Reading and writing for high school homeschoolers should include big ideas.
Big Ideas in Literature
I am fortunate to live within driving distance of the Liberty Bell, so all my children have grown up visiting that American icon. They also have also memorized the scripture engraved on it:
Proclaim liberty throughout the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof.
Leviticus 25:10
Our founding fathers had a big idea: LIBERTY.
That idea of liberty encompassed a lot of stuff: economics, politics, religion, lifestyle.
They didn’t just accidentally all come up with the same thoughts at the same time. These men had spent their youth and early adulthood reading and memorizing two important authors that drilled the idea of liberty into their souls:
-God (you know, the Bible)
-John Locke (the philosopher who came up with most of the ideas that you see in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.)
If you would like to teach world-changing ideas to your children, try this:
Model Scripture knowledge yourself. Read and memorize Scripture with your kids.
The culture of our founding fathers valued Scripture memorization, thus they had personal access to many verses and Christian ideas for wisdom and guidance.
-Literature Study
Read and memorize poems and quotes from a chosen time period or a chosen idea (like great Christian Writers). Experiencing themed literature of the time helps a child internalize the ideas that drove culture.
While our learning co-op children have groaned in the process, they can tell you what it is like to recite The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus at the foot of the Statue of Liberty (in the rain).
-Philosophy
All students should study the ideas that drove a culture. Young students do this through biographies.
Homeschoolers should study the ideas that drove what people were doing through history. They can do that through biographies and the study of the philosophic ideas of the time. (Check out History and Philosophy of the Western World in our Ebookstore!)
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-Writing Powerful Essays
Homeschoolers must be comfortable and skilled in communicating their ideas. Writing helps young people clarify and communicate their thoughts. (Our essay-writing guides help usher students through these important skills from middle school through high school.)
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Young people who are not idea-driven may become self-driven and selfish. Young people who carry big ideas make big changes in the world!
What big ideas do you teach your kids?
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Help your children learn big ideas by reading about big-idea people in our literature biographical e-study guides:
God’s Smuggler- by Brother Andrew
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