Educating Today

In my last post we talked about some of the important discoveries
I made during our 20+ years of homeschooling.

Remember school buildings and specialized equipment do not
educate or teach. Neither do extra curricular activities. Some of those
things would be nice to have, but they certainly are not necessary for your child to be well educated.

Next we talked about your home, your community and the world truly
becomes your classroom. You can expand your child’s horizons far beyond the walls of a classroom.

Third, your child has the opportunity to truly get to know his mom and dad, siblings and grandparents. Your children will be well grounded in who they are and where they’re going, and you will have the opportunity to impart your God-given faith and values to your children.

I also learned that my job was to “work myself out of my job.” My job was not to teach my children all the facts and figures known to man.

My job was two-fold. One, to do my best to stay out of God’s way of guiding and directing my children. Two, my job was to teach them “how” to learn and empower them to be life long self-directed (following God’s leadership) learners.

In the homeschooling environment, constant interaction with others is the norm. Constant communication and discussion is crucial in developing critical thinking and leadership skills.Real life education occurs on a daily basis.

God will coordinate opportunites for our children that we could never imagine.The presence of the living God involved in the daily walk of your homeschool-Who could ask for a better Superintendent of Education than that.

So the answer to the question, “What should your classroom look like,”
Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and a pastor during the 1800s said, “The mother’s heart is the child’s classroom.”

Now that gives us something to think about.

I love homeschooling. I did it for 24 years. I promote it. I encourage parents to do it. I mentor new homeschool moms in their new adventure and I encourage homeschool parents who are in the trenches right now. Why is this so important to me? Because I know God is training a generation of people.

Years ago when my husband and I went to our first homeschool seminar, the speaker jokingly said, “God is using homeschooling to grow the parent’s up.” Well, he hit the nail right on the head. That statement is so true! If you’ve been homeschooling for any length of time, you’ll agree with me.

Before we can teach our young people to be self-motivated learners, we have to be one.

Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

So how do we teach them to make wise decisions and develop the confidence they need to influence the world? We train them to be self-motivated rather than drag them through life kicking and screaming.

One of the best ways to get started developing self-motivated learners is by reading books together that not only educate us, but inspire us to think creatively and to take action. We’ll be discussing some of these books during the next few weeks.

So check back here often to see what’s going on.

~Susan~

Being a good leader starts in your mind. Scripture teaches that as a man thinketh, so is he.

What we think about plays a big part in what we do or don’t accomplish.

This is such an important concept to teach our kids (and ourselves).

The Man Who Thinks He Can

by Walter D. Wintle

If you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you’d like to win, but think you can’t, it’s almost a cinch that you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.

For out in the world we find success begins with a fellow’s will;

It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.

You’ve got to think high to rise.

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go to the strongest or fastest man;

But sooner or later the man who wins,

Is the one who thinks he can.

Have you ever been falsely accused of something?

Have you ever been criticized?

Matthew 5:11 says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

If you’re doing good things with the right intentions and you’re being honorable and fair, sometimes you may be criticized by the most unlikely people or maybe by someone you have never even met.

Most of the time the criticisms come because you are “doing something.”

Teddy Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory or defeat.”

So if you are doing something noble, true and right, and you’re being criticized, Celebrate!

Most people never do anything; they never take action.

Copywriting guru Ray Edwards, says that C.R.I.T.I.C. stands for Can’t Really Invent Things; Instead Criticizes.

Remember, your place “shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory or defeat.”

The only way to be sure you are never criticized is not to do anything.

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph

Woodcrafter’s Carpenter Shop

Nazareth   25922

From: Jordan Management Consultants

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; we have not only run the results through our computer, but we also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and our vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully. As part of our service, we made some general comments for your guidance… This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff’s opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

• Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.
• Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.
• The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.
• Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
• We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.
• James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely,

Jordan Management Consultants

In his book, “Eating Problems For Breakfast,” Tim Hansel includes a humorous, fictional letter to Jesus in His search of the twelve disciples. If Jesus had hired a management consultant firm to do the picking and choosing of the Twelve, this letter from the consulting firm tells Jesus who they think would be the best candidate.

When we talk about helping our children develop leadership qualities, this letter gives us something to think about.

Do your children act bored and they spend a lot of their school time pouting?

Where do they do their schoolwork — at a messy kitchen table or do you have a contrived schoolroom with desks in the basement?

Do you gorge them on workbooks and textbooks that will choke off almost all freedom to think?

Do you get upset if they ever interrupt the tedium with a creative question?

Are you suspicious or irritated if they want to pursue an idea of their own?

When they share their creative ideas with you, do you suspect that they are pulling a trick on you to get away from their books?

Do you feel like you have to keep your children in academic, behavioral and social straitjackets?

Do you feel like you sacrifice your time to home school your children?

Do you stay up at night into the wee hours of the morning to make sure everything is organized correctly so you can educate your children the next day?

Do you insist that they master all the text book facts so that they will be able to sail through the SAT tests?

Is every day a battle to get your kids out of bed and do they grudgingly start their schoolwork?

By being extremely structured in your homeschool, you may be blocking the creative thoughts and activities that your children have buried down inside of them.

By continuing to follow this pattern, you are developing followers, not leaders; you have almost totally blocked entrepreneurship and they certainly don’t have any time to serve their community.

Every once in awhile, we need to re-evaluate why we homeschool and decide if we’re still on track or do we need to make some changes.