| HOME EDUCATION by Helen De Bruin Many Christian parents are turning towards home educating their children. Whether this is termed as 'home education', 'home schooling', 'home training' or 'home discipleship' the aim of most discerning Christian parents is a good one. It is a RIGHT THING to homeschool. No matter what your reasons for home educating your children are, it is a right thing. You were moved by the Holy Spirit to homeschool. The Holy Spirit gives you a new way of thinking and seeing things. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new". 2 Corinthians 5:17. When we withdrew our children from the public schools, we were faced with a tendency of modelling our home as 'school'. We created a 'schoolroom', complete with student desks and chairs, a teacher's desk and chair, educational 'clutter' and bookshelves lined with text books. We now realise that men designed schools and God designed the home. Home is the only institution proved by God for the training of our children. For us, textbooks have been a false sense of 'educational' security and have hindered our children's progress in learning. Textbooks cannot be compared to the real joy of learning naturally and are totally unrelated to real life at home. Nowadays, we have no more textbooks, lectures, grades and workbooks. Instead, we have real books, real relationships and real life ~ designed by God. Our aim is for our children to know and understand many ideas and concepts; as the very nature of a child is to learn, no matter what we, as parents do or don't do for our children, God has instilled in them the drive to question, explore, discover and learn. Our job is to provide them with a rich and lively living environment, so that they can exercise this God-given drive to learn. Our children love to read. They love to be read to ~ no matter what their age! They love to talk to anybody, anytime, anywhere, sharing their thoughts and ideas. In the home, our children live and learn. There is no distinction between the two. This is true 'education'. Home is where it's at! Educating our children at home is merely an extention of God's design for His children by them being discipled in His ways. The most important aspects of our service to God is our relationships with others. This begins in the home. There is no other process for raising and training children ~ Scripturally ~ than in the family, which is a dynamic living and learning environment, ordained by God. |