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It's not too late to become more equipped, even while you are
homeschooling your children. Homeschoolers are exposed to messages that imply we
must " have our act together" before we can homeschool or begin
to make a difference in our families.
We cannot perform a major clean-up of our own lives! This is God's job. If we
simply seek him and obey His leading, He will do the work in us as we draw close
to Him and continue to develop an obedient relationship
with Him. This is a parallel of what occurs when our children come home to be
with us; an increase of mom and dad time will bring healing to their souls even
if mom and dad are just beginning to get serious with God themselves.
We can begin homeschooling wherever we are in our process of growth and learn to
assume ideals for our progress that we want to work toward as the Lord works in
us.
So where does our self-education begin? It begins at the feet of Jesus,
surrendering all to Him; recognizing our weakness and how much we need Him to
give us His wisdom, grace, mercy and love.
How do we bring the theory of filling the canvas of our lives with thoughtful
plans into practice? Loving our children more than we fear the system is a
challenge even for the strong. One of the most practical answers that
I can give you is this. The more you become homeschooled yourself, even while
you are homeschooling your children, the easier it will be to give your children
a quality education without having to strongly adhere to the system's
limiting, binding and burdensome methods of educating. Why is this true?
Because you are currently giving to your
children out of the sum of your experiences. Whatever is in your own
understanding (values, approaches, principles, etc.), your own heart (spiritual
and character conditions), your own abilities (skills, talents, etc.); this is
what you give to your children.
Shortly after we began homeschooling, it did not take me long to realize that I
had little if any significant valuable gifts to give to my children. I loved
them and cared about what happened to them, but felt like it would be mere
chance if anything turned out good for us. I added to that a strong commitment
and conviction that would not allow me to waiver in our
homeschool decision.
This brought me to the realization that if I did not increase my own education,
I would out of necessity remain in bondage to an educational structure and mode
of operation that was unfruitful for us. The traditional scope-and-sequence and
curriculum was the only thing familiar to my own experience in education, thus
the only way I knew to provide for my children.
It is difficult when one begins to recognize the lifelessness of the familiar
form of education, but does not know what to do about it. Since we have to
do something, we continue as before. However, we can move beyond
merely accepting this mode for the duration of our homeschool experience. We can
choose to begin an adventure in growing for ourselves. We can proceed with the
intention of learning all we can for the education of our own minds and growth
of our own spirits so that by this same time next year we will have been in a
process of developing a few simple and creative substitutes for portions of our
children's educational disciplines.
We can equip ourselves with knowledge of the truth that will enable us to boldly
move out ahead of our children – in scholarship, in godly character, and in
our spiritual growth. We will be equipping ourselves
to lead our children as God gives us the vision for their education based upon
our new experience.
This process of yielding the canvas of our hearts to God, to be teachable in
every area of need, will bring forth the beautiful picture of our family's
adventure in education, one that is uniquely ours, born out of our love for
them.
Make Time for Study?
Moms mistakenly think they have no time for their own reading or
study program. I suggest that we have more time to study for our own preparation
than we have time to fix the mistakes we will eventually (and surely) make out
of ignorance. We will suffer tremendously for lack of knowledge. The knowledge I
am speaking of for these purposes is as follows:
- deeper values
- stronger character ideals for self and children
- relevant application of God's Word walked out in our lives
- deeper relationship with the Lord demonstrated in personal life
- understanding of God's providence
- a few principles that will help us to train our children properly in several
areas of need; for example: principles of the
Christian faith, principles of hearing God's leading, principles of
relationships, of purpose, of individuality, etc.
This kind of spiritual and intellectual knowledge can be acquired through a
simple submission to a reading program and an increase of spiritual disciplines
with a heart humbly yielded to the Lord. The knowledge does not
remain knowledge in the intellect, but is deepened through the experience of
application, becoming a part of who you are, and literally contributing to major
change in you.
The concepts of a lifestyle of learning approach will become workable in our
lives to increasing degrees as we are willing to embrace a homeschooling
experience for ourselves, not simply becoming a homeschooler but becoming
homeschooled – advancing our own education.
While a lifestyle of learning sounds appealing and is definitely freeing, more
enjoyable, and potentially more fruitful, there is a price to pay.
The bottom line is that if you do not feel confident, you will need to undergo
some personal self-education even while you are trying to homeschool your
children. This does not mean that you need to learn all about the subjects of
science, history and
math, etc., in order to provide an education for them.
Many subjects you will be learning right along with them in addition to allowing
many of their own delight-directed interests to contribute to the learning
process as well. However, you can get into a learning mode where
you will develop confidence in your child training and directing of your
children's learning activities. The more you teach yourself in the important
areas that will feed your spirit, character and world-view, the more life you
will have to
impart to your children, thus developing their spirits, characters, and
world-views.
Without a certain degree of self-education, you will be bound to continue
sitting your children in front of a pre-digested curriculum that will dull their
souls toward learning for the duration of their education.
The Nature of Traditional Curriculum
Many parents limit their children's education to basic academics
along the lines of standard curriculum. This is only a small part of what true
education consists of. The deception about curriculums lies in the assumption
that
they contain the body of knowledge our children need to succeed as functioning
members on society and the church. While standard curriculums contain a
certain amount of information and facts, they fall short of many of the most
important truths for the shaping of a biblical and godly world-view, and thus
the character and wisdom of the child. Add to
this the void of experience and skill which are co-equally valid and necessary
elements of a quality education. Let me show you what I mean.
Let us for a moment consider in what we are attempting to educate our children.
The definition of "learning" as found in Noah Webster's 1828
dictionary is this:
Learning, n 1. The knowledge of principles or facts received by instruction or
study; acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature. 2.
Knowledge acquired by experience, experiment or
observation. 3. Skill in anything good or bad.
Based upon the definition, let us take a closer look at the three means by which
we learn.
1. through instruction and study (of principles or facts)
2. through experience, experiment or observation
3. through developing skill in something
As I stated earlier, all three means of learning are coequally valid and
necessary elements in the education of an individual and should have equal
emphasis as well. However, the emphasis of traditional curriculum, even those
with a Christian label, is in the area of instruction in facts and even then the
facts are usually unconnected and irrelevantly taught.
A few principles that govern some of the subject areas are taught, but
life-governing principles (truth) are all but left out. Experience is reduced to
a once or twice a year project or field trip and various extra-curricular
activities
that contribute little if anything to the child's true education. There is
an attempt to develop skills in the area of reading, yet the number of books
read by a student each year continues to plummet. Skills are also taught in the
area of mathematics, but again they are irrelevantly presented so that much of
it is never used and/or forgotten forever. Language is reduced to the
diagramming of sentences and reading a couple of books each year. As a result,
the average student coming out of high school does not know how to think, how to
write or now to learn. He does not know the first thing about truth (wisdom) and
he is weak in character and moral habits. Sitting him down to a pre-digested
curriculum for six hour of nearly every day of his life produces death in his
soul and a void of purpose for his life.
I believe that curriculum is an artificial model that was meant to replace the
real-life models with whom the children walked on a daily basis. They were
separated from their parent-models and put in an artificial environment with 20
to 30 undermining influences every day for most of their lives.
The parent-models grew to love their new self-life, free from their God-given
responsibilities, and over a period of a few generations, became weaker in
character and wisdom, accepting the lie that twelve years of academics equals a
quality education. One could say we "lied" our way out of our
responsibilities!
Why repeat this process in the home? let the schools have the curriculum, they
need it; but let the child at home have his mother. Learn to use curriculum
sparingly, wisely, and for only as long as you need it. You can become the
open book your children need.
The Scripture asks: "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole
world but loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36) What does it profit a child if
he gains a world of unrelated, unapplied information, facts, and skills, but
loses his soul to boredom and dullness of mind and heart? A traditional
approach, where the parent feels she is providing all the child needs through a
curriculum, will serve to kill the child's potential current and future purpose,
because it will inhibit inherent giftings put there by God.
Boredom, a dread disease, can develop in a child by constraining him to someone
else's plan for his life. In the case of homeschooling, the parent will
constrain the child based upon either their ignorance or their understanding of
the child's true needs. If in ignorance, then the child will profit nothing. His
soul will be taken from him in exchange for twelve years of generic
studies and a lifestyle that remains void of specific purpose. Why? Because a
parent who does not truly know God's principles of creation and life will
religiously adhere to a rigid form and method that are not from Him. The result
will
be little to no practical application of knowledge in "real time" that
does not become knowledge of the heart – thus the child's inner change and
growth will be stunted.
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Texas
Home Educators
