Perhaps the most significant contribution that I, a homeschool parent, can give to you in the pages of this Companion guide, is my very own testimony; that which relates to what the Lord has done, is doing, and continues to do in me through the Principle Approach^®. Psalm 144:12 had long been the scripture verse that our homeschool was founded upon, the one in which my husband and I are forever challenged. It would be through the Principle Approach’s Noah Plan^® curriculum and those persons associated therewith that God would make me to be both a "master gardener," that my sons would indeed become those deep-rooted plants, and the "sculptor," that my daughters might become magnificent pillars of their generation. Like many home educators, our tendency was to think that home education was exclusively about our children and how best we could help them achieve the goal of Psalm 144, as well as their God given potential both intellectually and spiritually. Indeed, selflessness is a virtue of the Godly wife and mother, but in the midst of pouring all into my children I had lost sight of myself and my own potential to some degree. In becoming the teacher to my children I had forgotten the art and virtue of continuing to learn myself.

A disciple is not above his teacher. (Matthew 10:24)

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to share the Principle Approach with countless individuals who are drawn by its strong Biblical base; veteran homeschoolers who say things such as, “I don’t know what it is but it seems to have what the others are missing.” I am always quick to respond by saying, “Yes, there is a certain Spirit that breathes life into the Principle Approach philosophy and methodology and the challenge it presents for Christian educators to be all they were meant to be, both spiritually and intellectually!” What seemed in the beginning an overwhelming and daunting method of teaching and learning would actually begin the process of restoring all that was missing in my own education and experience. I had become a product of that progressive notion whereby the traditional school system separates the spiritual from the academic. The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines education as follows: “to bring up, as a child; to instruct; to inform and enlighten the understanding; to install into the mind principles of arts, sciences, morals, religion and behavior.” It is quite explicit that even our forefathers knew that true education must include Biblical, or “religious” principles. And so it was that the Author of instruction and enlightenment would have to take hold of me, the mother-teacher, and begin the reeducation of my own mind that out of my heart would flow “rivers of living water,” the very principles of scripture, unto my children.

Giving More of Myself to the Call

So where would I, a housewife and teacher of five children, find the time needed to change my philosophy of education and learn a whole new approach? The answer to this challenge was that I trust the Father to increase my ability beyond what I thought myself capable. After all, I would be linking my hand, my heart, and my mind with my children’s Creator to prepare them for His providential plan. Does so awesome a responsibility not require all, or more, of my mind and heart than I think I am capable of giving? Surely it requires more than what I was currently giving by using “canned” curriculum. I began to view my role as wife and mother in a different light, one that encompassed a divine educational contract between the Creator and me. I also felt my husband’s need to “safely trust”¹ me as his helpmate to prepare our children for adulthood by means of the highest available educational standard. By trusting in Him, He proved me to be capable of much more than I thought possible. The Foundation for American Christian Education would equip me to love the Lord my God not only with all of my heart and soul, but with all of my mind and strength as well.² Through the Principle Approach Noah Plan curriculum, I would learn the art and skill of reasoning all of life and learning through the leading ideas and principles of God’s Word. This is the very essence of what I desire for my children. In a sense, the entire process was and still is an ongoing relationship of love and learning with my Creator and Savior whereby He increases my faith as well as my intellect.

Good Versus Best

I once thought that a husband’s support and mother-love were all that were necessary to fulfill the task of educating my children at home. It mattered little what curriculum I chose, so long as it was written from a Christian perspective, the assumption being that what has a Christian label must be acceptable. I attended local homeschool support groups only to realize that they produced more doubt and anxiety than support by the subconscious comparison of what everyone else was doing or using in their homeschools. I perused all the homeschooling curriculum catalogs only to try something different year after year. The book fairs and homeschooling seminars would be much the same. I believe there is a place for these resources, but they had become a hindrance to His “still, small voice” guiding me in the way and the most Biblical method by which to teach my children. I was more concerned with following the pattern of other homeschoolers or too easily swayed by promotional jargon; the root was discontentment with my current method of teaching and learning. That was prior to the Lord leading me to the work of FACE. Within the first year of using The Noah Plan curriculum, I realized the truth of an Oswald Chambers’s devotional that states that what is good can often take the place of what is best. I had not realized this until I saw “The Noah Plan difference”—the Biblical worldview that my heart was hungry for.

The Sanctifying Nature of The Principle Approach

So, like the woman at the well, I am seeking to tell others in the community of home educators that I have encountered the very real and active presence of God through an educational resource that is alive with the Spirit of Christ in both its philosophy and methodology. In taking on the challenge, I have realized the secret of the Principle Approach, and perhaps its greatest strength: what it makes of the teacher in completing that “good work” which He began in each of us. He has said He will be “faithful to complete it”³ should we be willing to give him every bit of our heart, our mind and our strength. We must not settle for the quick and easy where the hearts and minds of our children are concerned. Instead we must reach for the goal of the prize in Christ Jesus⁴ even in the teaching of our children, which is anything but passive and requires that we give all we have to give of ourselves, for Him and for our children. It is essentially a process of on-the-job training while embarking on an educational journey for and with my children. I accomplish it one day at a time, while navigating our way with God’s Word in one hand and The Noah Plan Curriculum Guides in the other.

“Mother Culture”

I have come to view my time spent learning and applying The Principle Approach as a part of my “mother culture”⁵ in that it encourages the edification of my own intellect and inspires me as a person, a wife, and as the teacher of my children. Each time I open a subject Guide or any one of the FACE publications (terrific bedside reading), I receive fresh inspiration for the sometimes daunting and overwhelming tasks that each day holds as my children’s teacher. Each publication is of the highest literary standard, which inspires spiritual and intellectual excellence.

The Proverbs 31 Example

It is my desire to inspire in you, the very courageous homeschool mother of two, four, six or eight children, those qualities of character that become a Proverbs 31 woman and are subsequently fostered by Principle Approach® teaching and learning. For it is she who seeketh, bringeth forth, riseth early, considereth, girdeth, perceiveth, layeth her hands to make, stretcheth her hands to give, and is not afraid. All the while strength, honor, and wisdom are hers—qualities of productivity and excellence. It is this spirit in a woman that has inspired a great many mothers throughout history like Susanna Wesley (mother of John and Charles Wesley and essentially the mother of Methodism) who bore nineteen children and found time to write individual commentaries on the Bible for several of them. Or, like that of Mercy Otis Warren, an early American wife and mother, who compiled a complete memoir of the American Revolution for her children. So when I grapple with planning dinner and planning lessons, I try to think instead of the immense capability of woman as admonished in Proverbs 31. These attributes are a result of our being created in His image yet they are available to us in this generation. These are the qualities of motherhood that bring about the harvest in her children and make them complete men and women of God because she herself is a reflection of the divine image!

To borrow a phrase from a Principle Approach master teacher, I pray this would be the beginning of your journey in “restoring the years the locusts have eaten” 6 that you would realize the fullness of His plan in and through you, both intellectually and spiritually and that you may see the fruit of these efforts in your children. Lastly, I pray you realize the greater capacity of God that exists in you, waiting to be brought forth and passed on to the next generation as you awaken each morning and gather for lessons around the dining room table.

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¹ Proverbs 31: 11
² Matthew 22:37
³ Philippians 1:6
⁴ Philippians 3:14
⁵ A term related to the Charlotte Mason philosophy
⁶ Joel 2:25