“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:8
Oh the joys of homeschooling! A parent can choose what you want your child to learn and when you want them to learn it. We can decide even how they will learn.
In our modern age, I suppose there is much to complain about when it comes to the internet. The technology can harm our children and our lives with the outpouring of information. There has always been much evil in the world and it seems the internet has brought it all together. However, I’d like to look at the positive side of the internet. This will not be a how-to on avoiding its pitfalls. When teaching our children, I am grateful for the extensive encyclopedias and dictionaries I have at my literal fingertips.
School can be at anytime and in any place now.
TRAIN RIDES
First let’s think about train rides. Transportation that you can use to get across our great nation without having to stop at rest areas or hotels to sleep. I have discovered a great new (and relatively inexpensive) form of the great road trip. While on the train, we can read books and do activities and even watch movies on a laptop. Note: no streaming with the trains free WiFi so come prepared. My mom also loves the train and generally brings books to read about the areas she will be passing through or about trains themselves. I had a myriad of activities for Mellie on this last train trip so our scope of curriculum was broad.
SCHOOLBOOKS
This is an obvious one but in talking about technology there are some great resources for your children online to learn. I will mention just one here that has saved my sanity this year and worth every penny! Having homeschooled six children (some started off in other schools) and having had to teach elementary math to most, I realized this is not my expertise. The math itself, I love. Give me a page of long division or long multiplication and you won’t hear from me until its done! However, trying to teach my children these concepts not the least of which is you just have to go through the problems step by step and you’ve lost me.
Enter Pat Murray. He started his career in math as a tutor as a way to pay for college then went on to teach high school for years. Pat turned down a lucrative football career when he married at the age of 19 and he and his wife have 10 children. He has developed now an online math program that I have come to love. Melanie seems to like it, too. Pat does short videos for each lesson (great Aussie accent, too) and then the children answer questions.
If they don’t get the percentage right that you set for them then they start again. I set a passing grade at 70% and we rarely have had to repeat a set of questions. They give the solution steps after the child answers the questions and there are always extra practice sets. This math is known as CTCMath. You can pay monthly or yearly.
SINGING
Now how can singing be part of education? Besides the obvious of music can be a class in and of itself, I have found singing helps me remember things better. I believe that is probably with most people as well. Sing the alphabet and the children are soon repeating it back. Sing the books of the Bible and they will soon learn where to find them. Emilie (our eldest daughter) learned the states and their capitols in the back of our car singing along to a cassette with her girlfriend. Oh they had a blast and did they even realize they were being educated?
I like to sing as much as I can to the children the old hymns that have strong theological meanings in them. I believe I can teach them this way not only how to worship and praise their God but maybe to understand some of the deeper theologies we struggle with in the Bible. The first one that popped in my mind right now is the song, “How Firm A Foundation.” The first verse alone shows them that their foundation NEEDS to be in the Word of God.
Education can happen at any place, in any given moment and at any time. This is why I feel free to travel right now in Iowa and Wyoming knowing that Mellie’s education hasn’t ended just because she isn’t sitting behind a desk. It is being expanded greatly by all the daily lessons she is having on God’s great earth!
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalms 119:105