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    Approaches to Christian Homeschooling Intro - 2013-05-09 09:15:00-04

Are you looking for the best way to give your kids a Christian education?

Are you stuck in a rut when it comes to choosing curriculum?

Do you buy the same “stuff” each year just because you used it last year?

Not sure what is best for your kids?

Not sure what is best for you to teach?

Many homeschoolers are in the same boat, trying to find just the right approach for their child’s education.  Their biggest problem is they don’t have an overall plan to guide them in their curriculum and activity choices.  By now, you’ve probably realized there is no single approach to home schooling that works for everyone.  If you haven’t realized it, let me say it’s true & let me help .

An overall plan will guide parents as they make these important choices.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be discussing how to develop your own plan to Christian homeschooling.

Before our family chose to homeschool, our children went to a private Christian school for five years.  Becoming frustrated with the private school, we finally pulled the children out of school and looked for another option.  At that time, we were not completely convinced that homeschooling was the best option, just the only option we had at that time.

Homeschooling was our final choice since we didn’t want to send our kids to the public school. Having been a public school teacher for six years, I knew what was expected of teachers.  It wasn’t always education. Sad, but true.

Unfortunately I had seen many of pitfalls of the government schools. I also saw the way private schools operate as I participated in school committees, including several curriculum committees.  All this to say, I bring a wide variety of educational experiences to the table as we discuss approaches to Christian homeschooling.  That wide variety of experiences taught me a lot in choosing the best approach in educating my own children. I hope my journey will help you.

When we began to home school it was a leap of faith.  I quickly learned what I did in the public school would not work in my home school.  Most of my friends would say, “Oh, you’re a teacher by profession.  Of course you can homeschool your kids.  You don’t have to worry about it.  You know exactly what to do”.  Wrong!

I would respond with, “Sorry, but I have to re-train myself many of the things I did for years as a public school teacher.  I am now teaching three children, not a class of thirty.  Totally different situation and  I don’t have the same goals as the public school system.”

Too often we don’t have an overall plan for our homeschool. We try to bring classroom to the homeschool and & we get frustrated.  Have you ever been frustrated in your homeschool?  You’re probably trying to follow a classroom approach, instead of instilling a joy of learning in your homeschool.

When you home school, you have the privilege and liberty to listen to God as we choose:

• what to study
• when to study
• how long to study
• what type of educational experiences are best

Are you taking advantage of those freedoms?

When we bring the government school traditions into our home, we lose that freedom and follow the government‘s model of schooling, not the nudging of the Holy Spirit.  All of a sudden we are schooling the same way we did as we grew up in school.  I completely understand because we primarily rely on our own experiences from our childhood.  Over the next few weeks, I hope you see which approach works best for your family…probably not the government’s approach.

I hope you can join us this afternoon at 4pm EASTERN for our first free online homeschooling workshop.  You’ll find all the details here and you can reserve your spot here:

Before discussing the approaches to home schooling, I need to address some basic issues:  what an educated person is and what your philosophy of education is.  Once you answer those questions, you can determine what goals you have in educating your kids.  From there, you can decide which approach is best for you and your family.  You may even decide that a combination of approaches is best.

Next up:  Developing your overall plan.  What’s your philosophy of education?  Does it match your goals?

Question: What questions do you have about choosing the right approach to Christian homeschooling? You can leave a comment by clicking here.