Home School Curriculum Features Children as Peer Role Models Parents who teach a home school curriculum are always looking for positive role models to reinforce the lessons they teach their children. The power and influence of peers who express their Christian faith with conviction and boldness cannot be overestimated. “Whether you like it or not, the opinions of your child's peers often carry more weight than yours,” wrote one expert on a website dedicated to the role of peer influence. “Our children are going to encounter values, attitudes and beliefs that are different from our families' values throughout their lives,” says writer Judy Arnall. “So what can parents do? Parents can subtly influence the choice of peers, but cannot control the choice completely.” A simple Google search reveals hundreds of magazine and academic journal articles on the power of negative peer influence among teens. Wise parents won’t wait until teen years to begin pointing their children to positive peer influencers. Researcher George Barna says that by the time children turn 13, their worldview is a “strong predictor” of what they will become as adults. Positive Peer Role Models Many home school curriculum writers do a terrific job of developing lessons that foster noble character traits. Children receive inspiration from learning about heroes and heroines from the Bible and history. In spite of these efforts, many children don’t connect these values to their own lives without peer modeling and reinforcement. “Studies have shown that one of the most effective ways children learn is through the use of cross-age peer tutoring; that is, an older child given the task of teaching a younger child. Why? “When students learn from someone who is ‘just like them,’ they are more engaged in their learning. Peer tutoring highlights a ‘common bond’ between tutor and pupil; consequently, children are often more open and receptive to learning.” (www.amazing-kids.org). Home School Curriculum Tools You Can Use Right Now If you’re involved in Christian homeschooling or teaching home school curriculum, you’ll appreciate the online teaching tools that feature real kids talking about God, life and the Bible. Children provided thousands of answers to questions featured in the Kids Color Me Bible. Children’s art illustrates each Bible story in the free online book. In each chapter, your children may answer the featured question and draw art to illustrate the headline in the Heaven Herald newspaper. Each online lesson may be printed without charge and compiled into a book that will surely become a family keepsake. In the Kids Talk About God Online Kid TV Interviews, children can watch their peers answer questions about God, life and the Bible. Humor, insight and passion characterize their answers. These are the kind of peers you want your children to imitate. The Kids Talk About God Online Art Gallery features children’s drawings of famous Bible stories. In the Mission Explorers Streaming Video, 11-year-old Hillary Welborn will take your children on a trip around the world visiting missionaries. Instead of learning about the work of missionaries, they’ll experience their world through a child’s eyes. This unrehearsed documentary takes a girl out of suburban America and travels with her to remote places in Africa, India, the Philippines, Fiji and Bolivia. This free, online streaming video series features some of the world’s largest non-denominational mission agencies. More than 2,500 churches have used it as mission curriculum. Christian homeschooling parents make great sacrifices to instill Bible values into their children’s lives. The curriculum choices featured in the Kids Click Menu provide parents and educators peer role models for children to imitate. Click here to check out the home school curriculum available through the Kids Click Menu.