Titus 2:11-13

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus."

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

How Could I Not?

I worked in our church's nursery this past Sunday with a few other moms, and when the conversation between a couple of them turned to school curriculum, I couldn't help but tune in.  Even though we are homeschooling our children, I am always interested to hear what's going on in our public school district.  With the progression of the discussion of a new math curriculum which neither students nor parents seem to be "getting,"  I found my reassurance of our choice to homeschool growing even stronger.

You see, there are several reasons why we have chosen to homeschool our children; but the primary one for me is this:  When it comes to my kids, I am a control freak.  During these tender years especially, I want to be in control of what they are learning and how they are learning it; so, for me, homeschooling is the obvious answer.  I wouldn't want to be in the position of these frustrated and somewhat helpless parents whose children aren't understanding math simply because of the way it is being presented.  Nope.  I'd rather be in control of the situation.  People say to me, "I don't know how you do it (i.e. homeschool)."  I answer to myself, "I don't know how I couldn't."

I love knowing exactly what my kids are learning--and learning it right along with them.  And, I love knowing that I am not missing the opportunity to build God's precepts into their learning.  The time that I have sitting with my children, giving them my full attention as I teach them with their full attention, is (from a discipleship standpoint) absolutely invaluable.  What a great opportunity homeschooling has been for me to pour God's Word into their lives.

Homeschooling itself has indeed been a blessing in this way, and so has our choice of curriculum.  One of the many things I love about our Sonlight curriculum is that it includes a Scripture memory verse in each week's lesson plan.  The Bible says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), so why shouldn't Scripture be a purposeful part of our children's education?  It is certainly the subject that effects the most change!

Yesterday, a little while after I had introduced and discussed this week's memory verse, "Only fools insist on quarreling" (Proverbs 20:3b, NLT), I discovered that Abel had left Legos out on his bedroom floor and told him it was time to pick them up.  With neither a word nor a moment's hesitation, Abel ran upstairs to do as he had been told.  When I later praised him for the way he had promptly and happily obeyed, he said, "I did that because I remembered our new verse."

Like I said, I don't know how I could not homeschool.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Angela. I popped over from Facebook. :)

I agree - wholeheartedly! I can't imagine schooling any other way. There have been some really bad days (because let's face it, we all have bad days), BUT the blessings of having my children at home with me - and with each other (sibling relationships are under-rated) - is one of the greatest blessings of my life!

We love being together - and you're right - I can't imagine not being in control of what is going into their minds and hearts. We should desire that control in their lives. I've always thought I would feel strange is somebody else led my child to the Lord. Can you imagine hearing your child say, "My Sunday School teacher led me to the Lord"? Now, for those who don't live in Christian homes, that makes sense, but for those of us who are serving the Lord, I believe it is our responsibility to lead them.

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

These verses stay with me all the time! It's pretty much why I homeschool... so my children can hear me speak of, give testimony to, and teach about the awesome God we serve.

Much love Angela,
Lynnette

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