My Breakthrough Homeschool Life Perspective
My Homeschool Life Perspective Changed
Recently, my life has been going through a change. I wrote about the new normal of my family a while ago, and since that time, things have continued to change for me. With change in a mom’s life also comes change in a child’s life. This has allowed me a chance to reflect on what matters most in life. What I’ve discovered is that book learning is the least important life lesson a child can learn, the Holy Bible being the one exception to that conclusion.
3 Homeschool Life Perspective Goals Every Christian Homeschooler Should Have
I remember a while ago a lady that I know who is a professor at a local college asked me what my educational goals were for my son. At the time he was maybe 7 or 8 years old. I was a bit stunned. I mean, at that age my goal was to just get through the school year, feel like I challenged his gifted brain enough, and make sure we met all of the state requirements. I wasn’t really thinking of educational goals as in: what direction do I want his educational career to take?
Since that time I’ve wondered about her question. It’s been kind of looming in the back of my mind as some sort of dark cloud that I needed to deal with or else homeschooling wouldn’t be the success I have hoped it would be.
With the changed that I’ve recently been dealing with comes a change in my life perspective and subsequently my homeschool life perspective. So that has led me to 3 educational goals that I feel are most important for my child. In my opinion they are 3 educational goals that every Christian parent, especially homeschoolers should set for their children.
- Goal #1 Help your child learn what they need to do to attain eternal life. (Find answers to this in the Bible.)
- Goal #2 Help your child discover what their personal talents are in order to serve God, their families, the church, and their community.
- Goal #3 Help your child learn what they need to do to and how to be a good provider and/or homemaker for their family.
In our society, sadly, we’ve come to believe that the end goal of education is a completed college career that leads to a successful business career, that leads to a successful retirement. Which, for some, might be the right path to a successful life as an adult. But life is so much more that a college career. There is marriage, family, and community. We have mistaken a career for life. But life isn’t about a career, the goal of a job is to provide for our life. It isn’t to become our life. As a society we’ve missed the mark and let career be the end all of our life.
“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” James 4:14, NKJV
When we look at a career, a job, as the means by which we provide for our life our perspective changes. The focus becomes, our life. Life is but a vapor. What are you going to do with the time you’ve been given? For me, a homeschool mom, I want my son to have an understanding of the time he’s been given, his life, and what is he going to do with his life in order to reach his eternal goal?
Really the end goal of education, especially a Christian education, is to lead to a right relationship with God so that when we leave this life we can return to our Creator Father.
5 Questions to Help Stay Focused on Homeschool Life Perspective
With my new change of educational perspective comes 5 questions I want to ask myself when I am planning for my son’s daily, weekly, monthly and yearly homeschool lessons and activities.
- Does this allow my son to draw closer to or further away from God?
- Does this help my son learn to love others?
- Does this teach my son the importance of using his time wisely?
- Does this teach my son an important life skill?
- Will this help my son in the future to be a good provider for his family?
As I move forward toward another homeschool year these questions will be at the forefront of my mind. I am pretty far behind as far a planning goes, but that’s o.k. because I know that both my son and I have learned a great deal about life over these past 6 months. So while I’m not quite ready to face another academic year, with my change in perspective I know that it schooling is not about how much reading we can do in a year or how much math we can accomplish in 9 months, it’s about learning to use our time wisely so that we reach our end goal of heaven.
This post is a part of the iHomeschool Network What Mommy Learned in Homeschool This Year Round Up.
What are your educational goals?
6 Comments
Natasha
I think you are spot on! We focus so much on something that helps us provide for life that we forget the more important things! Character building is for life, learning a life of service is so important in taking up the goal of the great commission and then there is the real, honest relationship with God and the people in our lives. I have to remind myself very often what is important in life when I get sidetracked with the “extras” or when I feel I am failing my child’s education. Thank you for sharing your important goals! It reminded me of what’s important to me and my family.
Renee Aleshire Brown
Natasha, thank you so much for your comment. It really touched my heart. Yes, the “extras” can definitely sidetrack us from our chief goals.
Emily
Absolutely love this post… so much wisdom here. Indeed, it does all come down to using our time here wisely.
Emily recently posted…Learning Curve: Two Kids at the Table
Renee Aleshire Brown
Thank you so much, Emily. I really appreciate your kind words.
Michele
What a beautiful post! You expressed my thoughts exactly. Especially in light of recent events in our world that show even more of a shift away from God and His commands, I have felt impressed to memorize passages of Scripture with my children, not just singular verses. I have said to my husband that all we’re going to do next year in homeschooling is Bible and math. In actuality, we’ll include other things, but honestly, the need to get more and more of the Bible internalized in me and in my children has been pressing on my heart. When it’s all said and done, only what is done for Christ will last! Blessings on you and your family : )
Renee Aleshire Brown
So true. There was a time when the Bible was literally chained. But God’s word endured, didn’t it? How? By those who wrote it upon their hearts, and penned it for later generations. God’s word endures forever. 1 Peter 1:25.