Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Welcome to Homeschooling (Imperfectly!)

Education has always begun in the home. And it is fitting that it should continue there. 

I love that in Deuteronomy 6 (see especially vs. 7) that while the Lord commands parent's to teach their children about him - it is recognized that they won't always "get it" the first time. Deut. 6:20 says "And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgements, which the LORD our God hath commanded you?" This is *after* you have already been teaching them diligently in the first place! The reaction to this shocking news that the "kids" still don't get it? Just patiently keep teaching. (vs. 21) "Then thou shalt say unto thy son..." - and you do the whole lesson over again. 

I hope that in this blog, I can encourage homeschooling families to continue on. It will never be perfect. You will never feel that it is complete - or done "right". You will never feel like it was enough. I can tell you that you are correct - it is always imperfectly done. We are imperfect - and even if we got a second chance to fix our most glaring child rearing errors - we would only go back and make different ones just as glaring. We can only cling to the Lord and seek his face as we do the best we can in the Light that we have. 

You situations and circumstances will all vary - so no one family and their homeschool will look exactly (or even close) to any other family's homeschool, but there are some principles and encouragement that we can all use. I live in Florida, so most of my information is specific to that state - but many principles cross state, cultural, and ethnic lines. Take what you can use - and leave the rest. Ask any questions for which you are seeking help - I have years of resources available to me and will gladly share. I will list some of the most useful and personally valuable resources that I have encountered on the right hand side of the blog. There is no way it can be all inclusive - so I will only list those I have personally found valuable.

God bless you and your family as you seek to follow the Lord's mandate to educate your children.