“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15
Homeschooling offers so many choices not only in curriculum but how your day is laid out. I love that in this older time period of my life, my 5th grader and I are more relaxed about school than I was with my older children. We work around my chronic pain. Some days we do multiple lessons in one subject and other days we do one lesson per subject. I still lesson plan and write a weekly assignment sheet. We still have goals. However, I am more flexible.
That being said, I’m ever minded that I DO have goals on what I want her to learn and how I want her to learn it. But why do we school? What is our focus nowadays on teaching our children how to (for example) read?
I’ve been dwelling on this a lot this week. Why do we push education so much? What is the point of all this “book learning?” Everyone will have their own ideas but here are mine.
To Read God’s Word
I am teaching my children how to read primarily so that they can read God’s Word. My mother explained to me when I was young that she was teaching me to read for this very reason. What IS the most important book my children can read in life but His Word. Knowing God means we have to read His Word. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Philippians 3:10)
To Become A Critical Thinker
So much of living in our world is knowing what is right and wrong. Teaching our children to be critical thinkers is a big part of our home education. My husband meets every morning with the children with this in mind. How does he teach them to be critical thinkers? He reads God’s Word and helps them to understand the verses in it. When they come up against a problem or issue out in the world, they know where to turn to find the answers. Being a critical thinker isn’t a bad thing. Critical isn’t always a negative word. It means: to give careful analysis to something. Common sense and critical thinking is sadly lacking today.
To Be An Active Member Of Society
While this world is not our final home, as Christians we need to be shining a light here. One of the major ways we can shine this light is to be a productive member of society. Learning to work hard, showing up on time and being kind doesn’t start when they leave the home. It starts when they are toddlers and we spend day after day in the home teaching them the little lessons of life.
This is a, to me, so much more important than my children knowing names of angles in math or being able to write a perfect letter in cursive. Do I still teach these things? Absolutely! But, is my focus more on teaching them to be a good worker? 100%!
I will always teach my children the courses in school that we need.
They have classes like Math, History, Science, English and even a Bible class, Art class and Literature as well as Penmanship. However, with five out of six children finished high school, I can say I have no regrets how our home life is led.
Our two boys finished high school early, went to community college by the age of 16-17 and entered the Air Force after some college, giving them a better rank and pay. My three girls that are finished didn’t go to college but they have expanded their knowledge of music, literature, and home economics on their own. Two of them have worked full-time for years and excelled in their jobs passing up many in promotions.
One is married to a rancher and working hard to homestead. She is preparing to have her first baby and feels totally prepared in her current life. My 18 year old is still doing school subjects on her own, at her own pace and her own interests. Her knowledge of music, Latin, literature and Art far exceed my own some days. She does all the cooking in the house, too.
Life is great when you’re learning new things and I love my textbook learning. However, the older I get the more I realize that the most important things in life is NOT a college degree or a career but doing God’s will. This may not be a popular idea but the best we can do in God’s will is fulfilling the roles God has given us. “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” Ephesians 5:33