My website, Lifestyle-Homeschool, is set up to encourage parents to look at their whole life and Disciple their children.  It is so easy to get our focus onto the academics – that is what school has traditionally been about.  Peter and I have found though that as we look at the whole child and our whole responsibilities as a parent, we cannot separate the need for training in the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and moral areas of life.

When our children are babies we predominately look after their physical and emotional needs.  As they grow older we start to develop their spiritual, moral and mental areas as well.  It is important that we keep a balance in the training in all areas of their life.

That being said, I believe once our children get to 4-6years of age, the moral areas of training are of prime importance.

I remember learning this lesson when my children were little.  I had heard that colouring in was a moral activity.  My hackles went up – that can’t possibly be so!!  But as I watched my two young preschoolers at that time, I started to see what was being said.  Initially the skill of colouring in had to be learnt and they did need the moral capability of self-control and focus for that to happen.  Once the skill was learned the challenge to their character (moral) continued – will I or won’t I colour in to the best of my ability?  (and for some of my children this has meant colouring in the lines but not for all.)  Colouring in suddenly became a training opportunity for their moral/character development.

Though I can know in my head that character development is a major focus I can easily be swayed to add academics to my child’s day.  Proverbs 18:15, says, The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge  so we know academics isn’t a bad thing – knowledge is something to be pursued but we only have 24 hours in the day and we must make priorities in order for us to reach our goals.

As I set about to Disciple each of my children, in all the areas of their life, I am guided by this progression of development: 

1.  Character development

2.  Develop a love of learning

3.  Learn study skills

4.  Be an independent learner 

Because children grow at different rates from each, as well as developing in some areas of their own life differently than in other areas, it is not a straight forward, sequential list.  There may well be overlaps between one or two levels, but I use it as a guide to help me stay focused on what my main goal is for each child.

By having Character development as the first step I am able to build a firm foundation for all other aspects of my child’s life.

Relationships are based on our character – We need to always consider the preciousness of other people before we consider ourselves.

Responsibilities are based on our character – Do we have the where-with-all to carry responsibility – be it physical or emotional responsibility?  Our character will help us rise to the occasion.

Talents are based on our character – We must be humble with our talents and recognize God’s blessing and other people’s input (these are character issues) as we live with and share our talents.

Academics – without the character traits of attentiveness, obedience, self control etc we will not learn from people, places or activities around us.

Peter, my husband, says often, that without the character to carry the mantle we make a mockery of the calling of God.  From his observations the thing that lets people down, when they set out to do the thing that God asks them to do, is their character.  What we want for ourselves and for our children is to be ready to be used by God and for this reason we make the time in our day, day in and day out, to deal with issues of the heart, character issues.  

Belinda and her husband Peter have four children- Josh 14, Jess 13, Naomi 10 and Daniel 8.  They live in Australia and have homeschooled their children for 9 years.  You can read more about character training and discovering a lifestyle of learning at Belinda’s website, Lifestyle-Homeschool.com.