My
Introduction to Homeschooling
Shortly after my husband
and I were married, he introduced
me to a friend and Pastor. The Pastor and his
wife had three precious homeschooled children. Their children were loving
and pleasant to be with. They lived a few streets from
us, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them to our home.
It was this Divinely appointed introduction that convinced
me to homeschool all the children God would give to us (my husband was a long-time advocate of homeschooling).
Preschooling At
Home: The Beginning of The 'Official' Homeschool
When our first-born
reached preschool age I began
the 'official' homeschool process and bought preschool
’curriculum'. I was diligent in teaching her and by age 5, her reading skills were several years ahead.
Preschooling
At Home had been a breeze,
even considering the fact that we added two more children to our family and our
fourth was arriving imminently. We were just as excited with
the birth of our fourth child as we had been with the others, but
nineteen days later she was rushed to the ICU with a
life-threatening infection in her brain. It was touch and go
for three weeks and only through a miracle she survived. The infection took a huge toll on her brain tissue
(link to more about Amy below).
As I began to
reflect on our situation, I knew it would be tough to homeschool my
kindergartener and two preschoolers with Amy's medically challenging
condition. I imagine no one would have faulted me one
bit if I enrolled my kindergartener in a Christian school and the
two other children in Christian preschool. But God had
already been so faithful, why should I doubt Him, my husband
pointed out. He was right, so the momentary lack of confidence
was gone, and we continued on,
teaching and raising each our 4 children by faith, knowing God would
always be there for us. That precious little
miracle
child is now 5 1/2 years old and has blessed our
lives immensely. It is absolutely true, His faithfulness never ends.
God's
Faithfulness
My children and I
just finished watching a video called
'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'.
If you haven't seen the film, I encourage you to. It's
a true story of a girl who was told she was 'unfit' to be a
missionary in China. This 'unfit' young lady went to
China despite her
classification and rescued 100 orphaned children during the war.
It's an amazing story on her reliance in God's faithfulness.
Watching this movie was a good
reminder that God is faithful at all times, in all things. Despite what has
come our way or may come yours, we can count on His promises.
If for some reason you think you
cannot homeschool or, maybe you have been told you are unqualified or 'unfit'.
Maybe you have had a minor crisis or circumstances have risen that make homeschooling
seem impossible. Remember who in on the throne!
God is more than qualified to help you homeschool. He gave you
your children to raise and train up, and He will equip you.
Is God Calling
You to Share?
Is God calling
you to share the blessings of a Christian home education?
Can you
think of one family that might benefit by hearing about
homeschooling?
If so, encourage them to homeschool and refer
them to our website so we can send them a free DVD and brochure.
If you would like to help
families discover the blessings of a Christian home education either
through mentoring or having
outreaches, please
click here. We have held more than 40 outreaches in
our home and home church and we can help you get started.
_______________________
On Home School Heartbeat, Denise
Kanter, cofounder of an organization called Considering
Homeschooling Ministry™, talks about some of the issues surrounding the
decision to home educate.
Mike Smith:
Denise Kanter is with me today. Denise, what are some of the
challenges people face when considering homeschooling?
Denise Kanter:
One of the biggest challenges today with families of young
children is day cares and preschools and the temptation to put
their kids in these programs. These families are being told that
if their children go to preschool, they'll be better all-around
children, smarter, brighter, when in fact it has been shown that
the opposite is true. Another problem with these day cares and
preschools is that once the family begins using these programs,
the moms get used to the break and start developing hobbies, or
never learn to handle more than one child at home. And actually,
a lot of them go right back to work. So it becomes really
difficult for these moms to gain confidence to homeschool
because they put their kids in preschool and the preschool has
done everything or maybe they just don't want to change their
lifestyle. If they go into preschool, it's most often that
they'll just put them into public school when they become of
age. Considering Homeschooling: we consider ourselves a
mentorship program. We start right at God's Word and provide
them with Scripture. And Scripture's clear. When you share this
with parents, it seems that they understand and respect the
biblical commands to provide their children with a thorough,
Christian education away from ungodly peers, teachers, and
textbooks.
Mike:
Thank you, Denise. Until next time, I'm Mike Smith.
Free DVD
It
is time we get our kids out of the public schools."
What
does the Bible communicate concerning the responsibility of teaching
young Christian children? To find the answers to these questions and
more, you may want to consider joining the
