A Biblical Plan for Homeschooling
Many homeschool moms find it impossible to have a happy homeschool setting. This may be caused by the pressures put on homeschoolers by those who do not teach their own children at home. I would like to encourage you homeschooling moms to evaluate why you chose to homeschool. Let me give you my philosophy of homeschooling.
Homeschooling is a time when you, as a Christian parent, try to fulfill Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Although this passage is referring to Israel rehearsing God's hand in their lives, I feel it is very applicable to the homeschool setting. My main focus of homeschooling is to teach my children the commandments, statutes, and judgments of the Lord. Worldly education profiteth little, but godly education is profitable in all things. That has become my overriding philosophy in homeschooling. Do I want my children well-educated in the basic subjects in school? Absolutely! Do I want my children to spend the largest percentage of their day in school? Absolutely not!
I use a very demanding curriculum. The philosophy behind the curriculum (although perhaps unstated) is to make your children so smart that they could go on to be successful in any vocation. "What is wrong with that?" you may ask. Well, for starters, I am training my girls to be keepers at home, not presidents of companies outside the home. I also do not want my children's focus on gaining knowledge only (I Cor. 8:1, "...Knowledge puffeth up..."). If I follow my homeschool curriculum exactly, my children are spending so much time in obtaining knowledge that there is little time left for the service of the Lord.
Our homeschool day starts with Bible reading, independently for each reader. Each student reads their Bible for their devotion time to the Lord. Then we read the day's reading in This Day in Baptist History by David Cummins and E. Wayne Thompson. We discuss the testimony of the Baptist that we read about and ask ourselves what we can learn from that individual. We then open our schooling in prayer. This time puts our focus on the Lord and serving Him with our life instead of gaining knowledge so we can serve our own selfish desires later in life. I have found that God honors our homeschool day when we put the focus on Him! -Jodi