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If your question is not answered here, email us at email@sowcurriculum.com

1. What is the SOW Curriculum?

2. What about the authors?

3. Why was the SOW Curriculum written?

4. What is the difference between the SOW Curriculum and other curriculums?

5. What is the most unique feature about the SOW Curriculum?

6. Why is a curriculum focused on the Bible important?

7. Does the SOW Curriculum teach a particular doctrine?

8. Reasons why people are hesitant about using the SOW Curriculum?

9. Why are there no pictures or colors used in the SOW Curriculum?

10. Is the SOW Curriculum hard to use?

11. How are other subjects covered in this curriculum, if using the Bible as the main text?

12. When and how is American history and American government taught in the SOW Curriculum?

13. Do I need other resources to use the SOW Curriculum?

14. How can one or two selected resources be used to teach all ages?

15. Where can we find these resources?

16. How much do the resources cost per year?

17. How does the SOW Curriculum work for multilevel teaching?

18. How can the SOW Curriculum be non-graded?

19. Is the SOW Curriculum suited for special needs children?

20. Other children in the family who start school later than the first born-- will they enter the curriculum in whatever year we are using at the time or do we start over with year one?

21. How does the SOW Curriculum work?

22. Why are there only 24 lessons per year?

23. Is it necessary to formally teach children younger than 5 years of age?

24. What is so unique about the SOW Phonics program?

25. Can any version of the Bible be used?

26. What is the difference between the NKJV or KJV and the other versions of the BIble?

27. What is the difference between each of the SOW Editions?

28. What does a typical week look like for my family?

29. Why does the SOW Curriculum encourage Co-oping?

30. Why does it take six years to finish the SOW Curriculum?

31. Do all six years have to be completed?

32. What about high school?

33. Will the SOW Curriculum give our children the education needed for college?

34. Why are math lessons not included in the SOW Curriculum?

35. What math curriculum do you think we should use?

36. How can I be sure my children are learning the basic skills in each subject?

37. How much time is required weekly or daily in preparing and teaching the SOW Curriculum in comparison to other types of curriculums?

38. What is the cost for using the SOW Curriculum?

39. What is recommended for the first year?

40. Do we offer special financing?

41. How can we order the SOW Curriculum?

42. Can we examine the SOW Curriculum?

43. What are the policies concerning buying and selling used SOW materials?

• It is a K-12th curriculum designed for Christian parents to disciple their children not just educate them. The goal is to know God, the method is discipleship, the main text is the Bible for all the basic subjects except math. Math is not included.

See Attributes for more specific information.

We are the parents of five children: David Jr. (7-15-81), Benjamin (3-22-83), Jonathan (10-5-87), Abigail (3-22-90), and Hannah (11-6-92). 

We accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord in 1975 and have taught our children at home since the birth of our first child in 1981. 

See Author for more specific information.

See Introductory for more specific information.

As we searched for homeschool resources to teach our children,  we found that most materials offered to homeschoolers were lacking in one or more of these areas...

• Not suitable for teaching multi-level ages: Most curriculums are not designed for parents to teach more than one child at different age levels. What works with one child may not work with two, five, or more. The SOW Curriculum emphasizes teaching and repeating basic skills that all children need to know rather than memorizing limited and senseless knowledge year after year. 

• Not economical for a family budget: The cost to put together a curriculum that includes a K-12th scope & sequence, daily step by step lesson plans for 10 subjects, a resource list, reasons and suggestions for homeschooling, manual on how to disciple your children, testing & evaluating suggestions, hints on training infants, toddlers, and children to adulthood, how to check out, how to co-op, how to apprenticeship, etc. would be enormous. We desire all family's who want to disciple their children to do so, at an affordable price. This is why we offer the SOW Curriculum at such a low price and make special financing available to all who need it.

• Ineffectively used resources limit our children's learning ability: Texts are usually biased and have limited "age appropriate" information about the subject. We encourage the students to learn how to research using many resources not limiting their God given abilities to explore and learn. 

• Time inefficient: Most curriculums require the teacher to plan and teach 10 different subjects to all of the children. If you have 2 children, you are planning and teaching 20 subjects a day. Even a trained teacher could not perform this task. 

• Not easy to use: Because most curriculums are designed to be teacher directed, this requires you to be available all the time for all your children from infancy to adulthood. We designed the SOW Curriculum so that eventually once the student can read the Bible and follow written instructions, he can be independent. The SOW is designed to be easily used by a 10 year old child, as well as, an adult. Once the child becomes an independent learner, the teacher is able to devote more time teaching the younger ones to read.

• Lack of Biblical vision: Though many curriculums have well meaning visions and focus for their users, we believe they are missing the most essential focus---the Word of God. We believe that God is calling Christians to homeschool their children not to educate them, but to disciple them. Discipleship always includes education but education does not necessarily include discipleship.

• Non creative and fun: Because the focus is usually on academics or knowledge, creativity and the fun of learning is squeezed out. We believe it is important that children experience things first hand by creating with their mind and hands. This means taking time for field trips, nature walks, art, music, hands on activities, and plenty of oral discussions.

• Not discipleship oriented: Our goal is that each student know God by making him complete in Christ through prayer, Bible Study, Scripture memorization, walking in the Spirit, wisdom, living by faith, stewardship of God's creation, etc. Though many curriculums excel academically, most or none have a vision for discipleship.

• Doctrinally unbiblical: Most Bible based curriculums approach the Bible by teaching the comments and doctrines of others, making this type of study unbiblical and not purely sound. The SOW Curriculum is committed to teaching students inductive methods of reading, outlining, character study, topical study, setting, word study, etc. using Biblical resources. We desire that all students learn how to digest the meat of the word, not just the milk.

• No mastering of the basic skills: Educators are no longer teaching basic skills to our children, but a philosophy of life. During all the years in the education system, we have forgotten or have not realized, that there are only approximately 70 phonemes to learn to read, 25 English skills, 15 spelling skills, 26 alphabets to write, and our knowledge of earth, life, and physical science, geography, etc. are limited to text book sizes. All these subjects should be interrelated focusing on one purpose -- to know the Creator. Educators would have you think that knowledge, not God, is eternal, all knowing, all powerful, good, merciful, and kind.

• Not individually progressive: The student should be able to progress at his own pace. Each lesson in the SOW Curriculum encourages oral, drawn, and/ or  written communication, so that all children should be able to perform and progress according to his God given abilities. This way of learning does not require labels that either puff up a child or make him feel inferior. 

We feel that the SOW Curriculum meets all the above criteria. Like Mary in the Bible, who sat at the feet of Jesus when Martha was so busy serving others, we, too, believe that there is a better way of learning.

• The most unique feature about the SOW Curriculum is the vision for discipleship and it's focus on the Bible. All other curriculums  seem to lack a vision for Christian discipleship.  Jesus' last command when He walked the earth was to make disciples. What does it mean to disciple? This command could only include a  focus on teaching others how to walk with God through prayer and knowing the Word of God. 

• Most curriculums focus on a particular topic, character trait, history timeline, literature, doctrine, or an academic subject. The SOW Curriculum's central focus is on the Word of God.  It uses the Bible as the main text for almost all the subjects.  

• Other curriculums, say they are Bible based, but are much like commentaries of the Bible telling the student what to think and know. The SOW Curriculum is the only homeschooling curriculum we know of that teaches each student-- skills on how to study the Bible, pray, and walk in the Spirit. 

See Attributes .

• We believe that the Christian church is weak today, because Christians do not know God. They do not know God, because they have not been discipled properly. Most Christians have not read the Bible, much less, studied it. The Bible says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." and  "Faith comes from hearing and hearing the Word of God." 

• We also believe that the focus of most of the educational material available for our children 's education is not biblical, regardless if it is a history time line, a character study, a literature classic, or any other topical study. Though these are all creative ways to learn, we as Christians need to remember why we are homeschooling. The purpose should be to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, the method should be discipleship as set forth in Matthew 28:19-22, and the main text for all the subjects should be the Bible. 

• We believe placing the Word of God as the focus of our learning in every subject creates a unique kind of education --giving purpose, unity, peace, and results. We should train our children how to use resources, methods, and skills to gain not only knowledge, but wisdom. 

See Why Christians should homeschool?

       We have been very careful not to express any personal opinions. We designed this curriculum, so that even our children             can respectfully question our beliefs when in contradiction to God's Word.  The SOW Curriculum encourages the student         to study the word of God relying on the Holy Spirit to interpret     and apply the scriptures accurately. How we accomplish     this is         by asking questions that make the student desire to know the truth. The student then searches the scripture along         with other                  resources using Bible study methods to formulate Biblical principles in each subject. The truth is revealed in God's word,         enlightened by the Holy Spirit who promises to lead all believers to the truth. 

The resources that we have recommended to use with each subject as sources of information may be biased or not accurately biblical. The parent, as the teacher, should be actively involved to see there are no false assumptions being made because of traditions of men, fear of the truth, or bad shepherds (I John 2:9). All resources recommended may be substituted.

See Introductory: Doctrinal Statement for more information.

• Lack of vision: Most  homeschool parents lack a vision for educating their children. They have no goals and become victims to every plan made by man. When persecution comes or doubts arise, there is no reason to stand firm. God has already given us in the Bible a vision for educating our sons and daughters. It is called discipleship. Discipleship unlike education, will include not only academic learning but spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical growth. 

• Government, Society, and Family Disapproval:     The governmental system wants control over our children's education because they lose money every time a child leaves the school system.  The agenda for educators is that our children have a world view, not a Biblical one.  Family members will not understand your decision to place discipleship over educating your children. Friends, even those in the Church, might be some of your strongest critics. 

• Confused: A third reason is that other homeschooling materials have stated to be Bible based, only to be disappointed that these claims were not true. We, too, have searched and have collected quite a large library of  resources claiming to be Bible centered but in fact are curriculums focusing on literature, creation science, missions, character traits, doctrines, portion of scripture, history, etc.  The SOW Curriculum is truly Bible centered. 

• Disappointments: The SOW Curriculum will disappoint some. No one has written the perfect curriculum or plan that will meet to your family's needs. Only God has written the perfect curriculum--the Bible. We felt; that if, we could utilize the Bible as the main text, follow the Biblical mandate to disciple our children, copy the example of Jesus in teaching His disciples--how to pray, walk in the Spirit, preach and teach others the gospel, to care for His creation, etc.; then God would do what He has promised to do--make our children wise, guide them into all truth, protect them from the evil one, and give them a future and a hope. Use the SOW Curriculum as a tool or framework to accomplish your goals for your family; and, you will not be disappointed.

• Comfortable: Most people are comfortable with what they are using.  But being comfortable should never be a motive. The plan, that you devised and should be implementing in your home, should be God given and driven.  Don't let the responsibility of training and educating your children become over whelming and paralyze you from doing what God has called you to do as a Christian, parent, and teacher.                                     

• Lack of social opportunities, rewards, and recognition for our children: We literally believe; that if,  we "put God first, all things shall be added." We also believe many of the programs that are offered in the school systems promote self glorification. We believe that Christians should seek to glorify God, not ourselves. We feel  that the school systems teach our children to be self sufficient; when, they should be learning to depend on God. We believe the schools systems teach our children individualism or the "I am", instead of that, we are a body and we need each other.  The hardest things to give up were, what we called, the riches of Egypt--all those titles, rewards and recognitions that the world offers that give us a false sense of security and pride. Instead, we encouraged our children not to compare themselves with others, but by God's standards in His Word. When we do that, we all fall short. When we recognize our weaknesses and sins, we should turn to God to empower us and give us wisdom. 

• Stated goals vs real goals: It is very wise to count the cost for every decision we make. God warns us not to start building the house without counting the cost, less others mock because of our double mindedness. God calls us to narrow our choices as we walk with Him. Choosing to leave your former religious believes for a relationship with Jesus Christ, choosing to marry a Christian, choosing a type of job career that is pleasing to the Father, choosing to homeschool, or choosing to disciple your children,  will make waves. Are your stated goals, your real goals? Where and on what do you spend most of your time and resources? What do you think and dream about?

• Check motives: Check to see, if your motives for educating your children are spiritually pure and Biblically founded or are they tainted with worldly reasons. God has told us not to be fearful, but have courage as we take back the land (children) that the enemy (Satan) has stolen. "Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."

• We chose to keep the packaging of the SOW Curriculum very simple to cut down in material costs. This is why we designed supplemental packets instead of  full binders each year.   We tried very hard not to waste your time and money on using color or any other extra expenses that might add to the cost unnecessarily.

• We purposefully left out pictures. Pictures tend to distract the student and give him conclusions to a problem or question that he was intended to research and find out for himself. Drawing or visualizing what they have learned is a learning process that the SOW Curriculum highly encourages. If there are any drawings to be made, the students will do them as part of the lessons.

• Most of the resources, we recommend for gathering facts and information for each lesson, have colorful pictures

• We have designed the SOW Curriculum to be very teacher, parent, and student friendly. Given a general scope & sequence, home management charts, goals, step by step lessons for each subject, except math, K-5th worksheets and 6th-12th student edition, we believe the SOW Curriculum is the easiest curriculum to use at home, church, or school.

• Because the SOW Curriculum's vision, method, and use of the Bible as the main text is so different from the typical way most were taught to learn and different from most curriculums, Christian or secular, there will be, at first, a time of perseverance needed until the teacher and/or student becomes familiar with how to use it. You will need to reeducate yourself  by reading thoroughly through the material. These differences will require you to gain wisdom on how to use it, and then teach each of your students, beginning with the oldest, how to use the SOW Curriculum until they master using the scope & sequence, charts, and daily lessons in each subject.

• Each lesson requires the student to answer questions by researching selected resources and the Bible, then to draw conclusions on their findings. These lessons will require more time to complete at first; but, as the student familiarizes himself with the program, you will notice a great improvement in his thinking, research, writing, and communicating skills.

• The K-5th worksheets with their structured format are easy to use with the younger students.

•  The attitudes and capabilities of your family will determine how fast your household will learn how to use the SOW Curriculum. 

• We compare using the SOW Curriculum to learning how to ride a bike. There is a lot of excitement on the day you decide to teach your child to ride a bike. You steady the bike with the child securely on it and run, holding it steady and firm. After a few turns of this, you decide it is time for the child to go solo. At the correct time and place, you let go of the bike and watch him speed by. Of course, the child falls, not only once, but twice, maybe even more. It could go on like this for a couple of days, in which the child may even have a couple of ugly bruises and bumps. Why do you continue? Well, you see the value and the good in the child learning how to ride his bike. It is deeming the product or goal worthy, which drives you to do it, over and over. So it is using the SOW Curriculum. We ask that you focus on the goal relying on the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom, strength, and perseverance to see the task through. What is the task? Your cross or task to bear is to teach and train your children to know God and care for His creation.

• This is certain, that the enemy, Satan, will attack those who choose to obey God's command and disciple their children in the Word. But Christians are "not to fear him who can hurt the body, but fear Him who can destroy the soul." Remember to use God's Word as your defense against His attack. 

• History, Geography, & Science will be studied throughout the years in alternating units of study. A unit study approach is used for each week's lesson in which a resource is recommended such as BJU Earth Science text, a topic selected such as "Stars", and activities are suggested such as ...reading about stars, biography of an astronomist, report on stars, projects and/ or experiments pertaining to stars, field trip related to stars. In the Bible, history begins at creation and ends in the Roman Empire. The SOW Curriculum continues "His Story" in a chronological method covering all of history from creation to the year 2000.  Science is taught each year by units beginning with creation to earth science, astronomy, botany, zoology, human anatomy, physical and chemical science. In geography a different continent is thoroughly studied every year using maps, graphs, timelines, reports, etc..

• With step by step lessons, English, spelling, phonics, and writing skills are repeated over and over; till, they are mastered.

• Good literature is introduced to the student in which he is asked to analyze according to a Biblical view.

• Bible is learned by using step by step inductive skills including... reading and meditating, outlining, character study, word study, topical study, setting, & comments.

• Electives such as art, music, field trips, service, computer, etc. are relevant and fun.

• Each of these subjects correlates with that week's specific scripture making the study of each subject Biblical and Christ centered. The SOW's scope & sequence thoroughly covers all the basics and more of academic knowledge for K-12th grade students.

See Six Year Scope & Sequence.

• We believe, history repeats itself. The Bible tells us to learn from the past victories and failures of others.  We wanted our children to understand; they areChristians, who happen to be Americans and to understand HIS Story, in light of all of history. To do this we concentrated our studies on World History; which, the United States and other countries have played an important role, but only in the last 200 years compared to 6000 years of history. World History is covered in all 6 years. Beginning with creation till the year 2000. The North American continent will be covered extensively in the 6th volume including government, history, economics, geography, culture, etc. . Also there is  an extensive study of the student's home state.

See Six year Scope & Sequence.

• The SOW Curriculum requires other resources. These resources are used as sources for collecting and gathering information and facts. We recommend selected resources for each subject to use with each lesson, such as textbooks, concordance, dictionary, atlas, encyclopedia, Bible, writing paper, literature, etc.  However, you may substitute any resource we recommend with your own selections. For example, the SOW offers three types of Literature lessons-- poetry, short story, and book. Specific poems, classics, magazines, biographies, etc. are selected to do these lessons. Yet, you are still free to substitute your own selections.

See Resource Section for selected first year resource list.

• The SOW Curriculum is designed to teach students how to master skills, instead of just learning rote material. Since texts are used as a source to find information on a specific subject and not as an end or means to gain knowledge, we encourage families to use the higher texts rather than the lower ones. 

• You will find that the lower texts water down information limiting the facts about a subject.  For example: A first grade science text will say that a frog lives in a pond. Second grade--it is green, slimy, and wet. Third grade-- it is an amphibian. Till finally in 12th grade biology class, the student is given all the information about a frog. We believe that the student should be given all the information about a subject leaving the results to God. If a student is capable of learning and understanding information about a frog at a college level, why not let him? 

• The reading level of magazines, newspapers and most text are at the 4th and 6th grade level. If your child can read the Bible, then he should have no difficulty reading any text on a  K-12th level. Training your child to comprehend the meat of the word instead of the milk, will take time as he becomes accustomed to reading the material and you faithfully ask questions to discern the facts or the author's meaning.

• The SOW Curriculum does not provide the recommended resources nor does it sell these products. 

• We encourage SOW users to build a good library at home and purchase Christian texts and other Christian materials first, because Christian materials are rarely found in a public library.

• Christian materials and other resources we selected to be used with the SOW can be purchased from educational vendors and publishers. We have supplied the addresses, phone numbers, and website of these in the SOW Curriculum. If there are any problems contacting vendors and publishers, please call the SOW office for an updated resource list or an equivalent resource.

• Many resources can be found -- free at public or private school warehouses,  homeschool book fairs, used by other homeschool families, or consider borrowing it from a friend.

• See the Resource List for information about resources selected to use with the SOW Curriculum. Prices and sources for resources are not available on the internet. Specific sources including their addresses and phone numbers for each recommended resource can be found in the SOW Teacher Edition.

• Most of the recommended resources such as the English handbook, earth science text, etc. are used for all twelve years for each of your children; so that, these are only one time investments. Other resources are needed each year such as the literature selections.

• After the initial cost of one time investments such as the English handbook, Bible, atlas, dictionary, and others, the cost of resources each year for the 1st six years should be around $25.00 to $50.00.  You will use all the same resources the repeated six years of SOW, also.

• Many of the resources can be found in the home or public library. 

• Compared to the yearly cost of textbooks and resources in other curriculums on the market today, the SOW Curriculum is very economical for a family budget.

There are two divisions in the SOW--

• Nonreaders or instructional readers or K-5th grade students are those children in your family who are learning to read or can not read. Each non-reader or instructional reader is dependent on the teacher for instructions until he has learned to read. There are 30 reproducible ( K-5th) worksheets to be used by nonreaders or instructional readers in your family. These work sheets are designed to correlate with each lesson for every subject making it easier for the teacher to know just what is required of each student. The student will be able to easily label and draw his answers in the space provided. After he has learned how to read using the phonics program, the student should slowly be given more and more activities from the Student Edition to do on his own, until he too has become an independent student. See K-5th Worksheets and K-5th Student Samples.  

• Independent readers or 6th-12th grade students, are those children in your family who can read the Bible and follow written instructions.  Giving a Student Edition to each of these students, makes it possible for them to be independent. Each student should have his own notebook which should include an individualized weekly and daily schedule, complete step by step lessons in every subject except math, stewardship charts, etc. The SOW Curriculum encourages the student to master skills in every subject by asking specific questions allowing the the student to think, providing interesting and thorough resources for research, and training students to use the Bible to find solutions to their questions. This type of learning allows the student to gain wisdom instead of knowledge. The ultimate independence of the older student allows the teacher more time to spend with the non-readers or instructional readers.  See 6th-12th Lessons and 6th -12th Student Samples.

• Learning about a particular subject, at a specific child's level of understanding and communicating takes place by teaching the student to creatively think by asking specific questions, thoroughly researching for the answers by providing good references and texts, and then communicating his conclusions through one or more of these mediums -- orally, drawn, or the written word.  First the student will orally describe a topic. Eventually, he will draw it. Finally, he will be able to write about it. 

• The SOW Curriculum uses texts and references only as a resource for gathering information, thus allowing the Holy Spirit and the God given abilities that God has given each child, to dictate how much knowledge each student will retain.

• Each lesson has nonreader or instructional reader options with teacher directed activities that correlate with the readers in your family for each lesson or subject. This makes it possible to teach not only the same subject, but the same lesson at the same time to all your students no matter what age. For example, in history, the topic could be Egypt--each student could be given a different subtitle such as pyramids, pharaohs, topography, timeline, etc., or they can work on these topics together as a family. Another example is studying the subject of biology under the subtopic of anatomy. Each student can be assigned a specific animal to report on and to dissect such as a frog, worm, fish, etc. 

• Learning as a family allows the older or gifted student to help the younger or weaker student. Individual progress is encouraged so less competition and comparison.

• For all families that have more than one child or plan to have more than one, you would start the SOW Curriculum with your first child in SOW I. When the next sibling and each sibling after are capable of listening and can communicate either verbally, or by drawing, or written skills, they will enter the SOW Curriculum in the same SOW year that the family is using at that time.

• Because the SOW is designed so that the students are mastering skills and not just learning rote material, most basic information can be learned at any reasonable age, if it is introduced to the student in a way in which he can grasp the material and use the information.

• The sequencing or timing in which information is taught to a young child will not affect his learning. When the student or students are older, then it will be important for him to see the natural sequencing of history, the Bible, and so on. This is why we recommend using the SOW twice making it a 12 year curriculum.

• The SOW Curriculum is non-graded or multileveled in all the subjects. This means that the lessons are designed to teach as many students and any student, regardless of age, at the same time. This makes it easier for the teacher to teach and fun for the students to learn. How?

• The SOW is designed to teach each student inductive skills over and over until they are mastered. These inductive skills are used to learn and study specific topics in every basic subject. How?

• The SOW asks methodical questions on a specific topic in each subject and then recommends resources to find the answer to those questions. Because we do not use graded or watered down texts, the student are given all the information available on the subject he is studying. This allows the Holy Spirit and the God given talents each student has been given to determine how much and what he will learn. The Bible is always used as the main text assuring truth in all subjects. Because the SOW is Bible centered, all the subjects uniquely relate to one another--spelling to geography, geography to creative writing , etc. This is all done with a central purpose in mind --to know God and walk with Him.

• We have divided the SOW Curriculum into 2 classes of learner...independent students, those who can read the Bible and follow written instructions and instructional students, those who are can't read or in the process of learning.

• Students are to be trained to be independent students. When a student can read the Bible and follow written instructions, he is given a weekly schedule, scope & sequence & a specific student edition to use.  See 6th-12th Lessons.

• The instructional students are to be teacher directed, until they learn to read. There are 30 or more reproducible worksheets that correlate with the each subject that the teacher will use for students classified as nonreaders or instructional readers ( K-5th). See K-5th Worksheets.

• The students communicate in one or all of these three ways --verbal words, drawn pictures, or written words. Students are asked specific questions, read resources and gather facts and information, and then communicate their conclusions through oral, drawn, or written skills. Younger children will be teacher directed until they become independent thinkers, researchers, and communicators on their own.

• The bulk of the younger child's learning time is given to learning to read. The reading or phonics program you choose is very important. The SOW Curriculum includes a great reading or phonics program.

• Families using the SOW have testified that the parents have learned, as well, from using the SOW. If truly there is a curriculum to disciple Christians of all ages, we believe the SOW accomplishes this. You may have to be a little bit more creative in using the SOW within your family setting and patient for your little one to grow in his skills before you see major results. 

There are 24 lessons per year or per volume. These are designed to be done in 24 weeks are more. 

•     We recommend schooling year round. We have found that children lose almost all that they have     learned between the long summer breaks. Even textbooks repeat last years materials for at least 6-8     weeks before learning new material. Also, the Bible says, "foolishness is bound up in a child's          heart". It is better to keep him occupied with sensible, consistent, & balanced work, play, & rest.

•     We recommend 3 sessions of 10-12 weeks with a week off of SOW every 4-6 weeks to edit,     catch up, field trips, vacation, visits to the doctor and dentist, electives, etc. 

•     We recommend at least 4 weeks for rest, planning, & ministry activities in the months of December, April, & August.

•     We consider all 360 days of the year to be homeschooling days. We label these studies as electives such as...business, social and home economics, community service, etc. 

•     Remember, the SOW Curriculum is not just a curriculum for academic studies but a manual on how to disciple your children, so we have worked out a schedule, we believe is good for the family, not the government.

Note: All of the above are suggestions. Your family may desire to do 32 lessons per year or keep to a traditional school schedule. The SOW Curriculum works well with any schedule your family desires.

• We believe most children,  4 years of age and under, are not ready for formal education. Their motor skills are clumsy and their attention span is short. We feel it is important for parents to enjoy their children at these ages and not become so anxious to get them into the world of reading and writing too fast. Creating, exploring, and playing is most often robbed from the child, if "school" is introduced too soon. 

• It is vital that you ask God to give you a vision for training and educating your children before or when they are born. You and your husband should write down your goals for your family and discuss them yearly, if not more. These goals should be transferred to a realistic yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily schedule. Keeping to a schedule was as important to our family, when our children were toddlers, as scheduling is today. 

• Our goals as parents of young children should focus on teaching our children  --- to fall in love with God and obey His Word, to love their parents and obey their Word as they would God's Word, and enjoy learning about God's creation and how to be a good steward of it. 

• Our schedule looked something like this...Breakfast, Family Devotion, (Bible story, song, & prayer) outside play (swings, sand box, club house, walk or ride tricycles around the neighborhood, etc.), snack, learning center (play dough, paint, puzzles, games, stamps, coloring, cut outs, etc.), inside play (legos, kitchen, dress up, Play Mobile, toys, books, audio or video tapes, etc.), clean up, lunch, Reading aloud, nap (2hrs.), learning center, snack, inside play, clean up, outside play, supper, bath, (Listen to Bible on tape and prayers). At least once a week , if not more, I would take them to the park and meet another family or Dad after work. Also regular trips to the library, selecting books and quietly reading were part of the agenda. 

• Playing, creating, exploring with your children is important, especially at these young ages. The responsibilities of each family member increases as the children get older. Playtime, exploring, and creating gets scarce as more and more "schooling" is required. So read aloud, romp on the floor, play Candy Land, make puzzles, play dolls and matchbox cars, cuddle with them, build sandcastles, visit other families, plant a garden, go to the library, color, draw, and take field trips (zoo, fire station, police station, bakery, grocery store, etc.)

• Invest in good educational toys, books, and equipment that will help you reach your goals such as a play equipment, fence for the back yard, a baby gate for the play room, and playpen for infants. Train your infants and toddlers that there are boundaries. These boundaries should keep the young child safe and happy, while you are busy teaching, cleaning, resting, etc.. Have a central play room and get sturdy boxes for storing toys and teach your children to pick up after each play time.

• Remember you can never redeem the time when your children are young, so enjoy the smacks, cuddles, sillies, wiggles, and giggles, now.

• Those younger than five years old, let them observe and participate as much as possible in your schooling or SOW  activities.

We believe the SOW Curriculum has designed an excellent reading program that utilizes good resources enabling the teacher and student to find instant success. 

• The SOW Phonics  is a wholistic approach to learning how to read. Unlike most programs in which the student 's spelling words are different from the reading words and the writing words are different from the reading and spelling words, the SOW Curriculum uses the same family words to read, write, spell, and to do English and reading skills.

• Most phonics programs require the student to read library books to learn reading. The SOW Curriculum utilizes Merrill Linguistic Readers which only reinforce words that have already been learned or introduced giving the student consistent success in oral and silent reading. There are 7 readers.

• Reading skill workbooks teach the student to recognize and identify words in context, comprehension skills, sequencing, matching, inferring, critical thinking, etc.. All of these reading skills are essential for successful reading. There are 7 skills texts.

• There is a step by step oral lesson in which the student decodes each family word. It is during this session  the student hears, sees, and blends the sounds to make words.

• While the student is learning to read, the SOW Curriculum encourages the student to write each word by tracing or copying the words using print, only. The student should write the words exactly how he reads words in books. Other types of writing such as italics, calligraphy, cursive etc. should be taught after the student learns to read well.

• Using each word in context through drawing pictures or writing sentences is also part of the program's success for reading.

• There are four step by step phonic lessons in the SOW Curriculum:

• Consonant sounds: The student will learn consonants by matching capital and small letters, placing them in alphabetical order, identifying each letter's sound, writing all the letters, and naming each letter using fun resources and activities. 

• Short vowel sounds: One short vowel is introduced one at a time in an oral lesson and using specific phonics worksheets to reinforce learning. The student will learn other words in that word family. Using wonderful readers and reading skill workbooks that teach sequencing, comprehension, grammar, context, and sentences, etc., the young student is able to read successfully and easily on the first day. After the student has finished his first reader and work text, he is able to be self taught because of the simple and methodical way the material is introduced. Only about 15 minutes a day of guidance and teaching is needed.

• More vowel sounds: These sounds are introduced and learned the same way as the short vowel sounds.

• Advanced Phonics: For the older or mature student who needs drilling in the sounds for better spelling and reading.

The cost for all the Merrill Reading Program is about $250.00, but you can purchase one reader and skill text at a time and sell the readers, when you are finished.

NOTE: Disadvantage of using the Merrill Readers and skills text is the difficulty in ordering the teacher editions (TE). You must send proof along with your order of any TEs,  that your home is registered with the state. We recommend you do not purchase any TEs. The lessons are very explanatory and easy to use without them.

See sample Phonics Lesson and Phonics Resources

Yes, your family may use any Bible version with the SOW Curriculum.

The SOW Curriculum recommends selected resources for each subject to be used as sources of information and fact. Each of these resources can be substituted with your own preferences or selected resources. Choosing your own resources allows the parents to be in control over what the child is learning as fact. Remember, the SOW Curriculum is designed to be nonbiased, but the resources recommended may be biased according to publisher's view. We have tried to select resources that were close to Biblical view.

We believe that the best study of the Bible would require looking at the Greek manuscripts for exegetical clarity. The word exegesis means to "draw out". It is applied to the study of the scriptures to emphasize that Bible Doctrine comes out of scripture. Therefore, it is very important that we understand the importance of inerrancy in the scriptures. We believe that God has delivered His word to man and has persevered it without error. The large volume of new translations attempt to defy this principle of inerrancy by demonstrating that there are many translations and no absolute truth of God. Most all modern translations are based on the Nestle-Aland Greek manuscripts. This collection contains many manuscripts which the Textus Receptus rejected. They were rejected for many good reasons. The KJV and the NKJV are based on the Textus Receptus. I also like to use the Interlinear English Bible produced by Hendrickson Publishers--it is committed to the Textus Receptus. There are some people who believe they should only use the KJV for study and teaching. The KJV is an English translation of the Greek Textus Receptus. The authority of the scripture is rested in the Greek and expressed in the English. The English language is continually changing and translations or exposition of the scripture must be accurate to the original Greek text. It was during the "Dark Ages" that "Latin" became the excepted version of the Bible. The Reformation was carried forward by men who were committed to producing a Bible in the common vernacular language of the English people. There were many attempts at this before the KJV Bible was produced under the sanction of King James. The goal of the KJV was to produce a Bible which was accurate to the original language which would be easy for the common man to read. For a person to use the KJV, he must be ready to study. For example, 2 The 3:9, "Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us." For years I would read the word ensample and replace it with the word example. But the word ensample, which is uncommon in modern American English, has a much greater description than the word example. The word ensample, comes from the Greek word "tupos" which means the figure formed by a blow or impression; a figure or image. The application would mean that Paul desired to leave such a lasting impression on the Thessalonians that they would provoked by his life to follow in his obedience to Christ. This is just one example to demonstrate that the translation must be true to the original Greek and yet contemporary to the culture which it speaks. Many translations are being written in these modern times substituting words. We believe the best translation for our family is the Greek Textus Receptus, not the English KJV. 

This is a small explanation of our convictions on this important subject. We encourage you to seek God for wisdom and clarity in your understanding of this matter. We must always remember that God has spoken without error, but He has not revealed all truth to us. We see through a mirror dimly and He has purposefully left many matters a mystery. Even Jesus entrusted Himself to the Father who had the authority to appoint who would sit on His right and left hand, and who alone knew the time of His second coming. God wants us to have the full assurance that His word is trustworthy, because He is the Word. To put our faith in God's word is to entrust ourselves to God and His faithfulness.

To study the Bible, our family uses unmarked NKJV Bibles, but you can use the KJV or any other version of the Bible, you prefer. Like a commentary, we may read other versions for amplification of a text, but we do not depend on their interpretation of the text.

Independent students should use an unmarked Bible; because, these have no outlines or comments in the Bible. This requires them to do their own work. They will use other tools such as a Bible Dictionary, Atlas, and commentaries, but at the proper times in their studies. They are also trained to use the Strong's Concordance, to find the Greek and Hebrew words and their meaning.

Bible handbooks, dictionaries and atlases should be used by the teacher for research in vocabulary, topic and character studies. The Holy Spirit promises to guide the believer to the truth of God's Word.

Check Romans 8:1 in every translation and find the doctrinal differences in this passage of scripture. 

SOW I does not mean grade 1, SOW II does not mean grade 2, SOW III does not mean grade 3, and so on.  Remember, the SOW Curriculum is a non-graded curriculum. This means that SOW I  is the edition or volume to be used first by the whole family, regardless of age or abilities. Then when SOW  I is completed, the family completes SOW II, and then SOW III, so on and so on, till all six years are completed. To make it a twelve year curriculum, the family is to repeat the same six years again. (What they have learned and how they have learned it will not be the same at five years of age as when they repeat the SOW at 12 years of age. So there is no fear of boredom.)

Though the SOW Curriculum is designed best to be used together as a family, after purchasing all six volumes, you may choose to use the volumes in any order, with one or all of your students, or each student using a different volume.

See SOW materials .

Instead of a lesson plan, each student will follow a recommended or individualized weekly schedule and a recommended or individualized yearly scope & sequence. The weekly schedule can be as detailed, as needed noting resource used, page, etc.

See Year 1 Scope & Sequence

See (6th-12th) Reader Schedule & (K-5th) Instructional or Non- Reader Schedule

It is important for you and your children not to isolate yourselves, but to fellowship with like minded families for support, learning skills, sharing knowledge, prayer, fellowship, etc. Your church, neighbors, friends, or family may never meet to your family's specialized needs as homeschoolers.

If there is not a co-op in your area, in which family and discipleship is emphasized, then you may want to pioneer a co-op in your area. 

See FLCM page for suggestions on co-oping.

We wanted our family not just to read the Bible, but study the Bible extensively using Bible study methods and Bible resources. Also, each subject was to be taught as it related to the Creator and His written word. In mapping out all that was required for a thorough education in Bible, science, history, geography, etc., we calculated at least six years. This would make it easy for a family to repeat the SOW Curriculum every six years. Potentially, each student, if they started in kindergarten, would go through the program twice, making the SOW Curriculum a K-12 program. 

The SOW Curriculum could be completed every four years, if your family scheduled 36 week lessons per year, instead of 24.

See Six Year Scope & Sequence for more specific information.

The SOW Curriculum is designed to be used for at least six years to cover all the required basics of education except math, physics, chemistry, & foreign language.

If you have a older child, that has less than six years left of homeschooling education, there are some options to consider for using the SOW...

• Extend the years of homeschooling and use the SOW Curriculum in the apprenticeship stage of your child's life. Personally, we made a decision to extend our older child's homeschooling years beyond the normal number of years required, so that he could complete the curriculum and then continue into a more personalized program specifically designed for him and his gifts. 

• Complete the study within a four year period, instead of the six, by continuing to homeschool all year round and complete more than the 24 lessons required each year.  Example 4 years of SOW by increasing 24 lessons per year to 36 lessons per year.

• Create your own scope & sequence by selecting specific SOW lessons in each subject. For example... create a 2 year plan by doing just one lesson in each of the Old Testament & New Testament books, 1 year OT = 33 lessons, 2 year NT  = 33 lessons  (To do this all six volumes must be purchased at one time.)

• We also recommend purchasing SOW I-VI, but start with SOW IVB. This volume is the beginning study of the New Testament, in the book of Matthew. Then continue until the student completes as many volumes, as possible. Remember, the younger students will continue using the other SOW volumes after the older student or students have finished.

• You may purchase all 6 volumes, mixing and matching resources, subjects, scope & sequences, topics, and scriptures as needed to fit your family's use.

We sincerely believe the knowledge and wisdom a student will gain by using and completing the curriculum would prepare him properly to serve God and man. 

See six year scope & sequence.

    The SOW Curriculum...

• allows the high school student to learn independently and progressively through methodical         lesson plans.

• provides the high school student various resources, tools, and skills for learning each subject to it's fullest.

• teaches the high school student inductive skills... researching, inductive and critical thinking, organizing, and  clear, purposeful communicating.

• keeps the high school student focused by utilizing goals and schedules

• stimulates the high school student to learn by asking questions.

• produces Biblical view thinkers and doers because the Word of God is the final authority in all subjects.

• encourages diligence, faithfulness, and thoroughness through accountability charts.

• challenges the student, so that he/she relies on the Holy Spirit, as his/hers teacher.

• records progress of high school student using the progress report.

• The SOW Curriculum is designed to give every student what is needed for life -- a basic education and Christian discipleship. After twelve years of completing the SOW Curriculum, we believe that an (IEP) individual educational program should be designed for each student. This plan should include teaching the student skills for family or single life living, Christian ministry, a vocation, and social & community living. College, trade school, etc. may or may not be included in that plan. 

• We encourage the apprenticeship method, which means learning under a master in the trade, skill, or career, your student is gifted or shows interest in. Make arrangements with a local Christian business or person, that is Christian and well known for their integrity and business practices and the quality of work and product. SOW Curriculum suggests ideas for apprenticeship in the SOW Curriculum.

• Those families, who have planned college as a further source of education for their students, are encouraged to use the student progress report as a six week report and/or a transcript, keep a portfolio of all the student's best works, and take tests needed for college entrance. Find out what the college your student is planning to attend requires and add any necessary studies to the SOW.

• Because the SOW uses credited texts as resources, there is no fear that the student is not being presented the basic skills and knowledge needed to complete high school requirements. These subjects should be added...all maths, foreign languages (SOW has introductory Hebrew and Greek.), physics, and chemistry.  Those parents who wish their students to be tested and graded in each subject may do so by using those test materials available from each recommended resource's publisher such as Bob Jones, Abeka, etc.  

• More information about testing and evaluating, writing up an individual educational program or apprenticeship is included in the SOW Curriculum.

Math lessons are not included in the SOW Curriculum. We chose to concentrate our time, energy, gifts, and resources into producing a curriculum suitable for discipling our children in almost all the basic subjects, except math. We hope to include math lessons in the future. There are some fine math curriculums such as Saxon, Addison Wesley, Math U See, etc. If you use the SOW, you will have to select your family's math curriculum. 

See Links for some math ideas.

Our philosophy on math is to use inexpensive wordbooks or texts that can be self taught and checked by the student. For each lesson, use household materials such as a box of pop cycle sticks to teach concepts. There are many good math curriculums, but free public school texts are just as good. Visit state educational warehouses or find vendors that sell used free or inexpensive text books. 

See Links for some math ideas.

• Usually tests are given to find out if children are learning the basic skills in each subject. Unfortunately most tests are basically designed to compare your child with a standard of skills and knowledge that a team of "educational experts" deemed important or conclusive for a child of that age to know. These tests are called achievement tests and are usually given in a group setting. The outcome of these tests in no way show you any specific skills your child does or does not know, but a percentile score comparing your child’s results with others of his age.

• We recommend that Christians use a diagnostic test. These tests are usually individually given to the child and test the child for basic skills known or not known in each major subject. Testing this way, the child can learn the skills and knowledge needed individually progressing on his own time frame and unique capabilities with no pressure of comparison

• The SOW Curriculum recommends the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills for Pre- 9th grade. Just like its name, this test is very comprehensive covering all the basic subjects in all grades from preschool skills to 9th grade. It also evaluates each individual child in every basic skill in each subject such as the print or cursive writing of each letter, fractions in math, punctuation and capitalization use, reading word recognition, comprehension, and lots more. It not only analyzes student's strength and weakness in a certain area but also gives the student a grade level score for each subject. It is easy to use by all lay persons. Designed like a flip chart so that the teacher sits at one end while the student being tested sits at the opposite end. The instructions are clearly written out. Scoring each child is easily done by filling out a student record book as the test is given. This record book can be used as evidence of your child's progress in basic skills or used by the teacher to find strengths and weakness in basic skills. The basic skills for each level are laid out so simple so that it could be used as a scope & sequence to follow.

• Another way to informally test your child is to ask questions using the questions at the end of each chapter or your own. Biographies, timelines, experiments, and essays are all ways you can evaluate whether a child knows and comprehends a subject that they have studied.

• If formal testing or grading is important to your family, we suggest you purchase the testing materials that correspond to the resources the SOW recommends using for each subject. 

• We believe that God has given each of our children unique abilities that are designed for God’s purpose in their life. Thus each child will learn, retain, comprehend, and utilize material and information differently. As parents we are to impress our children that they are unique and perfect in God’s sight and for His special purposes. Even those with disabilities, disfigurements, etc. are uniquely designed for God and His glory. We are to help our children know God and learn about His world using those unique abilities and then discover what is that special purpose God has for them.

• Personally, testing each child, to see if he can perform the task or knows the information required, will give the teacher or parent the information needed to either reteach or teach new skills and material. But most testing is done to compare and label children. We believe this type of testing is unbiblical. 

• In fact, Christians should compare themselves to Jesus. When we do that, we see how holy He is and how unholy we are, thus causing us to repent and turn to Him for wisdom, strength, and power. Comparing ourselves to others ultimately produces both pride and false security or fear and grief.

• When Moses sent out the twelve spies into the land of Canaan, ten came back with a report, that though the land was filled with milk and honey as God had said, that there were giants in the land and that it would be impossible to conquer the land. Two of the spies reported the land was filled with milk and honey and that though there were giants, that God had given them the land. Joshua agreed and led the Israelites into Canaan and possessed the land God had promised them.

• The school systems, both private and government, coupled with psychology or giving you false reports. We encourage Christian parents not to listen to the false reports about your children, home, or marriages, but to move forward confident that God has given you the strength, wisdom, and power to conquer all the giants keeping you from possessing all the inheritances and promises God has for His people.

• Public/private school: If your looking for a curriculum, that would require the least amount of time for preparation and teaching, the public or private schools would be the number one choice for obvious reasons. Remember that these options will require many hours of homework; control of texts used, grades, discipline, world view (religion or philosophy of life) etc. is given to the teacher and board of each school; less time for creative electives and Biblical discipleship.

• Video: Our second choice for least preparation time for teaching all the subjects would be using the video. All that is required is basically setting up the video. Keep in mind, we are not against using videos as a tool to enhance learning, but there exists some problems, if it is used as the main source of education. The video, even more that a classroom, is limited in it's power to educate properly. Because the video addresses a prearranged specific scope & sequence for each subject, it is unable to answer the student's personal questions, explore individual ideas, nor does it have access to the God given capabilities of each student that is needed to make education a learning process. 

• Textbook: A textbook style curriculum would be our next choice for least preparation time. Textbooks are pretty much self explanatory, so that the student can learn on his own most of the time. All that is required is a small amount of reading from the text, answering the calculated questions by using the limited resource of the text, and a weekly quiz to see how much of the text has been retained for that week. Of course, it becomes very costly and time consuming, if your family consists of more than one of a different age. Also, children usually don't retain much, learning is boring, and the subjects never relate to one another.

• Unit Study: The unit or principle approach (each subject is learned by focusing around a specific topic or principle), depending on format, is the most time consuming in teacher preparation. But, we consider it the most interesting way to learn, because it requires lots of hands on activities with the family. Most of these types of curriculums, though, demand that the teacher (you) to do all the managing, preparing, teaching, thinking, creating, and evaluating for all her students-- infant to adult. 

• Principle/Character/or Topical study:

• Inductive Approach:

  The SOW Curriculum does utilize all the approaches and tools mentioned to make preparing and teaching more time efficient, as well as economically feasible, educationally sound, creatively interesting, and biblically correct. Remember, a good teacher will spend time planning, preparing, teaching, and reevaluating, but with good tools this job can be made easier. Whether you create your own or use the SOW, a good curriculum will have integrated subjects that relate to one another, daily lessons with step by step instructions for teacher and students; yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily time management charts for creating good stewards, repetitious methods that concentrate on learning basic skills, use of good references that are self explanatory, a plan for evaluating and testing each student, and a thorough scope & sequence-- goals for educating your children and a plan for meeting those goals. 

•  

See Attributes for more detailed information.

            We believe the SOW Curriculum is the most cost efficient homeschooling curriculum available. 

The cost of the SOW Curriculum  per family for the first year is $225-260.00.   For all 12 years of education, the SOW Curriculum will cost almost $500.00 per family. (See Material description for more details.)

Selected resources are not provided by the SOW Curriculum and must be purchased separately. (For details on recommended resources, see Resource List.)

See SOW order form for ordering information.

Order the SOW Teacher Edition I & Resource Edition I (set) and one Student Edition I  for each 6th-12th grade student. The  K-5th worksheets are included free with the purchase of SOW RE & TE I. 

The next year your family should order SOW II, then next SOW III, till you have finished all six years. Then repeat the six years again making the SOW Curriculum a K-12th curriculum.

If your family has older students, that will not finish out the six years required, see question # 31 above for options.

What about high school, see question # 32 above.

If you purchase SOW I-VI, you may start in any volume and use the SOW Curriculum in any order, you choose.  To fit your family's needs, you may substitute, change, add, or subtract any subject, scope & sequence, resource, lesson, topic, scripture, etc.

See Six Year Scope & Sequence.

The SOW Curriculum is a tool for families,<