Building a Family Library of Virtuous Books

  I am finding that I am receiving frequent questions about book and curriculum recommendations for homeschooling.  In my writing and speaking I tend to focus on my passion to communicate a vision for Biblically based home education and to encourage busy mamas along in the journey.  I am realizing, however, that the topic of books and curriculum is probably something that I should address from time to time, since people are frequently asking me questions pertaining to this subject.

 I think I am to the point in my personal journey where I have realized that the particular curriculum I use is not as important as how I am doing at engaging with my children and discipling them in Biblical truth.  There are a lot of good books out there, and there are some bad books too.  I really think praying about curriculum choices is so important!  I have found the Lord is ever so faithful to lead and guide my steps as I seek Him in our homeschool planning.  

  It has been my experience that as I have asked the Lord for wisdom in our homeschool planning that He seems to continue to impress on my heart that I need to integrate more of His Word into our schooling, more character training, more Biblical apologetics, more wisdom, etc.  

  I believe teaching our families the fear/reverence of the Lord is the proper foundation for all of learning to be built upon.  God's ways are always higher than man's ways.  

His plan is that we start with knowing Him and let all learning flow forth from that.  I love a quote by John Milton that says:

"The end of all learning is to know God and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him." - John Milton

  So we do not want to teach our children mere academic knowledge, but rather we want to teach them wisdom that will equip them to apply the knowledge in Christ-like ways.  Honestly mere knowledge alone can be dangerous without wisdom.  Men like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were no dummies.  They had knowledge but they lacked the wisdom to use their knowledge rightly.  Thus they ended up destroying many lives.  

  There is a LOT I would like to say on this topic, but I want to get to some book recommendations here.  Hopefully I can continue this as a sort of series off and on.  :)  

  So, I am just going to share a few book resources we appreciate in our home.  Of course there are far too many to put in a single post, so I am just going to list a few ideas and hopefully I can share more in days to come.  

  When looking for books to build our family library we are looking for stories of virtue and truth that are well written and teach us to see life from a Biblical worldview.  

Because we love to teach our children church history we love this fun picture book! 

  I believe there is ALWAYS something to be learned by studying history whether it is world history, American history, homeschool history, or church history! 

We have really enjoyed this series of books that highlights heroes of the faith in picture book form. 

  Some books are so good you go through them multiple times.  We are on our second trip through the book "Parenting with Scripture." This book can be used in different ways, but the way we have used it is as a Bible study.  It goes through different topics alphabetically and gives a full page of Scriptures that apply to the given topic and then discussion questions on the corresponding page.  It is a short way for us to cover many issues and be reminded of what God's Word says on various topics such as anger, bragging, compassion, discernment, etc. 

"Treasures of the Snow" by Patricia St. John  is another book that we have read more than once!  It is a powerful story of the transformation the gospel of Jesus makes in our hearts and of love and forgiveness.  It is a gem of a read-aloud story! 

  There are so many books to share, but for this post I am going to end with a set of inexpensive books that I have LOVED for my younger children.  Over the years we have collected almost the entire set of the "Little Jewel Books" series. 

  

 These books are published by Rod and Staff and communicate sweet lessons on family relationships, helping,  serving, obeying, working diligently, and developing godly character.  The lessons are wholesome and sweet, and I will always treasure the times I've snuggled with my little people reading these books together.  

  Well, this is certainly just a small sampling of some book recommendations I would offer.  I do hope to write more posts on this topic over time, so stay tuned for future book and curriculum posts.  I encourage you to work at building a family library of stories that convey Biblical truth, virtue, and excellence!  Hopefully some of these books can be passed down to future generations.  Blessings to you all as you read, learn, and grow in your families.