In recent months I have been asked multiple times why we chose home education, what our educational philosophy is and what our kids education involves compared to public school, how we came to embark on what some see as such a "courageous" and "challenging" endeavour, and a hoard of other questions. Even this past week in our home group, public versus home education became the sole topic of discussion, although that wasn't on the agenda. I currently have multiple friends who are considering homeschooling and facing so many questions and challenges (internally and from external sources) that I thought it would be timely and practical for me to do a personal series on this topic so that I can have all my thoughts in one place once for all. So without further ado...
Home Education. Why?
Why did you choose.....?
It's Our God Given Responsibility.
I think most parents would agree that we, as parents are responsible to educate, train and disciple our children. It's not a matter of *whether* we are responsible for their education but rather a matter of *how* we are going to accomplish that, what the challenges are, and making the choice that will best facilitate our success in that duty.
Some parents might agree in part but then say that as parents we are only responsible for the spiritual teaching, and spiritual formation of our children, and "secular education" is better left to "qualified" educators. In the grand scheme I don't believe you *can* separate spiritual formation from any aspect of education. Spiritual conviction and and one's world view as formed through education are intrinsically connected. We must look at science through the lens of Creation, History through the lens of His Story, Math through the lens of His Wisdom, The Arts through the lens of relationship with Him. These things all point to Him and His truth.
So, whether our children are home educated, or whether they are public schooled, the responsiblity lies on the parent to make sure that their children's "worldview" AND spiritual formation are continuously growing upward in allignment with the Truth and the Great Teacher.
Once we recognize our children's education is primarily *our* responsiblity it is a matter of deciding how we can best fulfill it. If our children would go to public school, our job would be the same, but our schedule would be difficult at best. For us it came down to the question of "how many hours are there in a day?". If our children spend 7 hours a day in school (between getting there and getting home) and THEN have "other" outside activities on top of that, sports, music lessons, homework, play time with friends, club, youth... plus WE have evening activities two to three nights a week, how much time does that leave us for being our children's primary educators? How much could we REALLY be aware of what they are learning, how they are processing it, how their peers are subtly influencing them?
For us, we didn't just want to "find out through the grapevine" what our kids were being taught and "supplement" it for mere minutes here and there. We wanted to be intimately involved in the forming of their worldview, in the moment by moment maturing of their consciences and understanding of God's world. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine what a rewarding and beautiful experience that would be.
Besides responsibility, other determining factors were;
-time efficiency (time to learn PLUS live, laugh, love, play, relax and just plain be a child)
-quality of education
-family first
-freedom and flexibility
"I have chosen him. He must direct his children. He must see that the members of his family after him live the way I want them to. So he must direct them to do what is right and fair. " Genesis 18:19 NIRV
13 comments:
I just found your blog. I feel your pain about the snow! We are having the same teasing spring weather. Thank you for your ideas on homeschooling. This is my first year. My children are 5, 9, and 10 months. I am due with my fourth child in November. I am struggling with how I will homeschool next year. I'll have to keep checking your blog for inspiration.
Great post! I am right there with you! I also homeschool my 6yr old daughter and plan to my other children. Right now we are doing Abeka. I am wanting to do something different next year more God oriented! I was looking into your Sonlight curriculum and noticed how pricey it is. Do you buy whole sets or do you just buy needed books? We paid 200.00 this year for Abeka and I don't think I could afford Sonlight is why I am asking. Do your studies center around the bible in every lesson? Thanks! Sorry so many questions.
AMEN to your post today!
Joy(TN)
Thanks for your post, we also plan to homeschool our boys. It is something we decided before we even got married or even had kids, just something we knew God would have us to do.
Your post also made me think of a book we are reading through at church right now, "Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Bachum (I hope I spelled his name right!!)
I have another question. Sorry! this is totally not on the topic! I have started hanging the clothes out to dry today! I have been married 8 years and just now got a clothes line! HAHA. Anyway my husband hates the stiff feel of clothes off the line,but I love saving electricity what do you do to yours so they don't have that stiff feel? I put downy in every load. Thanks!
Joy (TN)
Jen, I hope I can provide you with some little seedling of inspiration or encouragement... our children are very similar in age (I have an almost 9 year old, 6 year old, 4 year old, 18 month old and baby due in less than 2 weeks.) I don't envy you a winter baby though, it does present a whole new set of challenges. I did it with my third son, but my last two have arrived in summer, or right at the very end of the school year, I'm so looking forward to 4.5 months off when this baby arrives!
Hi Joy, okay, about the laundry, since that is short and sweet ;); I find the clothes loosen up naturally with time after being folded and hung, but to "help them along" just throw them in the dryer for 10 minutes with a slightly damp hand towel or tea towel. How do you like it? Hanging laundry has to be one of my FAVOURITE chores. To feel sun like a warm hand on my back or head, hear the breeze in the leaves, the birds, drink in the blue sky and white clouds, AHHHHHHHH.... Please spring, please come back!
About Sonlight, not so short...
No, it is not a "cheap" curriculum, it is also not your typical curriculum in that you do not multiply the cost of a years curriculum times how many children you have, but rather you need to DIVIDE the cost of a full year's curriculum between all of your children (it is 90% non consumable and re-usable).
This means that while I spend about a 1,000 a year for curriculum for my first child, for my subsequent children I only have to spend about $100 a year to replace consumables. So rather than thinking of it as $1,000 per child, I need to think of it as $1,000.00 divided by number of children, plus $100.00 per subsequent child to replace workbooks. So since I have 5 children (or am about to) It's $1,500.00 final yearly cost for material for all children. $1,500 divided by 5 individuals equals $300.00 a year final cost per child.
Granted, the fewer children you have the more the price per child goes up, but even if I only had 2 children, and it cost me $550 per child per year, I honestly believe this is one of the best of the best curriculum out there, and even simple workbook curriculums like Alpha Omega cost at least that much.
Also, Sonlight has an extremely large resale market and you can get half of your money back by selling it used on the Sonlight forums after you are finished with it (*if* you can bear to part with all the wonderful books that is)....
So, just a few things you need to consider when looking at the price. You can buy used, or borrow many books from the library, but in the long run, because of all the books you still need to purchase piece meal from Sonlight it really pays to just order it from them new. You get 10% off your entire order plus free shipping, plus forum access (which is a huge support).
Sonlight's approach to education is to get children asking questions and seeking answers, not to just spoon feed facts and require rote memorization of answers. Even in the area of spiritual formation this is true. The publishers are wonderfully evangelical and missionary focused, but as such they have a heart for equipping children with a broad worldview and the analytical skills to truly question right from wrong and discern between different teachings. In order to be truly capable of doing this you must be truly educated about what *other* people believe.
I love this aspect of the curriculum, but some find it threatening and they worry their child might get led astray by learning about these "false" teachings. We have always found it to be the reverse. The more my daughter learns about false beliefs, the more it solidifies what she believes.
If you are interested in finding out more, the first step I would recommend would be reading through the following two articles from the Sonlight website. One is entitled "27 reasons NOT to buy Sonlight curriculum" and the other "25 reasons you might want to try Sonlight."
At some point I plan to start a label for Sonlight to sum up these kinds of details for anyone who might be interested (I am currently walking 3 people through the "Sonlight Schpeal" in real life and starting to feel a bit like a broken record ;)
The articles I mentioned can be found at;
http://www.sonlight.com/not-to-buy.html
and;
http://www.sonlight.com/to-buy.html
Tricia, thanks for mentioning that book, I'm going to look for it!
Prairie chick,
I LOVE hanging out clothes to dry! The kids get outside time while I do this, the baby plays at my feet, sun in my face,back(by the way I got sun burnt today hanging up 3 loads to dry!LOL) It is suppose to be in the 70s to 80s all week this week here in TN. I plan to hang out my sheets and such tomorrow. I absolutely LOVE it! I thank the good LORD for simple thins especially sunshine!
I will look into those links for sonlight thanks so much! You are a blessing!!!
Joy
Prairie Chick,
Thank you for your response to my comment. Wow, our children are close in age. I'll be coming back for inspiration!
NICHOLE!!! I just found your blog and I am totally thrilled to read it! Our homeschooling journey is so similar to yours, right down to the curriculum choice. I'm looking forward to chatting with you face-to-face about this at camp in July.
Blessings on you, you are a true encouragement to me and I'm still kicking myself that we didn't connect much in those pre-children days.
HUGS,
Renée
Joy, My sentiments exactly about the laundry!!!
RENEE!!! So *good* to see you here girlfriend! Don't be a stranger, you are always SUCH an encouragement to me. Can't wait for family camp!
Great Post! Thanks for being so bold.
I also just read the book by Voddie, and I would have thought you had read it by your thoughts . But then again, I guess your thoughts and Voddie's are both just biblical, so I shouldn't be suprised that they match up! My husband and I just read "Family Driven Faith" and were challenged and encouraged more than ever before on our thoughts about education and developing a biblical worldview in our children.
Thanks Mindy, I didn't feel I was being particularily bold... just honest and a bit personal I guess... certainly didn't mean to preach or anything and I hope it didn't come across that way to my public schooling friends.
I just wanted to organize our convictions and home education journey in one place once for all, because it is really difficult when people ask multiple one sentence questions that have deeply rooted and drawn out answers....
I really WILL have to get my hands on this book by Voddie... sounds like a real encouragement!
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