What is KONOS and who wrote it?

KONOS is a biblically-based unit studies curriculum written in 1984 by two educators who are also homeschooling moms, Carole Thaxton and Jessica Hulcy. Jessica and Carole wrote KONOS for their first graders who were bright, inquisitive, wiggly, six-year-old boys. After a year in public kindergarten the Thaxtons decided to homeschool C.J., their six-year-old son. In kindergarten C.J. had become friends with the Hulcy’s son, Jason. Jason went back to school for first grade and C.J. was not there. Jason came home and told Jessica that C.J. was being homeschooled and Jessica promptly went over to Carole’s house to "straighten her out". Carole, a counselor by training, sat and listened intently. Little did Jessica know that Carole had prayed for the Lord to raise up someone for her to write curriculum with. Carole patiently prayed for the Holy Spirit to work in Jessica’s heart. Within a month, the Hulcy’s were homeschooling with the Thaxtons!

Carole and Jessica recognized that the tell and regurgitate method of the public school was often necessary in public schools because of the 20 to 25 children one teacher had in her classroom. Since neither Carole nor Jessica had 20 first graders in their homeschool, they refused to use the workbook/textbook approach. They chose to do homeschool, not school at home. Instead of textbooks, they used real books and classics from the library. Instead of sitting at a desk filling in blanks, they used the garage, flower beds, and kitchen as they classroom. Instead of sending every child to his room to study independently, they taught all of their children together as much as possible. Instead of telling every answer to their children, they allowed their children to discover the answers on their own. Instead of teaching topical units, the authors designed units that pointed to the character of God.

Today, the four oldest boys are out of college. Jessica’s third son is in college and the youngest is still at home doing KONOS.

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