be inspired and empowered to homeschool!
Today we watched the “Homeschool Awakening” documentary. Each of us are writing a page on what we thought of the movie. I will include what I liked, how I think that I could integrate some of the ideas into our homeschool journey, and what inspired me the most. There are a lot of quotes that I love from the movie, like this one that really demonstrates the reality and truth behind homeschooling:
“So I think there's so many expectations for us in our culture getting the right job buying the right house driving the right car and it's false it's not real but the real wealth is your family and so home schooling is a great way to really invest in your family” (Homeschool Awakening 1:29:49)
Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” (NKJV) Homeschool should be mainly about instilling a love and knowledge of God in your children. I was once leery of this idea, I felt ashamed that maybe I wasn’t the right person to do this, that I would fail this most important mission. But God calls us into closer communion with Him in so many ways. He uses broken people to do His will, and it is by His strength that we are able to accomplish anything! Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (NKJV) That includes homeschool!
When thinking about creating a homeschool environment, this movie taught me that it is about “…wild, adventure, freedom and creativity…” (homeschool awakening). I love this idea, this feels so much better than the current state of our homeschool environment, which consists of assignments in Bible, History, Literature, Language Arts, Science, Spelling, Math, Journal, and various writing exercises. I do value education, and I feel a lot of pressure to teach my children what they are supposed to learn. But this movie opened my mind to think what if it is not what they are supposed to learn, but what God wants them to learn, what they are born to learn? I really want my kids walking away from homeschool saying “that was epic” and I have serious doubts that they will think that with our current schedule. I am inspired to try something new, to break free of the expectations I have put on myself via the world, and create a memorable, epic experience for my children to walk away with. What does that look like? More time outside, more time in a community, more time travelling, more time talking to the kids about what they love, identifying with the kids their learning styles, their passions, their interests and educating them towards those things. Yes, it seems scary to me. Yes this is out of my comfort zone. But isn’t that how God works? He calls us into the unknown and challenges us, asking us to trust Him. Like Peter “ ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water’, So He said ‘Come’. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” (Mathew 14 28-29 NKJV). We are called by God into impossible situations, but through our faith in Him, our trust in Him and keeping our eyes on Him- He makes the impossible, possible.
During the last part of the movie, the narrator talked about the National Monument to the Forefathers. Education is on the same level as law and morality. For the founding citizens of our country, education was a pillar in the development of our society, and in the depiction of education, is a mother, sitting up proudly crowned with a wreath of victory. She is educating her children in the ways of the Lord, God first. “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (psalm 111:10 NKJV) And because of this , she is victorious. What a countercultural way of thinking in terms of today’s America!! We have become so lost, so jaded, so divided, so worldly. We have lost the principles of the values of our nation when it was founded, allowed the government to direct our children’s steps and thinking. It is time to take back our power, and homeschool is an amazing opportunity to do just that!!
I am so excited to integrate these principles into our homeschool adventure. I am nervous, but with the Lord, all things are possible. My goal is to have children who thrive. We want to tailor their education towards what my kids want and need individually, to recapture precious and valuable time with my kids, to build a life upon Jesus, to teach my kids to know God for who He truly is and have a unique relationship with Him, to help my kids understand who God created them to be, and teaching them to place their identity in Christ alone. We have one life, and our kids spend most of it as adults. I don’t want to give any more time to the institution of worldly education, instead I want to have epic adventures with my kids as they learn everything they need to learn to be smart, successful and well rounded adults. We CAN teach our children, and we should.
