Question
I just need to know if the branches of education or subjects taught in your curriculum is equivalent to those being taught in the public schools in my state. Meeting the requirements for legally homeschooling here is a very important deciding factor.
Answer
First of all, we strongly recommend that you contact HSLDA to find out the exact requirements for homeschooling legally in your state. Our membership site does not qualify as an umbrella school, a private school, or any other kind of “school” that will have oversight over you. We just provide lesson plans, worksheets, training, and lots of encouragement.
However, we do provide rigorous curriculum for grades K-12 in the following areas: religious instruction, math, reading, language arts, science, social studies, fine arts, and health and physical development/education.
We feel that our curriculum would meet the legal requirements of any state, but again, we cannot provide you with any sort of legal advice.
Question
Does your curriculum line up with the Common Core State Standards?
Answer
We believe that God’s Word, the Scriptures (all 66 books), are the only “Common Core” that matters. If the states pass a standard that happens to match up with Scripture, we’re in agreement with those parts only. Of course, we’re fully aware that many parts of the state standards do not match Scripture. So we want nothing to do with those.
Our official statement can be found here: https://homeschoolingtorah.com/common-core-state-standards/
Question
I have been reading about the philosophy behind other curriculum companies. I am praying for clear direction on which curriculum to use. Please share with me anything that you think will help me decide.
Answer
The best way to learn about our philosophy of education is to read two short blog posts available here:
You are also welcome to download our 138-page ebook, Biblical Home Education, if you’d like the long version. 🙂
Question
Can I purchase printed copies this curriculum?
Answer
We are gradually making our curriculum available as printed books through Foundations Press. Many of our books are already available there, and we expect to be finished with the project in the next few years. Meanwhile, members of Homeschooling Torah always get access to our entire curriculum, for one low price each month.
Question
I have a 13 month old, and another on the way. May I ask, at what age do your resources start? At what age does preschool start?
Answer
Our Preschool curriculum can be used anywhere from 2-5. Anne has also written a book specifically for preschool parents, called The Four Foundations of Lifelong Learning. (This book is included in the purchase of our preschool curriculum.)
Question
We are about to move out of the United States and will have very limited access to books. Most companies do not ship to our location. How feasible would this curriculum be for us?
Answer
Our goal is to keep the amount of extra books you would have to buy at an absolute minimum. This is because…
- By the time you’ve paid for a membership, we’re guessing you won’t have a lot of extra money to buy books.
- We know some Torah-observant families who are really having to downsize (many of whom have lost their jobs because they won’t work on sabbath, etc.). For those who don’t have much space in their homes (maybe living in a RV, or whatever), we don’t want them to have to have too many books. So this is one of our major goals.
The exception is our world history curriculum, but many of those books can be purchased as e-books.
Question
If we were to get a membership to “Homeschooling Torah,” would it just be one fee per month, or is the fee per child?
Answer
The membership fee to HomeschoolingTorah.com is just one per family, for as many children as you have. 🙂
Question
Is it really possible to teach arithmetic to all my children together, from K-8th grade?
Answer
Okay, let’s talk math for a second. Arithmetic is just a set of information that must be learned. Once a student learns that information, he can go on to other forms of math, such as algebra or geometry.
We studied many, many arithmetic textbooks, from the early 1800s through to today’s public school and homeschooling curriculum, and we made a list of all those pieces of information that need to be learned.
Basically, arithmetic is adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. That’s it!
We broke our curriculum into a Part A and a Part B, you could say. Part A concentrates on adding and subtracting, although it begins to use addition to teach multiplication at the end of the year. This is what Grades K-3rd concentrate on.
But we don’t believe that just learning *how* or *why* to add and subtract is all a child needs. He also needs to get FAST at it, so that it’s EASY (and thereby FUN and he can get on to other things in his day). So much of the K-3rd grade math drills and worksheets concentrate on helping a child get faster. Usually it works out in my own children that the K-1st grade bunch just learns HOW to do it, but they aren’t fast, they count on their fingers, they use an abacus or chart, etc. In 2-3rd grades, the problems start to feel easy because they have memorized their addition/subtraction facts. Now they have no need to add on their fingers. They just KNOW it.
Now a child is ready to learn a whole new set of facts, multiplication and division. 4th grade starts out feeling very hard again. He is soon applying multiplication/division to fractions, decimals, and word problems. Eeks! It’s not easy!
But after a few years of practice, he doesn’t need multiplication tables or divisibility rules any more. He just memorized his facts and knows them quickly. Ideally, this happens through years of games and fun daily quizzing with mom, rather than tears. 🙂
Back in the 1800’s, no child in school would have spent 8-9 years on arithmetic! It’s actualy pretty silly still, but schools still do it because some of the class didn’t catch it in the younger grades, so we must hold everyone back until all are supposedly at “grade level.” But explain to your children that back in the 1800s, no child at 9 would have been doing our 4th-8th grade arithmetic. In fact, most would have been 12-14 years old. They would have had no arithmetic at all until they were 10-12 years old. Only a few privileged (rich) students went on to study algebra or other advanced mathematics in high school.
You can learn even more about how we teach arithmetic by watching Anne’s video here.
Question
How do I choose which curriculum to use for each of my children? Do you have placement tests?
Answer
When you join HomeschoolingTorah, our goal is to allow you to tailor our curriculum for the needs of your family. Our Bible, History, and Science curriculum each have assignments for early learners, middle grades, and high school. We offer language arts and math for each grade, but you will have the freedom to move up or down a level if the one you choose is too easy or too difficult.
Question
If my children are old enough to read and write, can they do this curriculum on their own. Or will a parent need to be available to help throughout the day?
Answer
Truly, it’s intended to be done as a family, to help families fulfill Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Having said that, there are some customers whose middle-school or high-school students are able to do much of the work on their own. https://homeschoolingtorah.com/how-to-do-high-school-independently/
You can read more about our homeschooling philosophy and methods here.
Question
Is there someone who could speak with me on the phone? I have questions that aren’t answered here.
Answer
Yes! You can schedule a time to talk with us by clicking here.
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