By Laura Kizior
As concerned parents and educators, you understand the need to give your children and students a quality education. The art of teaching is a delicate balance between academic subjects and real-life skills in order to give students a truly well-rounded education.
Teaching and living the culture of life in your family or classroom enables your students to be fully grounded in the truth as well as academically strong. No matter where you’re teaching, you may wonder how you could possibly add more to your already busy schedule in order to teach the culture of life.
The good news is you don’t have to.
The culture of life is not an “extra” school subject like spelling or geometry. It’s a way of living that sees each human being as a gift from God and searches for ways to uphold the dignity of the human person in every area of society.
The culture of life discovers the humanity and sacredness of the human person in a way that honors each person as an integral and special member of society.
The Culture of Life Studies Program works with home and classroom educators to pull together the best resources and Church documents into easy-to-use supplements and resources so that the culture of life can enhance a current pre-k-12 curriculum without any extra hassle.
Multi-subject lessons and unit studies
Each of the lessons in the Culture of Life Studies Program is tightly focused to allow for flexibility and effectiveness. For example, we have lessons on the Blessed Mother, on St. Teresa of Calcutta, on St. Damien of Molokai, on the beauty of the developing human being, on marriage and family, and on so much more!
In our Life Lens series for high school, students spend from one class session up to one week examining a current issue affecting the pro-life movement.
Unit studies are a great tool for homeschooling families because they can be taught over multiple grade levels and multiple subjects. In a unit study, students have the benefit of contextual learning by researching not only the required literary work, but also learning about the social, historical, and religious significance of the book.
Our unit study on the medieval poem Dream of the Rood uses literature to give students a profound understanding of the culture of life in the Medieval era.
In the younger grade levels, unit studies encourage multifaceted learning through active and studious activities. Our premier supplement Life Is Precious seamlessly pairs reading and art activities with science and an introduction to ethics for kindergarten students.
Parents read the stories aloud to their students, or read the picture books along with their children in older grades, and follow up the reading with discussion and fun craft projects. Students learn key facts of human development, ethical reasoning, and social justice, but at a level that they can understand and in a way that respects their innocence.
Homeschooling parents and students of all ages love Life Is Precious:
“I purchased this program for my 5 year old and as soon as I started reading Angel in the Waters, my 14 year old was snuggled up to hear the story too. I think this speaks to the message of life attracting all ages because it is pure truth.”
— Homeschooling mom from Missouri
“It is such a sweet program for younger grades, with just enough crafty activities to make me feel like I covered art for the week, without making me insane (and no glitter!). But the thing that touched me the most was how much the older kids insisted on participating. Even my 13 year old sat and happily listened to Angel in the Waters four days in a row and nodded her head in approval as we talked about how wonderfully and rapidly a human being develops in the womb.”
— Cari Donaldson, author of Pope Awesome and Other Stories
Children are naturally attracted to truth, beauty, and goodness. Life Is Precious satisfies a young child’s hunger for truth without overwhelming him with too many scientific facts or topics that are more appropriate for older children. The Culture of Life Studies Program is a firm believer in the role of parents as the primary educators of their children.
Free tools and resources
A culture-of-life education means so much more than academic learning. With the Culture of Life Studies Program, students cultivate a knowledge of the sacredness of human beings and learn how to put that knowledge to use in evangelizing the culture here and now.
The Culture of Life Studies Program website contains a wealth of tools for parents who want to integrate pro-life values into regular family life without too much hassle. For young children, there are samples of our Miracle of Life Coloring & Activity Book to download, in addition to many pro-life logic puzzles and word puzzles.
For older children, parents can download our book discussion guides and film discussion guides to use to explore the culture of life in popular media. Subscribers to our free e-mail newsletter receive first access to our elesson library, which is filled with complete lessons on short literary works, historical events, and religious topics.
No matter where you teach, the Culture of Life Studies Program is dedicated to helping you instill pro-life values in the next generation. Together we can conquer the culture of death.
How will you start integrating the culture of life into your daily school schedule?
Laura Kizior is the digital media and communications manager for the Culture of Life Studies Program. Her work has appeared on Verily.com, CatholicMom.com, LifeSiteNews.com, Celebrate Life Magazine, TeachersSavingChildren.org, and in the Pro-Life Healthcare Alliance newsletter.
This article has been reprinted with permission and can be found at cultureoflifestudies.com/blog/educate-like-a-pro-how-clsp-enriches-a-home-curriculum/#.XNLmxehKjIU.
