Together

One necessity for sanity during any transitional time is to go through it together. God designed us this way and called people to encourage one another in love and good deeds. He taught us the strength of a cord instead of a single thread and, most beautiful of all, He reminds us He will never leave nor forsake us. When I first began homeschooling in 1987, the emphasis was on learning together. Though some people selected to segregate their own children into grade levels, it was a more common practice to learn together whatever you could learn together. Part of the reason was the best resources, at that time, were not readily age-segregated. Education publishers were still wary of homeschooling so moms turned to their favorite low-cost alternatives--Libraries and used book sales! We located wonderful books that engaged our children. Family discussions (a.k.a. tests) happened because each member had something to contribute to a subject. The other reason had to do with TIME. If a mom was having to do most of the preparation, she could consolidate that preparation by having the children learn the same subject with minor adjustments to the level appropriate to the student. Sadly, people want homeschooling to look more and more like classroom schooling. This is understandable because it is what most of us are comfortable with because it is what we experienced and, honestly, a lot of homeschooling is now done without conviction so we pursue what is "normal". Now standardized, graded curriculum is widely available to homeschooling families. Not only that, the best sellers are those that teach the child directly or allow the child to work independently. This independent work ability has now reach a glorified status among homeschoolers and it is something that people express proudly. It is essential that our children can learn independently but don't our children innately learn about their interests independently without difficulty? Do we really need to teach them independence? God designed us to learn within a relationship: Father and son; Older woman to younger woman, Mother and child; Pastor-Teacher and the church. I am challenged if this principle applied only to spiritual things or am I willing to consider that it also applies to academic challenges? Wait a minute, one of the reasons we homeschool is to keep from separating the spiritual from the academic! Ah, together, even this we can do together in a relationship and be strengthened to love and good works, become a cord that cannot be broken, and remind one another that God never leaves nor forsakes us (even when facing that hard assignment!). Suggested Resource: Multi-Level Teaching is for YOU! (mini-book) by Joyce Herzog http://www.joyceherzog.info/Joyce_Herzog/Teacher_Helps.html Get her talk of the same title--inspirational and refreshing--below is one source of this talk: http://www.oceanetwork.org/tapes/speakers.cfm?id=31