Homeschooling with Purpose

I've been reading some blogs today - lots of 'rejuvenated' homeschooling mommies blogging today =) This is a good thing. 

I remember convention time as a time away with my husband where we regained focus for the coming year and were strengthened with the advice and encouragement of battle worn mom's and dad's telling us homeschooling in worth the fight, the sacrifice, the hard days - because the end result is priceless.

More and more though, I read feel good messages to home schooling moms that seem to have forgotten that which was hard fought and battle won, they keep saying words like 'freedom', but I don't think that word means what you think it means.   

Here is one example of a blogger today:

"I don’t think God meant for us—or our children—to struggle under the weight of someone else’s idea of a “proper” education.
I think—just maybe—He meant for us to be free.

Free to read aloud. All day if we want to. Even with our high schoolers.
Free to draw and create.
Free to discover the beauty of Creation—unhurried—and without the expectation of a report that is due about our “discovery” at the end of the next day.
Free to forget about preschool.
Free to take a hot chocolate walk for no reason.
Free … to know Him more."

We are BLESSED to live in a country where we can home educate.  Most of us would identify a calling in our lives to home school our kids and that call requires we give our utmost effort to the cause.  Does homeschooling allow us and our children the freedom to know God more? Absolutely! Does this freedom mean that we should shrug off any idea of a conventional education... I'm not so sure.  (Insert Proverbs Chapter 8 here)

I don't think God meant us to become slaves of anything, including an education ideal.  That ideal could be an ideal which says all children must go to college, or all children must study and learn one way.  That ideal could also be that we should be more 'free' in our education.

I think - I think for certain - that God means for us to seek his will in all things.  I have three children, they are each different and unique and have each required a slightly different approach to their education.  One child self educates quite nicely. One child loves delight directed learning, and therefore hates math. One child loves math and also puppies.  If the freedom this mom is referring to is the freedom to seek God's will, develop a plan for each individual child and then educate them in a way which pleases the Lord, then I could agree with her wholeheartedly.

 But that isn't the freedom to which she refers - she refers to the freedom of the grasshoppers.

"In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

     "Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"

     "I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."

     "Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "We have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

     When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger - while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for days of need."

Proverbs 24:30-36

30 I walked by the field of a lazy person,
    the vineyard of one with no common sense.*
31 I saw that it was overgrown with nettles.
    It was covered with weeds,
    and its walls were broken down.
32 Then, as I looked and thought about it,
    I learned this lesson:
33 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;
    scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

*emphasis mine

I have no desire to place mom's under the yoke of slavery to an education ideal - but I do have the desire that they test and see what is good!

I sat in on a lecture several years ago in which the speaker suggested that we stop doing math if it caused conflict in our homes.  This is the sort of ridiculous and harmful advice I hear more and more in homeschooling circles.  While it may be popular to play outside instead of complete math worksheets, and you may have the freedom to do this,  I doubt it is always beneficial.  

Having home educated my students for a number of years I have met a number of homeschooling families.  In my mind, there are a few who stand out.  Some stand out for all the right reasons, well balanced and educated children, happy families who raised happy children who started their own happy families.  
And then there are those who stand out for the wrong reasons.  High school students who can't do simple math and graduate high school to have their parents encourage them to move out and find a job.  They ended up working fast food. No career, no future prospects.  Adults who are functionally illiterate - they can not read instructions to a board game.  And while these are extreme circumstances, I bet that if the moms of these children could go back, they might do things a little bit differently.  They might spend a little more time on curriculum and less time on 'freedom' because they would know that this kind of 'freedom' ultimately results in slavery. 

I fear that these feel good bloggers set moms up to fail and help create an online community of false revelry.  I see this on social media where it seems some mommies compete to see who can post the most pictures of their children playing outside or doing the most nature walks. 

I pray that moms will turn away from that which delights itching ears and turn towards the truth.  The truth is homeschooling can be hard, it is a calling, a lifestyle, and a commitment - not something to be taken lightly.  And while there will be days where we drink hot chocolate and play in the snow, those days will need to be far outnumbered by days where we study math facts and practice writing.

Should we delight in creation, in sunny days and time spent with those we love - YES! Of course we should!  Should we do so to the exclusion of preschool? Or the exclusion of rigorous high school studies? Absolutely not!  

Blessings, 
Amanda

PS - Here is a GREAT convention that will encourage you to Teach Them Diligently! 
https://teachthemdiligently.net/homeschool-conventions/2015/sandusky-oh