in this method outlined above, as the foundation of our education. We do at times have other copywork. For example, I will during a group lesson have everyone copy the memory verse of the week. I try not to add extra copywork during non-group times. For example, we study together as a family in the morning from about 10 am to just past noon. We do history, science, and additional indepth Bible study at this time. These group classes focus more on the elementary/middle school kids. During these group lessons, I may have them copy one verse. But for the most part, their individual copy books are the major part of their copy time. Copy time for the younger students does look different than the older ones. Also, I do require all my kids that can read on their own to be doing a personal Bible Study apart from copy work. I will try and make time to write out better exactly how we do things.