The Joy of Principle Approach® curriculum is the liberty it affords the teacher and learner to bypass much of the “dead wood” of modern education and to go tight to the heart of subjects and scholarship. Learning is natural. Learning is satisfying. Real learning is spontaneous and unaffected, springing fresh form inspiration, and exercising the learner’s God-designed abilities, affections, intuitions, and inclinations.

The Principle Approach® is America’s historic method of education that makes the Word of God the basis of every subject in the curriculum. Each subject begins with principles into which the facts are woven, forming through every subject a perfect tapestry of knowledge with Christ at the base

The Noah Plan® is a complete educational program designed to liberate the teacher and learner to practice Principle Approach® education by the use of guides and guidelines. The important point is that The Noah Plan® is not a set-in-stone curricular mandate that insist upon lock-step compliance to achieve the desired results. It is a guide that liberates both the teacher and learner to higher planes to practice education as defined by Noah Webster: “all that series of discipline and instruction that enlightens the mind, corrects the temper, forms the habits and manners of youth, and fits them for usefulness in their future stations.” It is a road map to be used by both the teacher and the learner to set out on the adventure of appropriating the knowledge of God toward a sound and complete education. A guide is defined as a “director, a regulator, that which leads or conducts.”

The teacher using The Noah Plan® will be guided to practice the Notebook Approach for his own preparation. He will use the grade-level guidelines and the curriculum guides to acquire the best books and materials for the journey He will be a student himself, becoming for his students a lively textbook—a teacher who loves to learn and who imparts the joy and satisfaction that only a master of a subject can impart. Does this sound difficult, even intimidating? A teacher must first be a learner and a scholar, because the “pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40)

The classroom teacher will find the subject curriculum guides and grade-level guidelines complete, and, used with the tools provided, practical and easily applied. The sample goal sheets and lesson plans give detailed models of actual use. The homeschooling parent will find the Principle Approach®, as set forth in The Noah Plan®, easily adaptable for multiple grades. For instance, a home school with second, fifth, and eighth grade students, could select topics and classics that all three levels could study in varying depths. Older students can present to younger students and vice versa. The joy of sharing an area of interest and productivity has immeasurable worth in the classroom dynamic.

Many books are required for use with The Noah Plan® that accumulate to form a small library of the very best books ever written. The King James bible is used for its literary quality in memorizing Scripture and in study except where other versions are specifically named for particular purposes. The Noah Webster 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language is used by teacher and student; however, lesser elementary dictionaries are suggested for the primary school beginner who is learning basic dictionary skills.

The school that implements The Noah Plan® can provide training for faculty by using the “Self-Directed Seminar” in the program notebook. Other valuable tools are available for use in schools—The School Resource Guide, Christian History Study Group Packet, Beginnings in the Principle Approach®, in addition to the study guides to the basic volumes, F.A.C.E. provides programs for schools who sponsor local seminars to introduce faculties and parents to the Principle Approach®.

The homeschool parent can join a support group or association and find others in the community who are Principle Approach®ers. The Christian History Study Group is an excellent way to begin a new association. Training is offered by The Slater Institute. See the web page at www.face.net.

We welcome you to a grand adventure in education that forever changes the spirit of teaching and learning. May you attain the mind-set of the Dutch scholar and theologian, Desiderius Erasmus, who said:

To be a schoolmaster is next to being a king. Do you count it a mean employment to imbue the minds of your fellow citizens in their earnest years with the best literature and with the love of Christ, and to return them to their country honest and virtuous men? In the opinion of fools, it is a humble task, but in fact is is the noblest of occupations.

Steps for Beginning to use The Noah Plan® Lessons Books

How do I get prepared?

Get a 3-ring binder to begin a teacher notebook.
File your notes and assignments of the Noah Plan® Self-Directed Seminar (NPSDS) behind a divider in the teacher notebook for future reference.
Complete the study of the NPSDS which gives you:
The background necessary to practice the Principle Approach® philosophy,
The methodology and the curriculum,
The familiarity with the reference volumes as you complete your lessons.
Allow several weeks to complete this study.
Make a page in the teacher notebook for recording your questions as you begin to use the Noah Plan® Lessons books.

(Your questions will be answered as you progress through the materials.)

What will I need to collect and organize?

Collect the essential materials, supplementary resources, and supplies you will need. (See “Getting Ready” chapter.)
Put dividers in your teacher notebook for each subject you will be teaching.
File your research and other collected information in your teacher notebook.
Organize your classroom with the tools you will need to support your curriculum: Noah Plan® Wall Timeline, map, globe, etc.
Use the sample schedule or devise one that works well for you. The day should be orderly and comfortably paced.

What will help me to visualize the program?

Read the Noah Plan® subject overviews to get the whole picture for the entire curriculum. (NP Lessons books, “Supplemental Information”)
Select any subject and read its lessons for one quarter to get a sense of the flow of instruction and student response moving toward personal ownership.
Discover how all the Noah Plan® books are cross referenced.

What do I do next?

Follow the directions for the beginning lessons of each subject in the Noah Plan® Lessons books
Bible/Bible as Reader (BAR)
Math; English; Literature; History;
Geography; Science
Later you might see the need to set up separate notebooks for each subject.