Dr. Ruth Beechick Resources

Here are additional resources by Dr. Ruth Beechick. You can find these books through most vendors of homeschooling materials, or from Mott Media at www.mottmedia.com/.

The Three R's

• "I've read my friend's copies and now I definitely need my own."
• "I used these techniques and my six-year-old has proven that they work. He now adds better than me, and even does some multiplication."
• "The best teaching aids I have ever read."

Moms like this. Booksellers and reviewers, too, advise all homeschoolers to read these three little booklets on reading, language, and arithmetic for up to third grade. The books tell when to start and how to start, and give enough specifics that most parents can teach directly with these helps without any other curriculum. Included are a phonics chart and a hundred chart to use in teaching.

You Can Teach Your Child Successfully

"The best all-round introduction to homeschooling ever published," wrote a reviewer of this award-winning, now classic book on homeschooling. By curriculum specialist Dr. Ruth Beechick, it helps homeschoolers know what schoolteachers know so they need not feel intimidated. There is no obscure educationese, but as one mom wrote, it gives lay persons access to educational concepts otherwise beyond their reach. Packed with nuts-and-bolts help, so even veteran homeschoolers find more help than they dreamed was possible in one book. This book alone can take the place of a tall stack of unnecessary workbooks and other curriculum materials. Use from about fourth grade through eighth and even into high school in some subjects.

Dr. Beechick's Homeschool Answer Book

Your question is probably in here. And its answer, too. That's because Ruth and I knew practically all the questions that people asked. We held Q&A workshops together, and Ruth authored a Q&A magazine column. I got to choose from all those questions for this book, and I organized them by topics so you can easily find the ones you are most interested in. I even managed a chapter on high school, the first time Ruth wrote specifically about high school. All the major subjects are handled here, as well as testing and some other general issues.

The Language Wars and Other Writings for Homeschoolers

The language wars were fought over "whole language," which some writers blasted as wrong, and in which much of the homeschool movement ended up on the wrong side. If you were in the middle of those wars, you may be surprised by what Ruth says on this topic.

That is just one topic in this highly informative book. Several chapters form a section on reading and language. Other sections treat arithmetic, memory, Bible, children's early years, and general curriculum. Each chapter is a reprint of published articles that you could not gather together aside from this collection. These go a step beyond beginning homeschooling and provide a stimulating read for people who want this next step. One homeschool leader said he could not put the book down until he had read it all.

Heart and Mind: What the Bible Says about Learning

This is another book for those who like a little theory about education. It explains clearly what is wrong with the educational psychology taught today, and presents an alternative that we find in the Bible. It contains the most complete research to be found anywhere on the Bible use of the word heart. Most of the time the uses are cognitiveâ??the heart knows, understands, ponders, meditates, and so on. Emotional and other uses of heart occur less often. Some recent physiological research also shows that the heart contains knowledge, and this is explained in the book. Though this is a step up from beginning homeschool level, it avoids educationese and is written in Beechick's famous easy-to-read style.

Adam and His Kin

Your children learned in Sunday school about Adam and Noah and all their early adventures, but they never had their eyes opened as this book will do for them. Most families read this aloud because the parents, too, want this fresh look at the Bible. This narrative works wonderfully as a family read-aloud. A family in South Africa wrote, "Thank you for a most profound and incredible book that caused us as a family to have some wonderful discussion time together."

Genesis: Finding Our Roots

After the "Adam" introduction to the world's early years, many families want to follow up with this thorough study of Genesis 1 to 11. There is much wisdom and knowledge in those chapters, and most sermons or Sunday school lessons only touch the surface. This is history, covering one-third of the world's existence. And it is a worldview or theology course, covering all major Bible doctrines, because all are found in those chapters. It also touches on archeology, linguistics, and several other subjects. Teens could study this independently and can easily fit it onto their transcript. Also families with mixed ages could study this together.

The Cabin and the Ice Palace

This children's fantasy happens in a sub-arctic setting where Ruth has spent much of her life. She knows the adventures of dogsled trips, of almost freezing, of ice skating, and others that the children experience in this story. An ice palace was actually built a hundred years ago in the high mountain town of Leadville, Colorado, and its memory appears in this story. You can read these cold events on a hot summer day or beside the fire on a cold winter day. Every Christian family will pick up, also, a subtle allegory running throughout. Do the children really believe in the "other world" or not?