Early on, there were a number of conversations that I really wanted to have but couldn’t — not because the kids weren’t talking yet, because they were, but because they lacked the vocabulary to really understand what we wanted to convey.  It’s hard to have a meaningful discussion about diligence or integrity if your kids don’t know the words yet.  I realized we were going to have to teach them the words.

This curriculum was born out of that desire coupled with an increasingly urgent need to introduce our very young children to some challenging social concepts (death, hunger, poverty, homelessness, and host of others) as a result of some family travel that was coming up.  We needed to address these in a gentle way, when we had time to really discuss them, before the kids saw them firsthand.

I chose picture books as our primary medium for this training.  These are engaging, easy to discuss, and able to convey ideas when the vocabulary may not be there yet.  We use text and stories from the Bible to back up the ideas, explain their importance and provide further examples, and we use music and video for additional impact and reinforcement.

I developed the first edition of this curriculum the summer that our oldest children were 6 and 4 years old and we implemented it that fall, when they were in first grade and kindergarten.  They loved the picture books and the “travel” component of it, as we followed the itinerary for a virtual tour of the world.  To this day, we refer to this part of our homeschool day as “Travel,” a word that has come to encompass geography, history, social studies, music, art, science, character studies, Bible, and anything else that we are covering as a family rather than individually.

I didn’t set out to create a curriculum that could be used year after year, but the kids begged to repeat it and so we have, annually.  They appreciate the rhythm that it brings to the school year, and I appreciate the review of character ideas.  Every year, as they get older and we fold younger siblings into the study, new conversations arise and new discoveries are made.  The Bible passages and Family Books are rich enough that I notice something new every time I read them.  They never seem to get too old.

This curriculum has been successful in our home.  Our kids now have the vocabulary to engage in meaningful conversations about behavior and about things they encounter in everyday life, they understand our values and the marks of good leadership, and they are aware of and sensitive to social issues.

We’re excited to have this in a format that we can share with other families.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as we do.