Walking Therein

Homeschooling is A Journey... Growing Us in the Lord Year-by-Year

12:39 PM, Friday, September 8, 2006 .. Posted in Are you Wondering If You Should Homeschool .. 1 comments .. Link

    I was asked why I chose the Elijah Company 2004/2005 catalog as a book that changed my life. A SSIC recently posted her thoughts and feelings after just getting it, and how it is blessing her life.
    First of all, when I bought this catalog, I had already been homeschooling for almost 12 years. God had opened my heart to The Charlotte Mason Companion, Educating the Wholehearted Child and Teaching the Trivium. I don't know if I got the catalog first or the workshop tapes of Chris Davis, but his gentle teachings and ideas opened a whole new world of homeschooling for me.
    I was also blessed to have found Vision Forum a few years before that. Their audios, as well as Dr. S.M. Davis', helped me take my already 'stringent' beliefs and gave them purpose by backing them up with Scripture and a Biblical worldview. So, God was working things out in me and growing me in His Word.
   And, here I am, still learning, still growing, hoping I will one day hear my Lord say well done.

This is from the Elijah Catalog:

1. Why Homeschool Your Children:

Reason #1: Social, p. 13. "The real question one should ask is not, "What about socialization?". All children will be socialized. The questions that should be asked are, "By whom do we want our children socialized?", "Who will teach them their social skills?", and "With whom should they spend most of their time: adults or peers?".

Reason #2: Moral, p. 13. One of the reasons children should be socialized mainly by their own parents is that the moral foundation of one's life is laid through hundreds of small interactions on a daily basis. This is true for either a good or bad moral foundation. and, It just makes sense that children should spend most of their time with their own parents if those parents want their children to grow up with a Godly life perspective.

There are 12 Reasons total. They range from the REAL goal of the public school to myths about learning to Spiritual reasons. It covers 8 pages.
It ends with:
Reason #12: For the Future, p.20.
In every city across America groups of insecure parents are raising their own children while other parents are sending their children to the government schools. The work of these parents is mostly hidden to the rest of society which, anyway, is largely indifferent their efforts. Many of these families have internalized a vision of their children becoming just what God intended them to become. They wonder why every set of parents don't see the obvious benefits of homeschooling.
As the world grows darker and more dangerous by the year, God's work is being done in a corner, as He prepares a generation for a day that is impossible to imagine. We parents may be taking it "a day at a time," (always wondering if we are raising a bunch of misfits); but the truth is that God is giving us just enough faith so that, if we are willing to hear Him and do something not done for over 150 years, this generation will emerge from our families with an uncomplicated faith in their God, an unmoveable disagreement with Darkness, and an unmistaken sense that they were born for such a day as this.

   What else can be said but, "WOW!" ? Is this you? Is this your heart? It was and is mine. I really relate to the paragraph that says, "They wonder why every set of parents don't see the obvious benefits of homeschooling."
   There are the MANY excellent resources listed throughout the Guide, but they also go into detail about: Exploring Teaching Approaches, the Identity-Directed Homeschool, Creating A Learning Environment, Choosing Teaching Materials, TEACHING: Language Arts, Math, Science, World History, and information on High School Years and Preparing for Adulthood. It is so much more than a "Resource Guide". It is also still available, so go get yourself one!!
    I love the way they explain "Credits" for high schoolers.
    I will leave you with an ideal that truly changed my perspective on my children's futures and becoming adults.... it led me directly into seeking a Biblical Womanhood for our daughters and learning what God's Will truly means when we are directing our children. Why do we have such a hard time mentally breaking free of society's unspoken rules and expectations?

pp.16-17:
"James (who had graduated from high school the previous year, and was still not sure what he wanted to do) had been sharing with his mother how he was struggling with being 18 years old and still in the process of discovering who he was in the Lord and the direction of his life. At this point my wife said, "Son, very few people are given the freedom and time to find out who they are and what that means for their future. Most just go get a job, only to discover later that they have spent years doing something that is not in their heart to do. What your dad and I want to do for you is give you a most precious commodity: Time. You will leave us soon enough and we will never again have the kind of relationship with you that we have now. We are not in a big hurry for you to leave the home life we have all enjoyed together. What we do want is for you to come to terms with what the Lord has placed in your heart. ... There is nothing magical about graduation from high school. It doesn't mean that your education is over. What education means for us is to find out what God has created for you to do and then having enough experiences to be good at that."

If you are looking for some very instructive and excellent information on the Charlotte Mason Method of teaching, I encourage you to visit a wonderful blog, Higher Up and Further In. She has links on her sidebar under Home School Help that will help you, no matter what method you use.

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