If you’ve never met Ruth Beechick, I’d like to introduce her to you. I think she will become one of your trusted friends. Just listen to one of her quotes:
I meet teaching parents all around the country and find them to be intelligent, enthusiastic, creative people doing a marvelous job of teaching their children. But, sad to say, most of them do not know what a great job they are doing. Everyone thinks it goes smoothly in everyone else’s house and theirs is the only place that has problems. I’ll let you in on a secret about teaching: there is no place in the world where it rolls along smoothly without problems. Only in articles and books can that happen.
Found in You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
In this post, we dig into the incredible impact the author Dr. Ruth Beechick has had on the homeschooling world. She is one of those authors mommies should read in order to understand homeschooling better. With decades of experience, Beechick provided practical, faith-based advice that continues to guide homeschoolers today. We will review her essential books like A Biblical Home Education, The Three R’s, and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully, offering timeless wisdom for parents looking to build a strong educational foundation. Whether you’re new to homeschooling or experienced, Beechick’s approach will inspire and equip you.
Since I announced I was going to cover her, so many have chimed in and said they already know and love her. I looked into one of her earliest books and found that it was published in 1985–that’s 40 years ago now!
(In case you were wondering, this is the second in a series talking about mommies educating themselves about education so that they can make better curriculum choices so they won’t waste [as much] money and time.)
It was actually in 1984 that I first heard about homeschooling. I was in the midst of a Christian fellowship while stationed in Augsburg Germany and there were homeschoolers among them. Even my best friend told me she was going to home educate, and I just about had a cow…but that’s another story…
Back to Ruth.
There is not much written about her personal life, just that she taught school in a number of Western states, colleges, and seminaries. She spent 13 years writing curriculum for churches, and then in retirement wrote books for homeschoolers.
With her vast experience and insight from the Lord, she was able to produce some of the greatest resources for teaching children at home.
She was obviously well-steeped in the elitist educational philosophies of her day, but she was unaffected by them. Her heart was to see children and families successful, and this comes out in everything she has written.
You won’t find a lot of jargon in her books, just straight-forward, common sense explanations and suggestions.
She takes the entire subject of home education, with all the confusing details and scary questions, and helps it make sense. Her books give us a blueprint on which to build our homeschooling house. Each floor, each room, has a purpose, and she helps us fill them with beautiful furnishings.
If you are willing to take the time to read at least one of her books this summer, you will be more informed, and more confident, when you do your homeschool planning.
I have a number of her books, which you can see here:
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
She has written so many more, and I hope you will look up her other titles for even more reading and encouragement.
But, for this discussion, I will share my recommendations for what order you might want to proceed with them.
The first one I would pick up to read would be A Biblical Home Education.
This is actually one of her later books, so it includes a sort of summary of her educational philosophy. Herein you will find wisdom and actionable suggestions for just about every aspect of homeschooling. She even goes into the psychology of “thinking” and gives suggestions on how to find good homeschooling materials.
The second book by Ruth Beechick I would read would be The Three R’s.
This book is actually a compilation of three smaller, almost pamphlet-sized books: A Home Start in Reading, A Strong Start in Language, and An Easy Start in Arithmetic.
If you are like me, when I started trying to teach my young children how to read, write, and do arithmetic, I was like a woman washed overboard by a huge wave; I floundered about helplessly looking for some magic curriculum that would help!
It wasn’t a curriculum I needed, it was an understanding of how things worked together. I wish I had known about Ruth’s books then; they would have saved me years of floundering!
But you don’t have to flounder. You can snag a copy of this book and gain “insider” knowledge that will help you have more patience and understanding when teaching your young children the basics (this book covers what is typically taught through grade three).
The third book in logical progression would be You Can Teach Your Child Successfully.
This one picks up where The Three R’s leaves off. It covers education from about fourth grade to the eighth grade level.
There is so much included in You Can Teach Your Child Successfully! It begins with language arts and math, and then gives insight into exploring history and social studies, science and health, music and art, and the Bible. This book, as with all of her works, is one of those which you will refer to for years and years on your journey.
As for the next book, there are a number of different choices. I have owned three others, but since lost two of them (so sad). The writing one is quite interesting and helpful, but more for a teen who is specifically interested in writing.
Here are some of her others:
Dr. Ruth Beechick’s Homeschool Answer Book
The Language Wars and Other Writings for Homeschoolers
Adam and His Kin
Heart and Mind: What the Bible Says About Learning
Genesis: Finding Our Roots
World History Made Simple
Language and Thinking for Young Children
The Cabin and the Ice Palace
(And…she also wrote an introduction for the McGuffey Readers as well as for Ray’s Arithmetic.)
Also, there are some resources that have been inspired by her philosophy:
Homeschooling Today Magazine
If you are looking for something that will pick you up and enthuse you throughout the year, this periodical is it! It is chock-full of all sorts of encouragement, often with complete unit-study material and information.
DIY Homeschooler
This website is so amazing, it is almost impossible to give a clear picture of it in just one podcast.
There are pages on this site which explain Beechick’s philosophy in detail. Besides this, there are loads of practical, useful things, including a “Summer School for Moms.”
If you are new to homeschooling, this would be a grand place to start. But there is more, much more!
Included are complete unit studies, book studies, activity calendars, and a library of free (my favorite word) online books.
They have even compiled some articles by Ruth Beechick on homeschooling. Here are the titles:
Answers: High School Homeschooling
“Tutoring: The Best Teaching Method”
I hope I have given you a good overview of Ruth Beechick’s works. I don’t think a short post can adequately convey just how marvelous her ideas are. If you look closely, you will see that her philosophy is actually a lot like the philosophy of Charlotte Mason (which we covered in our last video). I don’t believe Beechick was even aware of Mason, but their conclusions are amazingly similar.
The longer I live, the more I see that there are certain truths that are from God which occur to multiple people in different ways, but there is a common thread that runs through all. The persons I am showcasing in this series of educating yourself have that common thread, which you will see also as we study Dr. Raymond (and Dorothy) Moore in our next video.
Having said all this, I would now like to read some quotes from her books that will give you a taste and (hopefully) entice you to pick up a book or two of hers for yourself:
Curriculum materials are less important than we tend to think. They do not make or break your homeschool — unless you try to use too much. That might break a few things.
A Biblical Home Education
One reason homeschoolers like workbooks is that they think they can measure progress each day — at least progress through the book. But real progress in the skills of reading and writing is not that linear. Look back in three months or at the end of a year and you will be encouraged with good progress after using some of the freer, non-book methods. You can save occasional dated samples of writing for this purpose.
A Biblical Home Education
If you are homeschooling, you are pioneering in a highly significant movement. Don’t throw away your opportunity by imitating school too closely. Use real life for teaching. Your family is unique and will have other kinds of situations than are listed in this manual. But all families can follow two important principles, no matter what the specific activities are.
The Three R’s
The Bible is to American education what Homer was to Athenian education: It is our classic, the core.
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
Your parents naturally know how to relate to each of your children and to help them learn. Your biggest problem is that so many of you are afraid that teachers or society or someobody out there will frown on your way of teaching. You feel safer if you stick closely to a book or series of books, because that is somebody else’s plan, that is in print, that must be right.
For some children and for some of the time, certain books will happen to be just right. But if you find yourself struggling to mold your child to a book, try reversing priorities. It’s the child you are teaching, not the book. Bend the book, or find another; make the studies fit the child.
Bend this book, also, to fit your needs of the moment. Take it in any order you like. The last chapter makes just as good a starting point as the first. And when you come to lists or other items you don’t need very soon, skip them. You will know they are there for reference when the time comes.
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
I hope this whets your appetite. Please note: Beechick does more than philosophize in her books, she shares practical, actionable information as well, such as how to go about teach the times tables and how to teach spelling.
If you would like to listen to a podcast of the above information, please click below:
