Just a typical homeschooling day {ahem}
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what it means for us as a family to home educate.
What do we want for our children? What are our goals? Why are we doing this? How are we going to go about it?
My husband and I are newbies at this homeschool thing, our children are only 4, 3, and 1 and so our journey is just beginning. However, we have been blessed to be mentored by the Brookshires, and glean wonderful advice from Sally Clarkson and Victoria Botkin (through her Curriculum Advice Volume 1). It is with the wisdom and discernment of those who have gone before us that we take our first steps into the homeschooling ocean.
Here is our focus in a nutshell:
- Love for God’s Word – Know Him through His breathed out revelation as given in the bible, knowing Him, loving Him
- Character – Building into the hearts and spirits the good things we should seek to become
- Obedience – Learning it is well with our children when they obey; obeying because of love for us and the Father
- The Good Things – We want to fill our babes up with good things with the hope that they will cling to the good and forsake evil
- Traditions – Rooting our family bond in the good, the fun and the memorable
- Celebrations – Enjoying and celebrating one another as those in the image of God – living it up for His glory
You will notice, I’m sure, that “subjects” are not included in my list. There are two reasons for this: 1. It is so important for us to instill a foundation in our children before we get into the nuts and bolts of education. 2. We believe that in the younger years, we can seamlessly weave into our day many of the subjects without them being official. In fact, most of life is filled with the arts, literature, math, science, etc, we just have to grasp onto it as we walk long with our children. Down the road these areas of study will be refined (we are currently teaching our daughter to read).
Our Homeschooling Philosophies
We are educating our children with a biblical worldview – everything we study will be through a biblical lens.
We believe that ultimately education is about being able to communicate well with others so that we can live with and flourish in our skill sets and callings while glorifying God and being a light to the world.
We are not just raising our children, but we are raising generations. This is powerful to us, and we want to take up the responsibility of doing our very best to pass on a godly legacy to those will never even know. We believe shepherding our children as opposed to outside schooling is the best way to do this (in the spirit of Deuteronomy 11:18-21).
We are quite fond of the Charlotte Mason method.
Textbooks are out, living books are in.
We are very eclectic. I couldn’t decide on one curriculum if I wanted to! We are taking bits and pieces from here and there…
The Good Things – Something God Has Been Teaching Me About
In the education of our children, in how we do life together, we don’t want to focus on the “no’s” but rather we want to fill them up with the good things first and foremost. For example, I’ve struggle with “shouldn’t my children read the classics like Peter Pan…even though I’m not sure how I feel about teaching my children about fairies yet?” Well, maybe, at some point, but for now we’ll stick with things that instill godliness and goodness and love (thanks for the advice Robin!). We will fill their minds with good music and good books (as opposed to “twaddle“), and will put beautiful things before their eyes, and delicious smells all around them. We want to engage all their senses in the magnificent, because our Creator has done all things magnificently. We’ve opted out of “regular” school not because it bad, but because we have a glimpse that there is so much more to be offered. The good things…we have a vision for them.
Resources We’re Using in Our Home Education
The Bible – Need I say anything more? ;) (Aside from teaching out of the bible, my babes listen to the bible on CD in the mornings while I make breakfast.)
The Local Library – Hello? Free books! Perfection. (I am happily surprised that our library carries the Elsie Dinsmore series, which we will be reading throughout the year.)
Educating The WholeHearted Child – Excellent excellent excellent foundation and information for every home educator.
Teaching Character Through Literature Study Guide ($14.95) from Beautiful Feet Press – We are borrowing the recommended books from our library (I did buy a couple books because they didn’t have them available at our library, but I searched all over for the best prices).
Our 21 Family Rules – We have taken these rules on as our own.
Home Economics, Level 1 from Pearables
Classical Kids - We’ve started with Mr. Bach Comes to Call and my babes really enjoy it.
Polished Cornerstones (a great and helpful resource, but don’t feel like you have to buy it!)
For Instruction in Righteousness (same note as above)
Questions & Answers from the Westminster Shorter Catechism (free online)
Free audio books (HOLLA!)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (not what I wanted to use, but it seems to be best suited to us right now…and it’s getting the job done!)
Well, there you have it, where our family is at when it comes to the education of our children. We will be praying for wisdom and mercy. I’d love to hear some of your families ideas and resources!
Related Articles:
Solving the Crisis in Homeschooling – Exposing the 7 Major Blind spots of Homeschoolers
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, andyou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them…” Deuteronomy 11: 18:21
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I am not a natural at organization, so homeschooling does not come easy to me as the teacher. However, I have His strength to rely.
