Dr. Ruth Beechick has been in my homeschool life since the beginning. My daughter was born in 1992, and when I started looking into homeschooling, Dr. Beechick’s Three Rs were the most highly recommended books for beginning homeschoolers in every catalog. So I bought them, read them, and placed them on the shelf to gather dust while I pursued “real” school.

Gradually, as more children arrived and homeschooling became a more difficult juggling act, I remembered Ruth’s books and sought encouragement again from them. And I read the Three Rs with new insight!

Slowly I started implementing more and more of Ruth’s ideas. By then, I was also reading You Can Teach Your Child Successfully for grades four through eight.

Ruth Beechick is the grandmother I wish lived next door to, the author I turn to when I am ready to turn over my teaching position to someone else. If I could recommend only one book to every new homeschooler, it would be one of hers. She gently reminds us that we are teaching the child, not the book; that curriculum is a servant, not a master; and that loving parents are truly the best teachers of their own children.

As I compiled this tribute, corresponding with various leaders in the homeschool movement, I was struck by the similarity in their comments about Ruth. Confidence. Common sense. Wisdom. Truth. Practi- cal. Down-to-earth. These recurring words speak volumes about Ruth Beechick and her contribution to homeschooling.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce this “grandmother” of modern home education, Dr. Ruth Beechick.

TOS: Welcome, Ruth! I think many of our readers would enjoy knowing a bit about your life growing up.

RB: I had an ideal childhood, growing up the second of five children in a rural area during the Depression. I told a little about that in TOS Spring 2004. I was sent to Sunday school beginning about age three. Our schoolteachers were in the church too. They and the community were all one friendly Christian atmosphere. We swam a lot in lakes and Puget Sound, took annual church trips to Mount Rainier, camped in the Cascades and Olympics. Mountains and water. Will we have those in Heaven?

One day I read Philippians 4:8, telling me to think only on things honest and pure and good. A nutrition radio program always closed with, “Remember, you are what you eat.” Reading the Bible verse, I thought the same thing applies to my mind. I needed to be careful what I feed it. “You are what you think.” I hadn’t heard then about taking a life verse, but that has been a life verse for me. It still is.

Some Christian high school teachers saw to it that I and several classmates went to nearby Seattle Pacific College. Our music teacher manipulated it with the music prof there that I became a music major. The little school in those days was famous for its a cappella choir and other music groups. We Presbyterians balanced the Free Methodists at their school, and I began to learn theology while sitting on sunny steps arguing about eternal security. I hadn’t met any Baptists yet, but spent much of my later life in Baptist churches. Now I’m in a small rural church again—nondenominational.

TOS: You’ve written about your early teaching years in Alaska. How did you end up there?

RB: I began married life by going to Alaska for missionary work in a children’s home of about one hundred Native children (Alaskans capitalize that). Their homes in Valdez had burned in a catastrophic fire one cold, windy February night, and most children were moved to a mountainside near Palmer. We all lived in army Quonset huts and helped to care for children and build the new home. Our two sons were born in Palmer, also in a Quonset hut, since the hospital had burned. I taught in a two-room school at the children’s home. In a Quonset hut, of course. The army was generous to lend the huts and other equipment that they were not allowed to sell or give away.

There’s no way I can tell my later life neatly. We moved a lot. I taught all ages and many subjects. There was overlap, like teaching elementary fulltime, teaching college at night, and reading clinic during summers. Here’s one way I try to organize it. When I began teaching education classes I thought, “Oh, that’s why the Lord had me teach so many grades and subjects.” I could help train teachers. Then when I became editor and writer of Sunday school curriculum I thought, “Oh, that’s why the Lord had me teach both children and teachers.” I could now write lessons for them. Then when homeschoolers came along I thought, “Oh, that’s why the Lord gave me all that teaching and writing experience.” I could help in this best of all education worlds.

TOS: Did you homeschool your own children?

RB: Our sons were not homeschooled except in some things like baseball, water skiing, music, and Bible. They were in my one-room school on Afognak Island. Does that count? Along the way I became a single mom, and the two sons are the greatest joy of my life. Good news for everybody who is not here yet: you don’t lose the sons, you gain daughters. I now have four grandchildren.

TOS: As the mother of four sons, I thank you for that hopeful comment! Now moving on to modern homeschooling, what healthy trends in homeschooling give you hope for its future?

RB: I think a good many homeschoolers see that reading is a skill to use in all subjects, so they do not teach reading as a separate subject forever and ever. This strengthens the reading and the other subjects, too. There’s not time to go into the problems with textbook reading, but I have written on it, and my next book will mention it again. When families drop the textbooks and just read, the children build lifetime habits. Schools aim to produce readers at the end of the road, but Jeanne Chall’s research some years ago showed that all the little parts do not add up to the whole. Homeschooled children do whole reading already as they go through the grades. Families now need to learn that the same system works for the skill of writing.

TOS: Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by applying the same system to the skill of writing?

RB: Well, I’ll try. This is a big subject to say just a little on. My next book has several chapters on this. The easiest move that homeschoolers can make is to delay formal grammar teaching until teen years or after a child writes quite well. Children automatically learn grammar as they learn to speak, so they use it in their writing just by ear or by meaning. All that moms need to do is to help them see if their sentences sound right. Limit grammar teaching to some units at teen age, not earlier. There is plenty of proof that this works better than the grammar-first system.

At the very beginning you do, of course, have to teach how to form the letters, how to go from left to right, and so on, sort of like teaching phonics at the beginning of reading. And children do have to learn writing mechanics. This is not grammar, but matters used only for writing, not for speaking—things like capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Everybody seems to know about the copying and dictation methods. These do a good job of focusing on the details of writing mechanics. Even later in the grades you can fall back on these assignments when you don’t have other writing to do.

The next move is to try to write on government, science, and other content subjects and not drum up topics just to use for a writing class. This is a more efficient use of writing time. Of course, original stories and poems are also good. Think of language as a skill to use in all content subjects. It is not content itself. You can write history, but you cannot write writing. That one principle frees students’ time to write on important matters instead of on topics trumped up for a “writing” lesson.

There is always plenty to write about without adding extra writing lessons. Many Christian curriculums suggest topics or questions. On most topics, students can write a comparison with Bible principles. Try this on fiction that they read or on a current event or almost anything that you spent a bit of time talking about first, so they have some ideas to start off with. Besides the unlimited ideas for writing in school subjects, some children want to write stories of their own making. And there are many real-life situations. One student used a lot of time writing a newsletter for their relatives, yet her mom worried that she needed writing lessons. Let real-life writing have first priority and school writing second. Through the elementary grades, a few sentences a day should be plenty.

These two moves will add the same power in writing that homeschoolers now have in reading if they follow the real-book approach and not the textbook approach.

Along with speaking, writing is a tool of communication by which our students can influence their society, so it is important for all Christians. A friend in a science job says that even he must write a good yearend report if he hopes to receive enough budget for the following year. Writing involves heavy thinking. I go so far as to say that writing is thinking, as do many writers. I experience that daily as I write and rewrite. Through the writing, I develop and organize my thoughts. I understand a subject better when I finish than when I started out. Students who learn to think will do fine in college. In fact, many professors have discovered that thinking is a special strength of homeschoolers. If they can think, they can write.

TOS: Are there any homeschooling trends that concern you?

RB: I see too much chasing after trendy or highly advertised education ideas. I understand this, because in my years of study I could have fallen for some of them too. I could have spent my life in two or three systems that I won’t name now. But I have lived long enough to come out the other side and not get stuck within one narrow view of education. After exciting graduate evening classes I had to meet real live seventh graders the next day, and that kept my feet on the ground. I think that will be the salvation of homeschoolers, too. They have real live children, and they have common sense. But in their relative isolation, they worry that other people must be doing things a better way.

Another concern is the pull of secular publishers that now see homeschoolers as a big market. They have the money and the know-how for advertising, but not the know-how for Christian education. In fact, they are off the road on some of the teaching theories, also. But that is too big a subject for an interview. My next book includes some of that.

I believe that homeschoolers are the last major bulwark against a crumbling Christianity. They need more of the Bible and its infallibility than my generation did, because the world around them is more dangerous. Of course there are all kinds of churches out there, but speaking generally they are becoming weaker on Bible knowledge, doctrine, and memorizing. Not to mention music. Doctrine means sound, unchanging, and unchangeable teachings. Our churches are neglecting that. The very word is often missing in new Bible versions. Churches came to their weak condition because their leaders are trained in Christian colleges and seminaries that have themselves been degenerating in doctrinal teaching.

I see homeschool families as the strong segment of society that can work at reversing this trend. Each family needs to realize they are not alone. As they choose their churches and work in them, as they choose higher education (or none) for their children, as they mentor new homeschool families—they may think these are little decisions, but collectively they are already affecting society. And this will only grow stronger if Christian homeschoolers themselves stay on the Bible track and don’t get pulled this way and that by pressures around them.

TOS: Finally, tell our readers about your upcoming projects.

RB: A book scheduled to appear in March is called World History Made Simple: Matching History with the Bible. This is unique as far as I know among history books. A family could take two or three months (call it a unit if you want) and sweep through the entire world’s history. Events are tied together meaningfully, so they don’t have to memorize a lot of dates to get things in order. Besides the sweep that my friends are waiting for, it includes a study of why “scientific” dating systems are wrong and how to use the Bible as the best dating tool. I think many Christians will say, “Well, of course. This is what I always wanted to believe.” And I hope that seeing it in a book will free them to believe what they always wanted to believe.

My next book is also about the Bible and homeschooling. It has a chapter on history and chapters on other curriculum topics, particularly the language and thinking areas where there’s a lot I want to say to homeschoolers. And there’s information on the Bible itself that I hope will help people keep it at the center of their homeschooling.

TOS: Ruth, you are a real Titus 2 “older woman” to me and countless others. Thank you for pouring your life into the homeschooling community. I don’t think you will truly know what a blessing you have been to so many families until you meet your Savior in Heaven. May God bless you and your family, Ruth!

Heather Jackowitz and her husband, Michael, homeschool their five children in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California.

“In 1986 Ruth Beechick became a Titus 2 ‘older woman’ in my life. She mentors me through her books and one-on-one. She inspires me, corrects me, encourages me, prods me, praises me. Her role model as a perpetual learner and a seeker-andspeaker- of-Truth is evident to all who know and read her. I am so grateful for her guiding light for the wholeness and simplicity in education and all areas of life! Ruth Beechick is the grande dame of home education. Thank you, Ruth! May you have many jewels in your crown of glory!”
—Tina Farewell, Co-Founder of Lifetime Books and Gifts

“I was not aware of Ruth Beechick when I was homeschooling my own family. When I discovered her materials, I began recommending A Strong Start in Language and An Easy Start in Arithmetic. These little books encourage parents to teach academic skills to young children in the flow of home life. My favorite quote from Ruth Beechick is from A Strong Start in Language: ‘Our society is so obsessed with creativity that people want children to be creative before they have any knowledge or skill to be creative with.’ I think one of her most important contributions to the homeschooling community is that of encouraging families to teach knowledge and skills in practical family-oriented activities.”
—Jessie Wise, co-author of The Well-Trained Mind

“Dr. Beechick’s practical, down-to-earth instructions truly enabled me to realize I was able to homeschool my children. Her useful tips demonstrated that just as I had taught my children many practical things, I could use those same techniques to teach my children how to read and do math successfully. Dr. Beechick empowers moms to teach their children at home. At Sonlight, we have bundled Dr. Beechick’s books into our program from the first year, and continue to urge parents to glean from her wisdom.”
—Sarita Holzmann, Sonlight Curriculum

“The greatest thing Dr. Beechick did for me personally was to draw back the veil on the professional educators and give me the same knowledge and tools so that I could succeed as a homeschooling mom. She gave me the nutshell know-how, and with it, the confidence to obey the Lord’s call for our family. I am forever grateful for her wisdom and common sense.”
—Christine Miller, Classical Christian Homeschooling and Nothing New Press

“Ruth Beechick has ever been a sweetheart among homeschooling pioneers and yet a sharpshooter for replicable research, always delivered with common sense. We’ve always loved to find her so reliable and clear, and been cheered to be numbered with her.”
—Dr. Raymond Moore

“Ruth’s wonderful heart is a fountain of wisdom, truth, and insight. Her biblical convictions and lifegiving ideas deeply influenced our own thinking about learning and education, and are leaving an indelible mark on the lives of countless families that will influence generations to come. We thank God for Ruth and for her life of service to us all. She is a rare jewel!”
—Clay and Sally Clarkson, Whole Heart Ministries

“It is an honor to have Ruth Beechick as my mentor and friend. She brings honest educational and spiritual insight into the daily lives of homeschoolers and gives us the best gifts of all—the peace and confidence to follow God’s call on our lives.”
—Debbie Strayer, co-author of Learning Language Arts Through Literature

“Ruth Beechick, through her popular book, You Can Teach Your Child Successfully, has inspired countless parents with the confidence to homeschool their own children. Her unintimidating, down-to-earth approach to education encouraged the faint-hearted while giving practical advice in every area of academic endeavor.”
—Rea Berg, Beautiful Feet Books