This is Part 4, the last, in a series.
This, Part 4 of this article, will Summarize what the previous Parts have presented – in proper order – the answer to 3 questions that make up the primary question, “How do I homeschool my children?” The answers were general for a total beginner to home education, rather than specifically on Lifestyle Education through Discipleship. We hope though that you will see how Lifestyle Education through Discpleship provides Freedom & Simplicity for an excellent Christian education, by uniting the best ideas from the other philosophies out there.
On to the Summary – “How should I homeschool my children?”:
1. Answer the question “WHY should I educate my children at home?” Develop the conviction that home education is the proper education for your children. You may already have at least a “preference” for home education, but perhaps you don’t have strong convictions that this is definitely what you are to do. Guidance in answering this question is covered in this Part 3. If you choose only one resource to read, giving strong reasons for Christian parents to follow God’s commands to give their children a strong Christian Education, rather than an government education that is specifically educating the children in it AGAINST Christianity, choose **”Excused Absence” by Douglas Wilson. If you have no Biblical reasons for home educating, perhaps you have academic or social/moral reasons which can be found in the other resources in Part 3. If you have no particular reasons, rather than you thought you’d give it a try, or you or your child don’t like their teacher, my posts and website are probably unhelpful to you.
2. Answer the question “What are my goals in home educating my children?” This will determine the answer to “HOW should I educate my children?”, which will narrow the choices of “WHAT resources should I use to educate my children?” Guidance in answering these questions are covered in Part 2 of this article. Though each family has a personal “philosophy of education” (beliefs of what makes a good education), this philosophy is formed, or reformed, by the books they read and speakers they listen to. Each of the styles of education presented in Part 2 have differing goals, methods, and resources to accomplish these. Since most people have not given a whole lot of thought to what their personal philosophy of education is, it will take time to develop, and will slowly become more defined. Research the websites and resources given. Part 2 gives a lengthy description with plenty of websites for you to check out. For your ONE, quick and easy resource order our “Introduction to Lifestyle Education through Discipleship” tape that gives a brief overview of the various styles or come to one of our Freedom & Simplicity seminars. We hope that you will choose to follow a L.E.D. approach (completely tailored to your own family), but if not check out one of the other curricula programs listed in Part 2.
As a quick overview of the styles:
Unschooling/Delight Directed – Strengths: utilizes the child’s interests in giving him a tailor made education for God’s design for his life. Weaknesses: is child led, not “family friendly” (for family unity), can be very incomplete for the child’s future need if totally directed by the child’s interests, and his own choice of inferior books.
Unit Studies – Strengths: focused topics, family friendly, integrated subjects. Weaknesses: forced integration, sometimes shallowness of actual learning of the topic as you get wrapped up in the “fun” activities that aren’t very relevant, or shallow topics themselves taking the place of life-important topics.
Living Books/Literature based/Classical – Strengths: an “excellent” education, that of stretching the mind, encouraging it to think and grow. Resources are interesting and relational stories that are remembered, not just trivial bits of information to memorize. Weaknesses: many times not family friendly (individual grade levels used), can be over rigorous for real life family usage, causing real kid burn out, possibility of creating an intellectualism of “knowledge that puffs up.”
Discipleship/Christian Worldview: Strengths: a truly Biblical Education of excellence, that is based on the Spirit and nourishes/transforms the soul. Weaknesses: What weaknesses? Well, I suppose. To disciple (lead) someone you must be going somewhere worthwhile. This requires that for you to be a leader, you must first be a learner yourself. And for you to lead someone to Jesus, Jesus must be leading you. Although this is an education of excellence, it need not be a “burn out” style of education, as He promises those that follow Him and His ways His rest.
We believe that Lifestyle Education through Discipleship, by incorporating the strengths of each of the above styles into the excellence of a Discipleship/Worldview education, provides the best of all educational philosophies. It provides a style that is based on true Wisdom, that begins with the Fear of the Lord; an education of Freedom & Simplicity that is family friendly and prevents burn-out; that utilizes real, interesting, memorable resources of excellent quality and truth, and natural, gentle methods of learning to teach focused topics, integrated across the “subjects”.
Once you choose the STYLE you will use, you will have narrowed the choices of resources considerably, but you will still have possibly thousands of choices within your chosen style.
3. Once you’ve determined WHY you are going to home educate and HOW you are going to do it, find out what your state laws are for reporting your home education. All states information here:
http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/default.asp
NE information and links to the state’s forms here: http://nchea.org
See, just 3 easy steps for the complete novice to get started in home education :- )
P.S. Check our Resources & Recommendations pages for resources listed here.
