Why Homeschool?

Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

Deu 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Deu 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Deu 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Deu 6:10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,

Deu 6:11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;

Deu 6:12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Deu 6:13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

Deu 6:14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;

Deu 6:15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

Deu 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Deu 6:17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.

Deu 6:18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers...

I got this question all the time whenever somebody asks me about what school that my kids go to. One of the many reasons why I homeschool my children is because I am serious about passing on the faith of Christ to my children, and to bring them up myself.

But many people have been led to believe that those parents who homeschool will "damage" their children.

LadyLydiaSpeaks wrote in her blog:

God gave parents the job of teaching their children. Some may not obey their training, but it is still the parents job to train them. We don't homeschool our children just because it gets good results or it works, but because we believe the Bible teaches parents to do it, and because it is best for the children. We are responsible to disciple them, which is much different than just teaching them facts.

The root of our education system came from a man name John Dewey. Who is he, anyway?
John Dewey is known as the father of Progressive Education. He wrote that teachers needed to counteract the influence of the home and the church on children, which he said produced children who were too individualistic and not socialistic enough. He put farm families under particular suspicion because their children were often rugged individuals that the state had a hard time re-educating to be socialists. He is one of the original signers of the Humanist Manifesto, which denies God, creation, the soul, the sacred, and life after death, among other things. It requires religions be "reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows" to suit the Humanist agenda. It also requires that all human associations must be controlled to conform to the humanist manifesto.

He went to the Soviet Union and wrote back glowing reports of what he saw. He admired their efforts to dismantle the traditional family and use schools to indoctrinate children to think of themselves as belonging to the state -- bragging that schools were "the ideological arm of the revolution."

He attained international influence over China, India, Russia and the United States, insisting that schools become the tools of a new socialist agenda. The National Education Association - which works out his legacy today, made John Dewey their honorary president. Education as we know it today, remains the legacy of this man who hated the traditional family and hated the church, and who passionately fought for the right to make children the property of a new socialist state which was his idea of heaven on earth.

He wrote :
"I believe that ...the teacher always is the prophet of the true god and the usherer in of the true kingdom of god. "

Why is it that the church is losing so many young people? Because the one who makes the disciples gets to keep the disciples. And the one making disciples is the one who has the children all day long, from infancy to adulthood. So who is really serious about making disciples?

Let's do the math: two hours a week on Sunday, plus family Bible hour every night - and you're up to nine hours a week of discipleship for Jesus. Compare that to forty hours a week by the school. Close to 20,000 hours of indoctrination by the time children are 18.

Parents say, "He left home and just fell away from his faith."
Could it be possible that he left home and realized what he was really being trained to believe all along? Perhaps he left home and his real training - his real discipleship kicked in.

I know time is hard to come by. Perhaps you say, "I would love to spend more time with my children, but how can I do it?" I don't have the answer for that. All I have is certain knowledge that if you fail to take the time with your children, if you fail to pass on your way of life to your children, there are others who will use your children to pass on their way of life.

The one who makes the disciples gets to keep them. A man cannot serve two masters, the Lord warned. Living by what John Dewey taught makes Children disciples of a New World Order.

God wisely has the best plan for children, tailor made. Each child has a parent that he can bond with and be discipled by. Who will disciple your children?

Homeschool Advice from a Mother of 10!

I find this article very inspiring and encouraging. It's full with practical advice for homeschooler, especially the new one like me... Read on, you'll know what I mean.

How Do You Do It?
by Pam McDonald

I have been homeschooling for 15+years and have had 7 children during that time, with a total of 10 so far (7 boys!), and I would agree with others that we need to be more mother and less teacher.

The practical working of that in relation to learning is that I keep my little ones with me at all times. The baby sits on my lap or at my feet doing whatever I am doing with the older ones. The toddler also stays with me, "doing school" too. I let them play with toys, or nurse, meeting their needs as we are all learning together. I found that God gave us our little ones to enhance our curriculum, rather than to detract from it. As we are learning to read and write and do numbers we are also learning to yield our rights and to be patient and kind to others.

I consider all of our children to not only be siblings to each other, but teachers also. Our newborn teaches us to be selfless, and to love babies. Our toddler teaches us to be persevering and patient and to laugh at ourselves. I would also like to share some other practical things that work for me.

I find keeping a regular schedule is a life saver. I don't mean a feeding schedule, but a simple event oriented schedule so each member of the family will understand that after we eat breakfast we do chores then school, after we eat lunch we read books and nap and after dinner we do chores, baths, devotions and bedtime. Life is so much easier when I don't have to catch everyone and get them going the same way all of the time.

Another tip that has helped me tremendously is to do spend time with the youngest children first. While the older children are finishing chores I take the littlest ones and spend time with them, reading, doing puzzles, just playing and being Mommy. I emphasize that we work before we play and I consider this part of their day as school. I have found that by giving the little ones their time first they will be content to play quietly at my feet for awhile by themselves giving me time to work with the older ones. I will say that I consider my little ones to be those under 8-10 years old!

My schoolday for my current 9 and under goes like this: rise, get dressed, groom and tidy bedrooms. I have been up for awhile and help the little ones follow my directions. It takes time to get everyone ready, but for the little guys it is a lesson in itself, so don't feel bad taking the time to do it.

Breakfast is very simple and wholesome on schooldays: cooked cereal and fruit. After breakfast we do chores. When all of my little ones were your children's ages we all did them together. Chores teach so much character so I am glad we have them. After chores we all convene on the couch for school. I start with Bible reading and Bible stories. Then we cover phonics.

Everyone gets a chance to say them, the youngest copying the older. After phonics the readers read aloud to all of us. Baby nurses whenever he needs. Then we get out the math manipulatives. Everyone does math. The older one does addition and subtraction stuff with the blocks, the preschooler adds them while the toddler counts them. Baby "eats" the bigger ones. We all work before we play and its hard work to count blocks. It's fun too!

After we do our reading and math we all move to the kitchen table for assignments. I put the toddler's high chair up to the table too. Each child old enough to care has a notebook filled with all sorts of papers. First each child works on his writing. Some scribble, some make circles, lines and dots, others copy my printed letters, some work a handwriting book. Of course even little ones get to use a pencil! Then I have those who can write a story or copy a passage from the Bible or book we have been reading. The little ones "write" or "copy" also. After writing they all illustrate their work using either cut and pasting or coloring.

During this table time I am working primarily with the older ones (over 8-10 years old) while supervising the younger. I bring an older one to the table so I can keep my eye on the younger ones. This works well for me as we do it everyday, we always work before we play, I change the activities just before the children get bored and therefore naughty.

After about an hour of table time (remember we first practiced writing, then wrote stories then illustrated them so I kept the little ones moving at a pace just ahead of their boredom) I let them move to the living room for duplo or blocks time.

The livingroom is adjacent to the kitchen table so they are right there for me to see, but they can have more room to move about and be a bit noisier without disturbing us. The little ones can play nicely without me for about an hour for several reasons: they already feel connected to mom since they had my total attention first thing in the morning and they are very ready to play since they have had a structured morning. I want you to understand that while the little ones did "school" it was still age appropriate things they were doing.

When my children were all young I used duplo time for reading aloud to everyone. They learn to play quietly and contentedly while listening to me read. Now for read aloud time most of the children prefer to sketch or color. After duplo time (I do not call it play–it is still schooltime) I can let the younger ones play outside my kitchen window (where I am still working with the older ones) for about an hour. The 7yr old can supervise while you get lunch if need be. I think it best if you can go out to play also. This is play time! They have worked hard all morning and play feels so wonderfully fulfilling to them now!

They play until just before lunch when we have a pick up time. I should mention that during schooltime I always emphasize tidying up as we go along. It teaches the little ones to pick up after themselves and gives them a little break from their work, stretching the time a bit more.

We all eat lunch then read aloud some more and then our entire household goes quiet for a 2 hour time period. I nap also. This is an essential for all of us. We used to live in a condo and did not have any yard at all. For exercise we went on a 3 mile walk each day (still do!). We also walked to a park several times per week. Children need lots of physical activity.

I am not saying that all of this is easy. It is not! Everything we do that is worthwhile takes time and concentration. Keep at it and you will see wonderful fruit from all of your sowing! By the way, I don't see much mature fruit until after about 10 years old – the "light bulb"age! Gal 6: 7-9 tells us to not be weary in well doing for in due season we will reap, if we faint not!