Homeschooling

Browse through resources for our Orthodox homeschools

“Curriculum in religious education must encompass more than the schooling context if it is to fulfill its aim of integrating persons into the life of the Church. Three contexts have been indentified as centers of focus for intentional religious education: the church (worship), the school (formal teaching), and the family/community (praxis). It is the interrelationship and integration of education in these three contexts thats leads to wholeness.”

– Constance Tarasar, A Process Model for the Design of Curriculum for Orthodox Christian Religious Education

It’s important to understand that each family’s homeschool is going to be unique from one another, even amongst fellow Orthodox Christian families. Each of us have different talents, strengths, resources, needs, and interests which influence how we spend our days learning. All of which is in addition to where we are personally on our spiritual journey.

One of the most important questions to ask ourselves is – What is our ultimate goal as Orthodox Christians? It is the constant struggle and effort we put forth toward theosis. Everything else falls in behind this goal and helps to guide us as we plan our school year.

How do we work towards this goal as Orthodox homeschooling families? We incorporate learning and education with worship and living our faith every day of our lives – Worship, Teaching, and Praxis.

Released August 2020!

My World & Me is an Orthodox Homeschool Curriculum Guide designed for children in Kindergarten – 2nd grade. It is a free pdf resource provided for new and seasoned homeschooling families. It incorporates monthly and weekly themes with living our faith daily.

Choose whether you would prefer to view
My World & Me with single pages (left) or with spreads (right)

Preview Draft – Released August 2021!

Due to having a new baby and two of my children needing surgery within a week of each other, I was not able to complete a curriculum guide this year before school started. It is my intention to provide a more in-depth guide in late Spring / early Summer of 2022.

Fr. Michael Oleksa talks about chronos (measurable time) & kairos (meaningful time) in this YouTube video. It’s an excellent talk and well worth watching the whole thing, but he starts talking about time around the 2 hr 10 minute time stamp.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann talks about the Sanctification of Time in Liturgy and Life: Christian Development Through Liturgical Experience.

This is the the wall in our dining room for this school year. We will be learning about the different time zones, an icon of the Resurrection, icon of the “Wrapping up of Time”, visuals about the solar system, and a timeline we will be using for biographies and events in history.

Parents’ Guide
for Orthodox Christian Homeschooling

A guide for new and experienced homeschooling families

Lessons & Activities for "Sweet Song: A Story of Saint Romanos the Melodist"

Printable lesson plans are available for this story

Orthodox Themed Curriculum vs. Orthodox Homeschooling

Many are searching for a ready-made Orthodox boxed or themed curriculum as they choose to homeschool their children. Learn more about Orthodox homeschooling here.

Lessons & Activities for "Pascha at the Duckpond"

Printable lesson plans are available for this Lenten story

Great Lent & Pascha Lesson

A handout to send home with your students at the beginning of Lent 

Journey to Pascha Poster

Use the poster to write in your parish’s Lenten services. When are the services? What are the different services about? Hang the poster on your classroom wall to visually see the progression towards Pascha!

Lenten Almsgiving

A handout to send home with your students at the beginning of Lent
During the height of all of us staying home due to Covid-19, I was finding creative ways to stay connected with family & friends. I let my two youngest bake cookies, with some instruction behind the scenes. I purposely didn’t give them step-by-step directions in order to let the antics of my 4 & 6 year olds shine through for grandparents. After recording them, I showed my 6 year old how to edit this video on the Adobe Spark app on my phone.
Click here for more information about our ancestry homeschool project
Thundercake: We have tweaked the recipe from the book by Patricia Polacco. We make Thundercake two or three times a year during a thunderstorm and also read the book as part of our tradition. (I won’t lie, we’ve had to make house rules about when we can make Thundercake.) A great supplement to this book for learning more about weather with little ones is the series, “Freddy the Frogcaster.”
Rocket Stove Baked Beans: This video was a joint effort with mom and dad. Dad taught the boys all about rocket stoves, how to build one, and provided constant supervision just outside of the camera’s view during this video. Once again, mom’s influence is teaching the cooking and video editing aspect.

Motor Skills

Motor skills are essential in a child’s development and will affect their day to day life, including school work, if they are delayed. Learn more about how to work on your child’s fine and gross motor skills.

Sensory System

Our children process the world around them through their senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Learn more about how you can incorporate these into your teaching and daily life as Orthodox Christians.