We believe each child has their own “individual” style (God instilled design, and purpose in life)… God created us. God has a specific (and individual) purpose or plan for each human He has created. Just because they are in the same family (or classroom) doesn’t mean they will have the same (or similar) purpose in life…. We believe God instills within us the LOVE (and passion or drive) for that of which our purpose (or direction in life) is to be…. “Man makes the plans, but God directs the paths."
How can the public school think that 20-30 kids (much less a school of 800) all need to learn and know all the same things?? We are all gifted and talented individually, as God designed. In our home school, we have always allowed “self-directed” learning…. Meaning if our child has an interest, desire, or curiosity for something, we allow them to explore that. Kids are BORN with a “natural” instinct to WANT to learn (from birth)… We didn’t have to “teach” them to roll over, or to reach for a rattle, or to walk, or even to talk…. Everything they learned from infancy they did so because they had an “inner drive” to expand their horizons and grow and learn (that is instilled within us)…. Little toddlers love to learn new things and we don’t have to “pressure” them to learn, they do it naturally.
Children explore, they experiment, they love books, they have a natural curiosity to discover and learn. What I’ve seen happen is that we get them in “school” and start to “force” things into them, and we pressure them to learn things that they may not be ready for, or that they have absolutely NO DESIRE (or no need) to learn. Kids begin to feel frustrated, and stifled, some even start to hate school, hate learning, or at minimum get turned off by it. We can actually end up “stifling” their natural instinct to learn by trying to “force-feed” information into them. Many grow resentful of school…. Especially those who don’t have the same learning style as that of the “teacher” who is training them. We all have unique (God given) talents and gifts that people should be allowed to explore and grow as individuals.
In the early days, I was reading an encouraging book on home schooling, there was a question posed that has always stuck with me, it went something like this: As parents, we “helped” them learn to walk, talk, dress themselves, tie their shoes, learn their colors, learn vocabulary, learn their abc’s, all with success; so why is it that all of a sudden when a child becomes five years old parents are longer qualified to teach their own child? The government has us convinced that we are “unqualified” to teach. When in reality we’ve been doing it all day long. We have been guiding, encouraging, instructing, them to learn since infancy. A wise woman once asked me: “Who loves your children more than you do? Who wants the absolute best for your child, and who has the willingness to do whatever it takes to provide that?”.... Parents do. This was an encouraging thought to me.
I once read in the Bible: “unless the Lord builds (the house) you labor in vain”… I equate that to a person, and an education as well…. Unless God is the foundation, if we do not build upon the foundation of God, we labor in vain. Home schooling is a “calling” placed on parents by our Lord (the Holy Spirit). Home schooling is NOT for everyone. If your heart is not in it, and the Lord is not directing you, you will become discouraged and you will not succeed. However, if you have prayed through your decision, and you feel strongly (within your heart), that God is behind your desires (or pull) to home school, then HE (the Lord) will see you through, to completion. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”(Phillipians 4:13), and HE will provide the means, "and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Phillipians 4:19) . When God is for you… who can stop you?
