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This brings me back to the secondary school programme. My husband taught my eldest children English and History and Geography, after work. He is a secondary school teacher, and I just couldn’t find good Christian resources in these areas. At present I’m getting him to put his lessons on DVD for my other children, as they are invaluable. Important skills do not take long to aquire if they are taught well, and then its just a matter of practice. He is setting up a business to produce secondary resources. The first DVD – Grammar on one hand – a toolkit for Writers is finished and being bought mostly by English school teachers so far. I think homeschooling mums will find it a big help, as I know I felt a bit lost with secondary humanities and needed to learn a few things first before I could help the kids.
Maths and science were my areas of strength, so I was able to help my children with these throughout secondary. I think, however, DVD’s would be good in these fields as well, as an addition to a good text book, to explain things. I’m hoping my daughter will help produce some of these in her next summer holidays, as she specializes in these and actually has a tutoring job in Chemistry at the university, to get in the practise of teaching.
Ideally, I would like my next group of children to avoid joining distance education. We found it very stressful as a family, and my husband said that the workload was almost double what his seniors had at school. If I can get good texts and teaching on DVD, we should manage to be totally home based and continue our lifestyle, which makes room for God and others. The important things is that the children learn the skills they need to use at university. They should have good knowledge, but also good research and writing skills and complex reasoning and problem solving skills. A lot of time is wasted in schools going over things unnecessarily or not covering essential areas enough.
The best thing about homeschooling, though, is that you can design a programme unique for each child. You work on their weaknesses, develop their strengths, and most of all help them to grow and walk in the ways of the Lord. Christianity can be brought into each area of study , from the sciences to which topics are set for essays and books which are studied. The greatest joy for me as a parent has been to watch my children have a good knowledge base in all areas and be able to think things through and express themselves well. The two eldest have had a keen interest in Christianity as well, and have often gone to the internet to research topics on which they want to evangelize friends. My son is now praying about serving God full time.
I truly believe that had my children been exposed to the evils of the world on a daily basis, they would not be as strong spiritually, and would certainly not have picked up the spiritual habits they acquired at home. Peer pressure would have influenced their characters and study. They have many friends from church and sports and relatives, and once they have finished grade 12 are truly strong enough to be lights for God’s Kingdom.Homeschooling is also great for family bonding. The children are so close working together all the time.
When I first took my kids out of school 10 years ago, it was a different story. Home was like a boarding house where they ate and slept, but school and friends from school were their lives. Most of their waking hours were spent being influenced by the world and there was no real family unit closeness. When their behaviour became offensive to me, we pulled them out. It was the best decision we ever made. It took a while and a number of mistakes to get things working at home. Chores had to be allocated, to give me the time to homeschool. The first 3 months were really just adjustment time, but gradually we learned to work and live together. God became the center of our life and day and work slotted in around that basic orientation. We have to always remind ourselves why we are here on earth, and if we realize its just a journey to our real home in Heaven, we’ll do what’s truly best for our children and homeschool.
This brings me back to the secondary school programme. My husband taught my eldest children English and History and Geography, after work. He is a secondary school teacher, and I just couldn’t find good Christian resources in these areas. At present I’m getting him to put his lessons on DVD for my other children, as they are invaluable. Important skills do not take long to aquire if they are taught well, and then its just a matter of practice. He is setting up a business to produce secondary resources. The first DVD – Grammar on one hand – a toolkit for Writers is finished and being bought mostly by English school teachers so far. I think homeschooling mums will find it a big help, as I know I felt a bit lost with secondary humanities and needed to learn a few things first before I could help the kids.
Maths and science were my areas of strength, so I was able to help my children with these throughout secondary. I think, however, DVD’s would be good in these fields as well, as an addition to a good text book, to explain things. I’m hoping my daughter will help produce some of these in her next summer holidays, as she specializes in these and actually has a tutoring job in Chemistry at the university, to get in the practise of teaching.
Ideally, I would like my next group of children to avoid joining distance education. We found it very stressful as a family, and my husband said that the workload was almost double what his seniors had at school. If I can get good texts and teaching on DVD, we should manage to be totally home based and continue our lifestyle, which makes room for God and others. The important things is that the children learn the skills they need to use at university. They should have good knowledge, but also good research and writing skills and complex reasoning and problem solving skills. A lot of time is wasted in schools going over things unnecessarily or not covering essential areas enough.
The best thing about homeschooling, though, is that you can design a programme unique for each child. You work on their weaknesses, develop their strengths, and most of all help them to grow and walk in the ways of the Lord. Christianity can be brought into each area of study , from the sciences to which topics are set for essays and books which are studied. The greatest joy for me as a parent has been to watch my children have a good knowledge base in all areas and be able to think things through and express themselves well. The two eldest have had a keen interest in Christianity as well, and have often gone to the internet to research topics on which they want to evangelize friends. My son is now praying about serving God full time.
I truly believe that had my children been exposed to the evils of the world on a daily basis, they would not be as strong spiritually, and would certainly not have picked up the spiritual habits they acquired at home. Peer pressure would have influenced their characters and study. They have many friends from church and sports and relatives, and once they have finished grade 12 are truly strong enough to be lights for God’s Kingdom.Homeschooling is also great for family bonding. The children are so close working together all the time.
When I first took my kids out of school 10 years ago, it was a different story. Home was like a boarding house where they ate and slept, but school and friends from school were their lives. Most of their waking hours were spent being influenced by the world and there was no real family unit closeness. When their behaviour became offensive to me, we pulled them out. It was the best decision we ever made. It took a while and a number of mistakes to get things working at home. Chores had to be allocated, to give me the time to homeschool. The first 3 months were really just adjustment time, but gradually we learned to work and live together. God became the center of our life and day and work slotted in around that basic orientation. We have to always remind ourselves why we are here on earth, and if we realize its just a journey to our real home in Heaven, we’ll do what’s truly best for our children and homeschool.
