As I talk with homeschoolers, there is this overwhelming feeling from parents (moms AND dads) that the homeschooled child just isn’t learning enough. Now if the child truly has deficits, of course we should work to repair those. If the child is slow in particular areas, it is wise to make attempts to pull the child up to the level where he or she should be. However, I just want to encourage all of you that God has HIS OWN PLAN for your child. HIS plan may lead your child to a future in the military or on the missions field. HIS plan might be a career for your child. HIS plan may be for your daughter to become a stay-at-home mom one day. HIS plan may be something not quite so grand as any of these things. I certainly do not know what God’s plan is for your child, but I can assure you of one thing. God’s plan IS that your child draw closer to HIM and, in general, this is something that is best accomplished through the homeschool setting.

As you go about your day… As you LIVE life… As you train your child… In other words, as you HOMESCHOOL.. . I encourage you to remember that we are not told to make all the decisions for our children. We are not told to shield them from pain, disappointment or accountability. We’re not told to pick a career for him or her. We’re not EVEN told to make sure they can multiply, divide, understand Shakespeare, or find Asia on a map! We are told to TRAIN OUR CHILDREN IN THE WAY THEY SHOULD GO. Intelligence is not wisdom. Education can be a lot of things, but today most people have been taught to understand education as the ability to answer true / false, multiple choice, or matching questions in a workbook or on a test. This may show that the student has mastered test-taking skills (reasonable deduction to find the answer), but TRUE knowledge of something means that someone UNDERSTANDS it to the point that they have the ability to discuss it, describe it, or otherwise share the information with someone else as if they themselves had been transformed into the “teacher.”

I know that many of you sometimes believe that you’re doing a poor job, but the fact is that you are providing your children with the best education possible, even if it doesn’t always seem so.

Sonya Haskins   : )