First things First in Home Education

By Terrie Runolfson

 

The first step in home education is coming to the realization that we, the parents are ultimately responsible for our children’s education, not the state, not the church and not Mrs. Leatherby at the school. Parents must decide what is best for their children and be brave about it, especially if it is not popular is the eye’s of society. 

We are in a society where we ‘contract out’ many services to make our lives easier or more convenient, for example; dry cleaning, meals, child care, yard care and house cleaning and for century’s now-education.  But in most cases we pay for services that we are continually disappointed in and find ourselves saying we could have done the job better and saved the money.  The cleaning lady leaves and women find themselves knocking down cobwebs and wiping baseboard down, the yard guy leaves and out the rake comes. 

Well, the same is true with schooling. The sixth grade child at school gets an A in math, yet over the summer this same sixth grader is learning multiplications at home. People are just not getting what they pay for. Cobwebs and yard clippings are one thing, but a child’s wasted time, day after day and year after year with very little measurable results are a lot harder to clean up.  It is at this point one must ask “well, whose fault is that?”

 

What a great awakening it was when we realized that is was our fault. And at that point the decision was made to take matters into our own hands and restructure education and bring it home.

The first thing decided upon was that the children’s education was going to be well rounded, which meant learning not only about academics but also about social science, spirituality, physical work and play, life skills and developing a talent of their choice.

The next thing that was decided was that no matter what we were learning about at home, their learning and progress would never harm our relationship.  If tension built up from frustration, we would back off the subject rather than let our love for one another be damaged.  Crying at the kitchen table over a math lesson was just not worth it.

The third thing we decided was that the subject matter that we would focus on most would be the subject matter that would mean the most when we met our Maker, which was character development, spirituality, service to others, and a true love for mankind (see Matthew 22: 37-39.)

Four, we worked on our environment. Providing a loving and positive environment for the children to work and function in was very important to the whole family.  Keeping the house clean and quiet and organized is a huge factor in learning.  The children could find the tools necessary for learning, in a quiet setting in which they could concentrate and a system to organize their results for a sense of accomplishment. Clutter and chaos can be such a distraction and very little is actually accomplished. 

And finally we decided that aside from the basic’s reading, writing, and arithmetic that  we would let our children learn those things that interested them and also learn those things that they showed natural ability and talent in.  We found that children really liked learning if they were interested in the subject. They would actually spend more time in and dig deeper in to the subject of interest.  This decision was the hardest to adapt to because we truly had to trust the children, and abandon traditional educational subjects  and curriculum textbooks.

Whatever the teaching and learning style that develops with each child in your home, remember the child must feel successful and be happy with himself/herself and see their hard work pay off.