Homeschooling: Objections Answered and Subjects Examined - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

Homeschooling

Our interest in the Christian education of children at home began around 1988. Throughout the years, we have had many discussions with people about homeschooling. It is very noticeable that their attitudes have become much more positive. Perhaps it is because they know families who are homeschooling and see them as “normal”, but most likely it is because the public schools are continuously getting worse. When you are in the system, you may not notice the detrimental effects on your child until it is too late. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, he will jump out. If you put a frog in cool water, and slowly heat it to boiling, he will die. He didn’t notice when the time was right to jump out.

Please step back, and thoroughly examine the decisions you are making with regard to the education of your children.

I Went to Public School and I Turned Out Okay

“The times they are a changin’.” Without a doubt, the public schools are worse than ever. They are not teaching the basics, they undermine Christian values, and they provide an environment that exposes children to unsafe and immoral behaviour. The scene is set for drugs, alcohol, pre-marital sex, and violence.

“We agree that Moses’ character was so formed by his mother’s training that his Egyptian education did not ruin him, but if pagan education did not ruin Moses and does not ruin true Christian young men today, we should give glory to God’s grace instead of being satisfied with pagan education. Just because a young man survives pagan education is no reason for subjecting him to it. Children sometimes survive diphtheria or infantile paralysis but we do not try to give it to them,” says Gordon H. Clark.(1)

We want something better for our children.

I Don’t Want My Children to Miss the Fun I Had

You may associate the happy times you experienced with school, just because that is where you had to be. Who is to say that you couldn’t have experienced great joy and fun if your education was at home? Happy memories can be made anywhere. Are you sure you didn’t miss out on some great experiences in the real world when you were forced to stay in a public institution six hours a day, 180 days a year for twelve years?

Sometimes people choose to remember only the good things in their childhood. Suppressing the “junk” makes them feel better about their life, and as a result, often unconsciously, they force their children to submit to the same difficult experiences. People sometimes regard public school as just a part of life, how it had to be. They don’t know what it would have been like to have the freedom of home education.

To realize “unfreedom”, you need to be aware of “freedom”. As a child, I attended public school. That was the only life I knew. Upon graduation, I continued to live at home, and had the opportunity to observe my younger sister as she was homeschooled. Her experiences make me realize how much I missed by not being educated at home.

If you had an unhappy home life, school may have been an escape for you. The feelings of relief you had at school may be why you feel the need to send your own children.

I Don’t Want My Children To Be Different

“But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” 1 Corinthians 7:7 NIV

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” Romans 12:6 NIV

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NIV

In Proverbs 22:6 NIV, God has given you the tremendous responsibility to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” The author of Biblical Parenting explains how this verse is archery language.

“Archers would fashion their own arrows and each one was unique, with its own bent – like children. It was the archer’s responsibility to know the bent of his arrows well enough that he could adjust his shot so they would fly straight and hit the mark. We need to know our children so well that we see God’s unique design in them the way they need so that when we shoot them out into the world they fly straight and hit the mark God has for them.”(2)

Children, like arrows, are different. The personality differences between siblings can often be noticed at birth, or even before. Homeschooling can meet the unique and special learning styles of each of your children. In a healthy home, children can be gently led in the way they should go by the people who know and love them the best.

I Couldn’t Do A Good Enough Job

Sometimes parents reject home education because they lack the confidence that they themselves could do a better job. Believe me, you can. Give yourself the opportunity. There is a wealth of information available to help you with this responsibility. The variety of homeschooling methods and curriculum is as diverse as the families who use them.

“In 1978 there were just 12,500 homeschoolers in all of North America… just twenty years later, the number was more than 100 times that amount, with about 1.5 million children being home-schooled in the United States and Canada.”(3)

“In every subject and at every grade level of the [tests], home schooled students scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts.” (4)

“Almost one-quarter (24.5 percent) of home schooled students perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.” (5)

“Children taught at home in Canada score, on average, at the 80th percentile in reading, at the 76th percentile in languages, and at the 79th percentile in mathematics. Private and public students perform, on average, in the 50th percentile on mandatory tests in the same subjects.”(6)

Should you hand over your little child to the public schools, and stand back while they finish raising him? We believe there is a better way.

Read this study about homeschooling.

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/Commerce.Web/product_files/Homeschoo...

Homeschooled children have health advantages. They are less likely to catch every virus going, and they can have improved nutrition at home. A healthier child is more capable of learning.

I Am Looking Forward to Having My Days Free

It may surprise you just how “freeing” homeschooling can be! You can ignore those schedules, forget about catching that bus, and concentrate on making your life much less hectic. You will actually get to be there while your children grow up. It happens in the blink of an eye.

Put in the time and effort when they are young, and it will pay off when they are older. The effects of neglecting children may not appear for years. Then it is often too late to compensate. Take the time now to invest in our most precious natural resources.

We truly believe that it is the Christian’s moral obligation to provide a Christian education for his or her children. We do not see Christian education as a “preference” but as a “conviction”.

John W. Whitehead says, “Parents are under a God mandated obligation to ‘preserve, nourish, and educate’ their children. This is not a choice parents have. The obligation is not to the child, but to God.”(7)

I Want My Children to Have Friends

“I pay the schoolmaster, but ’tis the schoolboys that educate my son.” Ralph Waldo Emerson(8)

Public schools are not the only place to find friends. They are not even a very good place to find real friends. You can also feel quite lonely in a crowd.

Create opportunities for developing close friendships for your children in positive environments. Homeschooled children are more stable and secure. They have superior social skills and more easily communicate with adults and children from all age groups. Homeschoolers are not as easily swayed by peer pressure and are more likely to stand against pressures that violate their convictions.

“The typical home schooled child is more mature, friendly, happy, thoughtful, competent, and better socialized than students in public or private schools. They are also less peer dependent and exhibit ’significantly higher’ self-esteem.”(9) (Fraser Institute)

One of the most common reasons that parents send their children to school is for the sake of socialization.

1 Corinthians 15:33 states, “Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals.”

Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

If your child is interested, check out the sports programs, activities, and clubs offered by your local community, churches, and libraries.

Finding true friends can be great, but many school children have to deal with bullying on a daily basis. I am in my late thirties, but I remember seeing violence and abuse at my public school and on my school bus almost every day as a child. When older boys would get on the bus, they would reach down and pound other boys as they made their way to the back of the bus. I recall frequently witnessing, as well as being the victim of, sexual harassment and verbal abuse. It has always amazed me how children can be abused on a regular basis and nothing effective is done to prevent it. If it were their parents instead of their peers who were causing the harm, the children would be removed from their homes.

Parents continue to send their children to government institutions that cannot guarantee their physical or emotional safety. This entrenched system called public education is so powerful that parents ignore their own common sense, and send their children off with the expectation that they will be subjected to some degree of abuse. The argument is often, “this is the real world”. We don’t know what kind of world THEY live in, but WE are not beat up and harassed in “the real world”. If we were, we would claim our rights to the fullest extent of the law.

I Trust the Teachers

An individual teacher may be extremely talented with the best of intentions, but there is only so much that can be done in a classroom environment. The number of students and their differing abilities greatly affect the quality of teaching. We want to prevent our children from being slowed down academically with a canned curriculum that certainly does not meet the needs of every child. In the system, everyone usually has to do the same thing at the same time. The teacher must present each lesson at the level of the “average” or “below average” student. Children who need more challenging work may be expected to do busy work or seat work instead of progressing at their own pace. It is just as easy for children to “get lost” in the system, especially if they are not taught the basics.

It is obvious that children’s physical and emotional safety is at risk in a public school. Problems of addiction, violence, abuse, discrimination, harassment, bullying, peer pressure, and coercion are common in the public system.

Public schools provide a generous dose of political correctness, including humanism and individualism (selfishness). These views develop attitudes that are anti-marriage, anti-family, and anti-life.

There is no such thing as neutrality. We want our children to be educated in light of our Christian values, and NOT from the secular humanist perspective of the public schools. We want our children to learn about topics like sex education, homosexuality, abortion, death education, and evolution in a manner that respects our conscience, values, culture, religion, and traditions.

Follow this link for interesting perspectives on sex education:

http://www.respectfamilyvalues.com

How can you lead your child in the way he should go when he is being taught someone else’s views and values at such a vulnerable age?

“Our children cannot be parented by people whose names we hardly even know.”(10)

My parents knew very few of my teachers and school bus drivers over the years. These were strangers who parented me for eight hours each day, five days a week, ten months a year, for twelve years. But what is even more troubling is the peer factor, since peers are usually more of an influence than teachers. My parents only knew the names of the peers that I chose to tell them. Imagine what I learned from my peers! And that is not even the real concern. The problem gets very serious when the child replaces their parents with their peers as their primary attachment. And this is very common.

“If there were a deliberate plan to create peer orientation, schools as currently run would undoubtedly be our best instrument.” (11)

I agree, except that I believe it IS a deliberate satanic plot. Collecting the young in public schools to be raised by their often pagan peers and supervised by secular ‘teachers’ is a very clever way to steal children from their Christian parents. Especially when the parents fully support and approve of the system, and fail to recognize the dangers disguised as ‘education’ and ’socialization’.

The common excuse of having a Christian teacher doesn’t pass because they are required to teach secular curriculum. Young, covenant children are not there as salt and light, but rather as lambs to the slaughter.

I Don’t Have the Patience to Homeschool

This is by far the most common excuse I hear from parents who reject homeschooling. It ignores all the valid reasons to homeschool with a convenient cop-out related to the person’s opinion of his or her own character.

When people become parents, they are responsible to raise their children from birth to maturity regardless of their level of patience. Educating children actually begins at birth and simply continues as they grow. Teaching is not something that starts the day a child sets foot in a school. If you are a parent, you are already a teacher. Parenting and teaching go hand in hand.

If you already struggle with patience in parenting, then instead of giving your child away to the system, concentrate on learning how to handle frustration in a way that will strengthen your relationship with your children.

Since homeschooling is about freedom, you can choose to become more relaxed and less pressured in your new homeschooling lifestyle, and as a result you may also become more patient.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22,23

The closer you walk with the Lord, the more you grow in patience. Instead of ignoring the problem, maybe parents should work on building patience so they can live and grow with their own children.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12

“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Hebrews 6:12

“Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.” James 5:7

“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father.” Colossians 1:10-12

What Risk Am I Taking if I My Child Goes to Public School?

“94% of homeschoolers keep the faith and 93% continue to attend church after the high school years. But a shocking 75% to 85% of Christian children sent to public school drop out of church, and do not hold a Christian worldview after high school graduation.”(12)

How Do I Start Homeschooling?

Talk to your child. Get to know him better. Ask about his interests. What does he like to do? What are his favorite things? What would he like to learn? Children are more likely to enjoy learning when they are interested in the material. Listen carefully when your child shares his ideas. I mean really listen!

Then try to determine his learning style. What senses does he use to process information? Figure out if he is a visual, auditory, or hands-on type of learner.

The next step is to research curriculum choices. Read literature. Ask questions. Search on the internet. Take advantage of search engines and e-groups. Talk to successful homeschooling families. Attend seminars, conventions, and workshops.

There are many, many ways to homeschool. Try to determine which sort of curriculum would be the best fit for your child, family, and lifestyle. Books, textbooks, and workbooks are often the first choices of homeschoolers. Technology also offers educational resources in the form of CD’s, DVD’s, computer programs, internet courses, downloadable programs, correspondence courses, etc. Perhaps “classical” education or “unschooling” may be the perfect fit for your family.

Together you can work out a plan to meet the needs of both you and your child. We have found that the key to a successful homeschool is organization and follow-through. We feel that every child needs a schedule that he can follow, so he is not left waiting if you have to attend to other responsibilities in the house.

The first goal is to ensure that each child has a strong foundation in reading, writing, arithmetic, and Christian theology. After establishing a daily routine for learning the basics, you will probably want to add other subjects to your child’s week, like history, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, geography, science, health, philosophy, logic, art, music, foreign languages, physical education, etc. The list of course options gets even longer in junior and senior high school. If you are removing your children from the public system, we suggest you stick to just the 3 R’s during the first few months of deprogramming.

Our homeschooled children are getting a superior education. Our six-year-old is studying math facts and can read chapter books. Our nine-year-old is working on grade eight math and just finished reading LOTR The Fellowship of the Ring in less than a week. Our fourteen-year-old has completed algebra I and II and is now studying advanced math. He has been reading university level literature for the past few years.

We have arrived at the following conclusions regarding homeschooling for our family.

Self-Teaching

Schools (and even some homeschools) are set up so that the teacher “teaches” and the children “learn”. Children quickly become dependant on their teacher. Children only learn what they have to learn (at the most), and they think they can only understand things that are taught and explained to them.

We want our children to be able to figure things out for themselves. We want them to know MORE than us. We don’t want them to have to rely on the education of a certain person for answers - even if that person has a teaching degree.

To me, homeschooling is not about babying and protecting my children from some scary secular humanist system (although it IS pretty scary). It is more about making sure our children actually use their God-given brains and get a real education. Being able to teach themselves will play a huge role in their future success.

“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” Robert Maynard Hutchins(13)

We believe that encouraging and expecting children to study and learn on their own is not only best for them, but also makes for an efficient homeschool. When we read the notes that came with our Robinson Curriculum, we knew we were on the right track with self-teaching. The Robinson program is based on independently completing two hours of math, one hour of writing, and two hours of reading.

http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com

We have chosen different materials and organized different schedules, but the concept of self-teaching is significant in our homeschool. We want our children to be able to study ANY subject in the future, without being dependant on someone to teach it to them. Having them learn how to teach themselves has truly been the key to their academic success.

The most accurate words to describe our homeschool would be, Classical Self-Teaching Christian Home Education.

Reading

http://parentingfreedom.com/reading

Learning to read is undoubtedly the most important part of a young child’s academic education. The key to successful reading is a foundation in phonics.

Regardless of your school choice, we encourage you to teach your child to read using the phonics-first method.(14) There are many programs and books available to help you teach phonics. ABeka has a great reading program with high quality materials.

http://www.abeka.com

Books are an essential part of home education. You can buy, borrow, or print them, new or used. Get to know your local librarians! Reading aloud to your children, both before and after they learn to read themselves, is a valuable and enjoyable educational tool. We highly recommend that you invest the time and effort to make reading a major part of your children’s education.

In addition to the Robinson literature, we have added ABeka books, Veritas Press History, Bible, and Literature Curriculum, Sonlight Curriculum, classical literature, our own book collection, and library books. When he was nine years old, our oldest son’s favorite books included Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. By eleven it was The Odyssey. Our second son really took off in reading just before turning seven. That year, he read about 160 chapter books in grade two. The following year, in grade three, he read more than 125 chapter books and textbooks. Our daughter is excited because she can read chapter books at six years of age. Once a child has a strong foundation in phonics, and a love for reading, it is difficult to supply the demand for books.

http://www.veritaspress.com

http://www.sonlight.com

Writing

We have chosen a more traditional approach to handwriting. ABeka and Samuel Blumenfield are among those who have their students learn cursive handwriting first.

“Before the 1940’s, schools across the nation took this (more traditional) approach to writing, and, as a result, most American school children developed beautiful handwriting. Ball-and-stick manuscript came about as part of progressive education reforms in the 1940’s. The change was made primarily to help children recognize the letters in the “Dick and Jane” look-say readers. By starting with cursive writing rather than manuscript printing, we help the child develop good writing habits from the very beginning. This means that habits acquired from manuscript printing do not need to be unlearned. We also strengthen the child’s reading skills. By joining letters, cursive writing reinforces the blending of sounds within words.”(15)

Some parents are concerned that it is too difficult, and while it may be challenging during the first weeks, they quickly catch on. Our favorite way to help children learn cursive letter formation is to have them write in a tray of salt.

Have you ever noticed that boys, especially, tend to print when they are older? Often when little boys learn one thing (printing), they are not interested in changing (to cursive). Their attitude may be, if it works, why fix it? Little girls, on the other hand, tend to be willing to put extra effort into learning to write in cursive.

In our experience, if a child is taught cursive writing first, he can then easily teach himself to print. We like the beautiful letter formation in the ABeka writing program. Upon learning letter formation, a child is on the road to creative writing.

http://www.abeka.com

Arithmetic/Math

http://parentingfreedom.com/math

I helped our boys follow the ABeka Arithmetic workbooks which helped them learn numerous practical math skills in K4, K5, and grade one.

After learning to identify and understand numbers, we believe the most important background for success in mathematics is the rote memorization of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. In addition to flashcards, the following two sites are helpful in achieving this goal.

http://www.worksheetfactory.com

http://www.thequartermile.com

Our boys memorized the arithmetic facts so they could begin Saxon Math 5/4 (average grade four/advanced grade five) when they were between 7 and 7½ years old (grade two). Usually completing one lesson each day, they quickly go through the Saxon Math series without a teacher. Occasionally, over the years, they have come to me with a problem they didn’t understand. I would point out the lesson where it was originally taught, and they would reread the lesson and almost always figure out the problem themselves.

http://saxonpublishers.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonpublishers.htm

Theology

http://parentingfreedom.com/bible

Christian parents have the tremendous responsibility to teach morals, values, and Biblical truths to their children. Rather than relying on others to fulfill this duty, parents should recognize their own accountability in passing on the Christian faith to their children.

“These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:1-9 NIV

Schedules

Because our homeschool is continually changing, it is difficult to give you an accurate view of a typical day.

We have listed the collection of curriculum and materials we may use at some point during each grade. In the early years, the 3 R’s and Bible are usually done everyday, but other subjects may get neglected in real life. Over the course of the entire year, we make certain that the child’s academic education is well rounded and balanced.

In grades two and up, the child generally follows a checklist and works independently most of the time. The subjects on the checklist are usually standard throughout the year, but the materials may change frequently, especially as books and workbooks are completed. The checklist is not necessarily followed in the same order each day.

Kindergarten K4
http://parentingfreedom.com/kindergarten4
Kindergarten K5
http://parentingfreedom.com/kindergarten5
Grade One
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade1
Grade Two
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade2
Grade Three
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade3
Grade Four
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade4
Grade Five
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade5
Grade Six
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade6
Grade Seven
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade7
Grade Eight
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade8
Grade Nine
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade9
Grade Ten
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade10
Grade Eleven
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade11
Grade Twelve
http://parentingfreedom.com/grade12

© 2001-2008 This website and its contents are copyright and intended for educational purposes only. The information, research, experiences, and links contained herein have not been compiled by a physician and should not be considered as medical advice. Opinions expressed in the reference books and links may not in all cases reflect the beliefs of Carol@parentingfreedom.com.

End Notes
1. Gordon H. Clark.
2. Crystal Lutton, Biblical Parenting, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Millennial Mind Publishing, 2001).
3. Rev. David Feddes, “Homeschooling”, Choices in Schooling, (Palos Heights, IL: The Back to God Hour, 1998).
4. Rudner, 1999.
5. Ray, 1997.
6. Sylvie Fitgerald, An Educated Choice.
7. John W. Whitehead.
8. Ralph Waldo Emerson.
9. Fraser Institute.
10. Gordon Neufeld, Hold on to Your Kids, p. 48.
11. Ibid. p. 47.
12. Homeschoolers Grown Up, 2004.
13. Robert Maynard Hutchins.
14. Rudolf Flesch, Why Johnny Can’t Read – And what you can do about it, (New York, NY: Perennial Library, 1955).
15. ABeka Book.

Bibliography

Blumenfeld, Samuel L. A Parents’ Guide to Teaching Children. Secaucus, NJ: A Citadel Press Book, 1997.

Faber, Adele and Elaine Mazlish. How To Talk So Kids Can Learn – At Home and in School. New York, NY: A Fireside Book, 1995.

Feddes, Rev. David. “Homeschooling”, Choices in Schooling. Palos Heights, IL: The Back to God Hour, 1998.

Flesch, Rudolf. Why Johnny Can’t Read – And what you can do about it. New York, NY: Perennial Library, 1955.

Flesch, Rudolf. Why Johnny Still Can’t Read – A new look at the scandal of our schools. New York, NY: Harper Colophon Books, 1981.

Gordon, Dr. Thomas. T.E.T. Teacher Effectiveness Training. New York, NY: David McKay Company, Inc., 1974.

Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards – The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plan$, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

Lutton, Crystal. Biblical Parenting. Salt Lake City, Utah: Millennial Mind Publishing, 2001.

Tobias, Cynthia Ulrish. The Way They Learn. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1994.

http://parentingfreedom.com/homeschooling/

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