Year three arrived, and my children were begging me to teach them about space. I didn’t remember much from my own schooling, so we went to the library and checked out 23 books on astronomy. We arrived home, gathered together on the couch and began to read. Within seconds, I was fumbling over phrases like “billions of years” and “the Big Bang.” Although I attempted to discreetly skip over those parts, I found that somewhere along the line I had accidentally taught my children to read. So they read what I left out and threw me piercing looks. “Why did you skip that part?” they demanded. I explained that we don’t believe what those parts are teaching. Confronted with skepticism from my innocent babes, I was at a loss. I knew there was plenty of information out there that disproved evolution, but I couldn’t articulate it clearly. My kids believed the printed page in front of them. After all, this book was written by a supposed expert. And so their faith was being destroyed as I taught them science.

Of utmost importance in the Charlotte Mason model is the development of the child’s faith, which must be cherished and nurtured.

The most important element of my perfect science course was conceived. It would clearly and definitively explain evidence for God’s creation in words my children could understand and believe. It would be a course that would encourage families to grow in their faith even as they learned about science.