Home School Evangelist Blog

Articles

04 November 2007 Be the first to comment!

Note: These articles may be republished on your blog, newsletter or site as long as the resource box at the bottom is included, stating the author’s information.

Christian Home Schooling – The Blessing of a Lifetime

by Lisa Preston

There’s more to Christian home schooling than a high quality education. God calls us to lead our children into a heart-to-heart relationship with Himself.

Christian home schooling means your entire family steps off the television-driven cultural path and walks to the heartbeat of Christ. You’re bound to face criticism, as we are taught quite effectively to go along with the majority. Don’t let that deter you from this heavenly adventure! The narrow path contains more buried treasure than you could ever dig up! The easy road is wide - and barren.

Preparing your child’s heart becomes paramount. Discipleship is life, not a unit study. Loving Jesus and following Him comes before the trivium, field trips, and hands-on activities.

Christian home schooling means letting God have control of your “school”, your curriculum choices, all your decisions. Most of us were schooled in the public arena, and when given control, can’t help but model our own educational experiences.

As you let Christ hold the steering wheel of your life, and you become a trusting passenger, He will lead you to the right curriculum for your children, the perfect way to incorporate Scripture into your lives, creative activities you wouldn’t have found elsewhere. He’s the most gifted Teacher, and He teaches us as we teach our children.

I can imagine no greater adventure than following Him, hand in hand with the precious treasures He’s allowing us to parent. Christian home schooling is, indeed, the blessing of a lifetime.

Lisa Preston taught public school for 17 years before becoming the Homeschool Evangelist! Pick up her free book Why You Should Homeschool Your Child: A Public Schoolteacher’s Confession at http://www.homeschoolhelper.com

Home School Organization : Myth or Reality?

by Lisa Preston

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve mumbled, “Now where did I put that?” – I could be home schooling on a beach in Hawaii.

Organization and “space control” challenge the best of us. It’s difficult enough for me to keep all my projects organized, much less assist little ones in the process!

One helpful reminder – we’re not re-creating a miniature public school classroom. It’s unnecessary for a home school to include a separate room with desks, a blackboard and alphabet pictures on the wall.

Think of how you learn most effectively. It’s probably not in one spot all day. You may find a new cookbook in the kitchen, thumb through it in the living room, and place it on the bedside table to read before going to sleep. Since learning takes place everywhere, let’s make it an integral part of our living space.

That doesn’t mean spread out all over the house, though, and never picked up! You may have a bookcase of history books in one room and science books in another part of the house. I recommend each child have a plastic container that can slide under the bed for “out of sight” storage.

Different methods work for different folks. Do what fits for your family. Here are additional organization ideas that you may find helpful.

Organizing Your Home School Space

1) A sturdy 4 drawer fining cabinet is perfect for home and school organization. Lesson plans, children’s notebooks and portfolios, awesome work, etc. can be stored and retrieved later with relative ease.

2) I find it helpful to use an unusual color for my plan sheet. Most stores have rainbow and neon colored paper. The brightness of the paper makes it much easier to find when misplaced. (Which for me is often!)

3) Add 10-15 extra minutes for a task/activity when you are planning. Then when little things pop up - like the dog throwing up on the living room rug – you won’t be thrown far off schedule.

4) Try to sort your mail every day. Catalogs and letters can take up tons of precious horizontal space. Perhaps you’ll want a basket for items you want to get back to later.

5) Clear plastic, hang-over-the-door shoe bags make great holders for craft and home school supplies.

6) Keep a central desk caddy for the stapler, tape, scissors, and stray pencils and pens.

7) Hooks are easily purchased just about anywhere, and they’re great to hang clipboards on!

Plastic wall pockets can serve the same purpose.

9) Every morning build in “cleaning time” for the whole family. This home school subject is taught daily to keep Mom happy and less stressed!

10) Take one day per week and use it as your home school planning time. Fridays are nice. Yep – one whole day. Your children can work on reading, crafts, play or individual projects. This day is necessary for sanity, so please set it aside religiously!

11) Communicate and model your expectations for a certain task. Tell your child, show your child, and have him repeat it back to you. The few seconds this takes can save lots of frustration and “having to do it all over again”.

Of course, if real learning is occurring, life won’t stay perfectly organized all the time. But organization does equal sanity sometimes, and any idea for keeping school organized is worth a second look!

Home Schooling and Depression

by Lisa Preston

The Valley of Depression. The trip can happen so quickly, we wonder how we got there. How can a person have a normal life one minute and the next be robbed of every ounce of hope – and all without a precipitating event?

Like dealing with the anguish of grief, we somehow roll out of bed and walk through the familiar numbly. Somehow, slowly, meals are made, clothes washed, tables cleaned. We force a smile, a word of praise. All the while drowning in a sea of tears and hopelessness.

I don’t know why some of us face the blackness of depression. Perhaps it’s what St. John of the Cross refers to as the “dark night of the soul”. But I do know one thing from experience. Even though far from feeling it, we can know perfectly that Christ holds us closely and that the darkness will dissipate in its time.

Author and speaker Jim Rohn often talks about seasons. Life is not all winter, all spring. The time we face now is a passing season. Depression is not permanent. It lasts only for a season.

So what do we do? Winter is hard. Do we pray for a quick end to this process? That the groundhog won’t see its shadow and warmth is just around the corner?

It’s hard enough to be a parent- but home schooling during this time? Are you kidding?

Sometimes it’s okay and even necessary to let go of our schedules and relax our efforts. And for those folks who worry that the kids in public school are leaving you in the dust, there are plenty of times public school teachers have to relax their efforts as well.

For instance, December and May are typically infertile! Kids, excited about Christmas and the summer break, function on a different level during these months. Perpetual Friday mode!

Teachers try to maintain the basics and hope something sticks. New material seems to go in one ear and out the other!

And I remember two years ago watching my mom linger with a rare kidney disease. Doctors estimated the rest of her life in weeks. No amount of medicine seemed to deaden her pain. I remember my panic while listening to her beg repeatedly, “Take me, Jesus. Take me, Jesus.”

On May 21, 2001, Mama saw His face. My third grade class did not have a dynamic teacher. Some days were just going through the motions. In all, nearly two months of the year my class had a substitute.

Do you know – those kids learned anyway. They tested no higher or lower than other students. As educator Charlotte Mason emphasized, kids learn remarkably well without our intervention.

If you are facing the night 24-7, I can promise you
1) God hold you close, aware of every heartbeat, of every numb and painful thought
2) The sun will come out again. This depression is only a season. In time it will fade away.
3) Your children will make it. They’ll learn without our best-made plans.

Pray for God’s wisdom and for complete surrender on your part. He may provide for you through medical intervention. Several medications exist to help balance the chemicals in our brains that can become so out-of-sync. Please be open to visiting your doctor.

You may have to enter a season of workbooks, independent reading, and educational videos. Remember, it’s only for a while. And your children will learn. (Especially to appreciate you!)

Perhaps another family member can shoulder more of the load for awhile. Keep praying, my friend. God hears and responds to numb prayers as easily as He does to vibrant ones. Let us pray that He will help us and our families to love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. He can and will answer.

Even in the dark.

The Proverbs 31 Woman: Would She Recycle Everything?

by Lisa Preston

Ever felt so overwhelmed and out of control that you just collapsed, hanging to a thread of hope that God’s arms would be there to catch you? Then after spending time with the Father you discovered all the pressures and worries were placed on you by you and not Him?

Why do we feel we have to meet every need of every person in our family? Who said we have to be and do it all?

Enter the Proverbs 31 Lady. Love her or hate her. Her picture is bound to get on your nerves at some time or another.

There’s this subconscious need to “be like her if you’re going to be a Christian”. Often accompanied by an overwhelming sense of not measuring up. Who was this woman anyway?

I honestly have to laugh when I read Proverbs 31:10. “Who can find a virtuous woman?” it begins. Sounds like she’s not your everyday three-leafed clover. You have to look hard to find her.

And Solomon, owner of the world’s largest harem, seemed to have looked for a looong time. After hundreds of women he still asks, “Who can find…” That cracks me up.

Cultural differences mandate closer inspection of the Scriptural principles. We could never be exactly like this lady. Can you imagine this dinner conversation?

“What’d you do today, Honey?”

“Well, Sweet Husband, I’ve been considering this field, and today I bought it. Four hundred fifty acres of prime farmland.”

“That’s nice.”

That’s some big cookie jar she’s been stashing!

What are the inner qualities of Mrs. Proverbs 31?

It seems to me that this wife is

1) trustworthy

2) hardworking

3) generous and sensitive to the needy

She

1) takes care of her family’s need for food

2) works to provide for her family

3) speaks with wisdom and kindness

4) watches over her household

If we ponder these principles, the legalism that often creeps along side us fades. Legalism assumes this woman

1) has a spotless house – (Okay, she had maidservants, so maybe this one is true)

2) makes every meal from scratch

3) never throws out a Cool Whip container

4) doesn’t groan when she gets up off the floor

5) merely smiles, and her children rush to obey

Let’s be realistic. Assuming one can find (vs. 10) this virtuous woman, she first of all is human. Imperfect.

She has hormones and cycles and will go through menopause. Sometimes she sticks her foot in her mouth and wishes she could takes back hurtful comments. She will occasionally cry for no reason at all. The Proverbs 31 Lady has bad hair days and sometimes gets up on the wrong side of the bed. The same children who “rise and call her blessed” know not to cross her on these days.

This lady also loves her family and provides for their needs. She listens and hugs and gives kisses and bandaids. When a neighbor is ill, she takes over a casserole and talks awhile. She trains her children to do what’s right and teaches them about God. She’s honest and tries to keep gossip out of the conversation. She learns by falling and then getting back up.

Wiping noses and bottoms and cleaning up more messes than she creates is part of the portrait. Maybe she is worn out and has to depend on the help of others while battling cancer. She may have a chemical imbalance and have to take an anti-depressant.

She’s real.

How do we become virtuous? Jesus reveals the way when He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.”

Only through daily surrender and seeking Him can it happen. Using our own strength is futile. Giving our day to Jesus … asking Him to help us love Him and others … you and I can do that.

The Proverbs 31 Lady isn’t so intimidating after all.

Maybe she doesn’t have to be that hard to find.