n the first two issues of 2024, we’ve talked about how LEGO bricks and board games can teach our children more than most curriculums in their early years. I had a path planned to continue, a theme of highlighting those things our children already love as a part of their natural learning process.

But as I said, sometimes you just have to take the scenic route. The scenic route is often inspired “in the moment,” and in this case by something I personally experienced recently.

Using The James Method (there are other versions of verse mapping, but this one is so good!), I choose a verse (or verses) from a chapter I’m studying in a particular book of the Bible. Then, I do the following over the next few days or week:

• Write out the verse
• Figure out the context of the verse
• Look it up in different translations
• Highlight keywords (Often you’ll notice some that stand out because they translate differently.)
• Define those keywords
• Find cross-references
• Discover what those verses have to say about both God and man
• Pray

Currently, I’m studying the book of Proverbs. In the first chapter, there’s a verse that sets up the entire book:

I chose my keywords: fear, knowledge, fools, despise, wisdom, instruction. (I know… pretty much the whole verse!)

Like I’d heard growing up, the fear of the LORD is really a reverential awe. The type of knowledge is an “experiential” type of knowledge. Fools are morally bankrupt, even evil. Despise is a strong word meaning “feel contempt or a deep repugnance for”. Wisdom is living life skillfully—according to God’s moral law—while instruction is akin to discipline. Not surprising since we often have to learn things the hard, and even painful way.

But as I prayed, I asked, “What does the fear of the LORD really mean?” Yes, I understood what the words meant. Something was missing for me, though. And it was in that question that the Holy Spirit brought a specific memory to mind.

I remember stepping out of the car and realizing in that moment what we were about to see was beyond what I had imagined. I’d seen pictures, of course. And though those images were beautiful and even accurate, they simply lacked something. As the saying goes, they just didn’t do it justice.

As we walked closer to the edge, for the first time, I truly understood the meaning of the word breathtaking. I literally felt myself quietly lose the air in my lungs out of pure amazement. I may have even trembled just a bit.

The Grand Canyon.

We walked around, gazing at it for hours. Describing it proves difficult even now. Beautiful, immense, and even dangerous, it makes you feel tiny as you reflect on its vastness. It overwhelms you.

As this memory resurfaced, I saw a connection between the Grand Canyon and the fear of the LORD. It was like a light turned on. I wanted to share this idea with our women’s Bible study group at church and decided I needed a picture or video of the canyon. And God used a video on YouTube, by Park Ranger Stephanie Sutton, to illuminate this growing concept even more—this picture I believe God placed on my heart.

In the video, Stephanie shares that about 95% of people never leave the rim. They gaze at the canyon, wondering over its beauty, and yet they don’t start trekking down into it. They never take the time to explore and experience it.

However, that small percentage of those who do, find there’s so much more to it than they can even imagine from the edge.

The fear of the LORD. It’s that breath-taking moment we recognize His incredible magnificence, beauty, vastness, goodness, and even “unsafeness”.

Is the beginning of knowledge. That fear is the beginning. That breathtaking moment then leads us to commit to knowing God better… to know Him experientially. We step down from the rim and explore His different character traits. We dig deeply into the gospels to understand Jesus and His teachings. We gaze at His beauty:

That fear is what leads us to a deeper relationship with Him, a recognition of His kingship in our lives, a desire to live wisely as a response to His infinite love. It invites us to get to know Him.

What does this have to do with natural learning? This process reminded me of the power of linking a known experience to a less understood concept. It doesn’t matter what age you are. It’s easier to understand something when we can make a comparison. That’s why metaphors and similes are such powerful tools in writing. It’s why allegories and fables are so impactful. It’s why Jesus taught his disciples, often using object lessons from those things around them.

This is what natural learning is all about. As homeschooling parents, we want to teach in ways that our kids are designed to learn. And as parents, we have so much more to draw from. We know their experiences—the places they have visited, the hard times they’ve endured, their favorite things, their unique characteristics.

ay Chance homeschooled her children for fifteen years. While teaching them, she discovered a passion for writing and developing curriculum resources. She loves sharing natural learning methods and creative lesson ideas with other homeschooling parents. Kay is the co-executive editor of Homeschooling Today magazine and the author of the older extensions for the Trail Guide to Learning series. She makes her home in Texas with her husband Brian.