Going Home to School: My Story

Writing About Faith, Family, and Culture From the Heartland.
The home school creates a unique lifestyle that allows a lot of freedom. Parents love their children and as “a tutor” they have many advantages over the classroom.  Parents can adapt their curriculum as much as they like and they don’t have to teach everything in one grade. Most of that which really matters has a way of working itself out as you go along.  Slide show here.

Grade levels are artificial; avoid generic materials and read real books to your children. Invest in and respect differences.  We have about 17 years to train. Narrow the focus of each child of what they really are to be (father’s role).

There are three seasons—young, adolescent, and adult. For the young: read stories, biographies, autobiographies, young readers, and travel as a family and explore. During adolescence build in an understanding of why people do things. Francis Schaeffer’s “How Then Should We Live” is and excellent study that has videos and study guides. To train up is to “narrow.” Man’s chief end is to know God. Our main aim is to please God.

Science teaches us to know God (Malachi 2:15, Judges 13:8). Romans 1:20—God’s attributes are seen in the things that are made. Science is human beings making observations which can be faulty. Psalm 111:2-4—Worthy, observable, hands on, imperial, pleasurable, attributes of God. Proverbs 25:2—Glory of man to search things out (Nehemiah 9:6).

History is the story of how God is bringing people into relationship with Him. Read about how God is bringing people into relationship with Him and how to know the Father and serve Him well. Learn how to take responsibility of a family and know what God appreciates. Learn how God deals with difficulty and what is not important. Speak of “doing” not “being.” Tell your children your story and how He is important to you. Related: History and Timeline

Through the Scriptures and Christian curriculum and studies we learn how peoples and nations act. The Maya were known for their astronomers and mathematicians. They predicted the solar eclipses of the 23-year cycle and the concept of 000. But disregard for human life led to moral decay; human sacrifice—hearts torn form bodies for stone gods—tens of thousands were slaughtered. In 1527, Captain Cortez conquered a nation that has crumbled from within. It was a decadent society of achievement and decay. In Peru, the Catchuas—are a serving people who are addicted to cocaine. The Incas, who lived before Jesus birth, in the early 1500’s their divided kingdom collapsed in hatred, violence, and a lust for power among rulers. They had precision stone that didn’t need mortar, a water system that is still in tact, conducted brain surgery and bone regeneration, and well-designed bronze instruments, but their symbol of last retreat—corruption form within.

Educational science believes that knowledge is constructed in our minds and that this truth evolves along with mankind. When John Dewey wrote that knowledge resides in the muscles, he meant that the body’s responses to stimuli, the habits that it forms, and the behaviors it emits are the learning. But the Bible says that the heart encompasses most aspects of life. The heart is the eternal part of man.

Copernicus believed that a creation by God would have rational design and would be knowable within human limits. “Design” and “knowability” are critical in Western science. Both Johannes Kepler and Galileo held this philosophy and wanted to demonstrate the Copernican theory. Many of the great men of early modern science held this view and because of its predominance, the evolutionary thinking made little headway. But when Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” appeared, the scientists followed it and most of the general public followed along with them. Neither Creation nor evolution can be proven scientifically by man, because no man was present to record the happenings when the universe came into being.

I mostly followed the Abeka Book Curriculm, and attended a few home school conventions (ICHE) as well as a few home school groups for short periods of time. I kept an attendendance chart(Illinois requirement) and notes and records on each child (for my own benefit). I incorporated the Unit Study Method so we could not only teach at different grade levels at one time for certain subjects, but cover subjects as we traveled across the country for weeks at a time to visit national parks, fossil hunt, research ancestors, and visit family. Also, I was able to curb our paper work to fit different levels and learning styles. On top of that I was also concerned with social action in that we chose a 4-H Club that not only home schooled but was in involved in community service.