By Mimi Rothschild
The core of home school, which is forgotten even in some good, solid Christian families, is Christianity. Just because the curriculum you follow does not introduce God and other Christian beliefs into the syllabus, does not mean you can’t include it in your daily home school routine.
It is a parent’s responsibility to teach Christianity to their children, and it is a duty of all Christians to share their faith with others. The best place to start sharing your faith is in your own home with your children. Home school allots a perfect time to include your faith beliefs during studies. Teaching Christianity during home schooling is part of God’s plan for reestablishing family life in today’s modern world.
Home school parents have understood that it is time to quit immersing ourselves in possessions, double income families and that it is time to invest in our children. It is the chief responsibility of parents to teach their children. Home schooling has quickly become a viable option for families—a way to instruct our children as students and teach them in the ways that we see fit. Christian families, who have less access to Christian-teaching centered schools, find sanctuary in home schooling. They now have the control over what their children are learning and how they are learning it. Now, parents can take the reins and teach curriculum to their children while instilling Christian values that are lacking in the educational system.
Non-Christian families are also touting the logistics of home schooling, claiming that it is a lack of secular education surrounding history, geography, grammar and literature. The fundamental motivation is the necessity of valid Christian instruction.
The United States is quickly becoming a secular democracy, which undermines and flat out ignores the rights of God in our society — one of the most elementary rights of man. Home schooling allows parents to teach Christian faith to their children, steeping them with moral values and a religious base that more mainstream educational institutions lack.
Home schooling recognizes the need for restoring family life through Christianity being taught as well as curriculum. Christian families are realizing the need to include themselves into their children’s lives — immersing themselves in the very fundamental aspects of their children’s lives — school. It is by teaching their children the likes of mathematics and sciences that they find routes towards God. Crevices in the educational breakdown that allow for segues to more Christian outlooks on problems and solutions.
By Mimi Rothschild
Christian homeschool parents can take advantage of the freedom to include Christianity in their children’s education. This is a choice that is not available to public schools, who must, by law, go by a strictly secular curriculum. Many parents choose to homeschool for this reason, because they believe that the teachings of Christianity are equally if not more important than all of the basic school subjects.
For Christian homeschoolers, teaching children about Christian principles and ideals is a priority; one that doesn’t have to conflict at all with regular school studies. On the contrary, Christian principles and teachings can be incorporated into all school subjects, opening the door for healthy and beneficial discussions. Your children can learn to read and learn bible stories at the same time. You can use examples from the bible to do math problems, such as “when it rained for forty days and forty nights, how many hours was that?”
When you include your Christianity in everything you do, including homeschool, you let your children know that their beliefs can be present in every part of their lives. They learn that the teachings of the bible and the teachings of Christ are relevant to everything that they learn, do, or say. There is no confusion about what is the “proper” time or place to practice their beliefs; in homeschool it is always okay.
Even though you can incorporate Christian teachings and principles into any of your children’s school subjects, it is also important to take some time where the learning is all about Christianity, and nothing else. You and your children can set aside time each day to have discussions about your faith, and as your children get older these discussions can become more in depth. Your children’s Christian beliefs will always be the most important aspect of their lives, and in the homeschool environment they can learn what this truly means. In homeschool, your children will know that they have religious freedom in all areas of their lives, and that it does not have to be “left at the doorstep” when they are being educated, as it does in public school. Your homeschool children will pray in their school, and will be able to acknowledge that all things come from God, and can openly thank him for this.
It is the Christian homeschool parents’ duty to teach their children about their faith, and help their children realize just how important it is in their everyday lives.
By Mimi Rothschild
The Bible says sin is what separates us from God. Even though our government is fond of separating God from every aspect of our lives except for church services, this is not what God intended for us. Colossians 3:17 puts it this way: And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. We can substitute the word “all” in the above verse with virtually any word and we should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. We should live in the name of the Lord Jesus and yes, we should homeschool in the name of the Lord Jesus.
That’s the beauty of homeschooling. We have the freedom to do all and teach all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Have you ever prayed over algebra? What about fractions? We could teach tithing as we teach fractions. As important as it is to teach our children about Christ and incorporate Bible lessons into our homeschool curriculum, we don’t have to separate the classes and wait until we’re having a Bible class to teach about Jesus.
Just as we can teach math in the supermarket, we can teach about Jesus during math class and science class and all of our homeschool classes. English class would be a great time to teach Job 27:4: Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall my tongue utter deceit. Not only do we need to teach the parts of speech in our homeschool English classes but how and how not to speak. As we teach about nouns and verbs, why not teach about truth and lies? That lesson could lead us into the teaching of the Ten Commandments.
The world likes to teach our children there is a time and place for God. Yet, Jesus teaches that time and place is all the time and everywhere. As we prepare our homeschool students for life out in the world on their own, it’s important to teach them there is no separation of Christ and life. Look at the damage being done today by the separation of the Lord Jesus and sex education. This is the very reason many of us homeschool our children.
As we are to “put on Christ” so are we to teach Christ. Our homeschool and our home should be Christ’s classroom every day and every class.
By Mimi Rothschild
With more parents becoming disillusioned by traditional teaching methods and the public education system, it’s no wonder that many are considering homeschooling as a viable alternative. Public school in North America is no longer doing its job academically, physically, and more importantly, it’s failing morally and spiritually. In addition, education in general has largely become the state’s business, and the state public education authorities tend to assume they are the regulators of education, even if children attend a private or a homeschool.
However, many parents who homeschool their children believe God has given them the primary responsibility for their children’s education. They take that responsibility seriously, raising their children outside of the conventional education system and within God’s standards, teaching right from wrong, biblical principles and character growth, which is absent and even rejected within public schools.
Homeschooling is the best choice for Christian children and families as the Scriptures clearly model a homeschool example. The Bible illustrates educational principles that support homeschooling as not only a viable alternative but a preferred choice to conventional schooling. To begin with, the Bible says children belong to God, but He has commissioned their parents with the authority and responsibility of raising them and teaching them according to His Word. A homeschool environment allows families to follow this commandment. Nowhere in the Bible does it say the state or government or any earthly authorities besides parents have the authority to raise and teach children.
Besides parents being the educational authorities in their children’s lives, which the homeschool environment supports, Scripture also clearly indicates there are certain conditions to be met with respect to educating children. For example, parents are meant to teach their children about God and His principles and commandments at every opportunity—not just “classroom time.” Having a homeschool is great because of the flexibility, and families are not limited to the same confines that exist in public schools. Every moment and everywhere they go can be a learning opportunity!
In addition, the Bible says parents must train their children to not only know about Christianity and believe as a Christian, but to think as a Christian. Homeschooling allows parents the opportunity to do just that, but public schools often teach in a way that negates Christian thinking. Furthermore, while parents are instructed by God’s Word to provide a biblically-based education, which having a homeschool allows them to do, they are also supposed to protect their children from the negative socialization found in the public school system. Parents who choose to homeschool their children often note the anti-Christian and anti-God atmosphere in public schools and desire to protect their homeschoolers from that.
Homeschooling is not only the best choice parents can make for educating their children; it’s the right, biblically mandated choice. Scripture supports the homeschool environment, and parents as the primary responsibility and authority for raising and educating their children according to God’s laws and overall design for the lives of His children and Christian homeschool families. Homeschooling is God’s ideal.
By Mimi Rothschild
Should you allow your children to attend youth group? This is a question that is posed by many Christian families as their children become old enough to go to youth group. The question may be differently answered for home schooled students than for children who attend main stream schooling.
Many Christian families do not allow their children to attend youth group as they feel it is more important for their children to be a part of the church as a whole instead of being segregated by their age into a separate group. Home schooled children look to their parents to be role models—at home and at church. Is it pertinent to allow your home schooled children to attend youth group instead of regular church or to allow them to participate in the youth group activities?
Many home schooling parents keep their children with them during the regular church services to build a routine with them in their Christianity. It seems to some that to send the children away to youth group during regular services is to keep them out of the church for 18 years and then spend the next 18 years trying to get them back.
Going to church and/or youth group is similar to home schooling. It is a time that should be spent with families—you can be your own youth group with your home schooled child! Youth group activities can be altered to be a family event—something that you and your home schooled children do together. Why not have pajama parties at home? It can really help to open the lines of communication and may present new inroads for education and can flow into your home school schedule.
The family idea, as designed by God, was created with the foundation of society that includes church. Church is meant to be one of the foundations of family and by segregating your children from that, their foundations are not as complete.
Some people will say that by not allowing your children to attend youth group and homes schooling them is sheltering them from life and from their peers. On the contrary, others will argue that it’s not segregating them, but raising them to believe they are part of a whole family unit—one that includes Christianity and God. Whether or not you allow your home schooled children attend youth group or not is a decision to be made within the family unit. You are the role model for your home schooled child in education—why not in Christian education and church as well?