We just finished our second week of homeschool. It's been a really fruitful and fun two weeks. I am very pleased with the direction we are headed academically. I love the Sonlight curriculum. It just works us. I love not being bound to a text book. I think it has really helped my sons love books. And my oldest son is sprouting into a willing reader. His goal this year is to be able to read his Bible by himself. (His beginners Bible)
That was a goal that he came up with himself and I started to think of our goals for this year as well. There are academic goals of course, and those are not to be undermined, but honestly the Lord has been speaking to me about character and spiritual goals, which are one of the main reason we are homeschooling in the first place.
We decided to homeschool because we love our children. We want them to see all that God has for them. We want them to love Jesus, know that He has a purpose for their lives, and that they will follow Him all the days of their lives. I told my oldest upon his question "mommy why do we do homeschool?" we want his teacher to love Jesus and we want you be able to grow in knowing Him" and in a nutshell that's it.
That being said I began thinking about our goals. I am more concerned with their relationship with God than how well my sons add and subtract. I am more concerned with their compassion for others than if they know how fast light travels. I am more concerned with eternal destiny than if they are more advanced than the kid next door. I am not saying this as a way to escape academics but I am very convicted that as Christian homeschoolers we should be above approach. We should be following the laws of our state and teaching my children in the area it requires and even go above and beyond giving my children the best education I can possibly give.
When I taught in a Christian school many years ago (I had 3/4 graders) I told my student on the first day that "to love Jesus is more important than getting an A on a test, but if you love Jesus you want to want to do everything unto HIm and do your very best for Him" Through spiritual training and showing them that I meant what I said, everyone of those students exceeded my expectations for them academically. But more importantly the spiritual growth was astounding. Because looking back I can see they got a huge lesson on grace. They were no longer under the law of pleasing a teacher, a parent, or even themselves. They were pleasing God and He loved them regardless. It gave them freedom to love to learn and they had the right motivation for learning.
I starting to look to see if that teacher I was is the homeschool mom my children have. I want to be. I want to see that growth in my own children. So just like in Revelation where the Lord says to return and do the first works again, so I remembered what I did with those students. The first thing was God's word was number one. We spent the first part of every morning, really studying God's word, verse by verse, book by book. The next part was prayer. We spent time in prayer every morning really seeking the Lord for gaudiness and laid our burdens before Him before the start of each day.
So we are going to try this in our home. Now my boys are younger but I know the Lord will give me wisdom how to do this in a way that is age appropriate for them. Our days will start by studying God's word, asking questions and in prayer. Now we do this now, but to be honest we have been doing it as almost as an academic subject...bible check prayer check. How shameful to admit.
So this coming week our spiritual goal is to hold the Word of God above all else. To spend time sitting and reading and time in prayer before a single worksheet is done or a single other book is opened. | 