Our homeschool mission
Some time at the beginning of the past school year I recieved an e-mail from a witty friend of mine that ended with the words, “Hope your time is fruitful and wonderful as you dare to go where few will go … BACK TO SCHOOL WITH YOUR KIDS!” I chuckled, somewhat ruefully, when I read that as I realized that many parents look forward to the end of summer as the time when their life gets easier and less hectic since their children go back to school and are no longer under their feet.
However as homeschoolers, the end of summer is a bit daunting. We do not look forward to a “break from our children,” rather we look forward to going with them through the next year of their educational adventure.
In fact, we are in charge of it. It is up to us. Those words put me in mind of another kind of mission statement. Remember this?
Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilization, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
I’ve seen the new “Star Trek” movie and loved the way it showed Capt. Kirk, Spock, Scotty et al who fascinated me as a girl. I was delighted to see the imaginings of some screenwriter as to what the Enterprise crew might have been like when they were younger. The mission of the Star Trek crew is not unlike our challenge as home educators.
We, too, explore strange new worlds. Sometimes we are in totally unfamiliar territory. We wish for clear step-by-step directions. Then we hear a voice, “This is the way, walk in it.” It may not be an audible voice but we know that we are not alone. God is gracious to provide so much support in the form of friends, publications, support groups (local and online) and of course, God gives us His word and gives us His thoughts as we seek Him in the training of our children.
Sometimes our children act like aliens who do not understand our language or our ways of doing things. Instead of saying, “Beam me up, Scotty,” we should take a deep breath, commandeer the fruit of patience and peace as we once again explain a difficult concept or idea to our children or take them to Scripture and let God’s Word minister to them and to us.
We too are seeking out new life and new civilizations. We are not content to let our children think like the world thinks. We want them to be different, to be salt and light. We are attempting to infuse their educational experience with life, with hands-on lessons, with living books, with encounters with real people and with God’s truths. We are doing our best to make our home a place of lifetime learning as well as a haven for our family.
“Where no man has gone before” is not exactly true. By God’s good providence we have the benefit of walking where others have blazed the trails. The resources available to us boggle the mind. Our recent expo/curriculum fair was evidence of the bounty of choices to help us educate our children. However, most of us are first-generation homeschoolers and we are often the first in our extended families to choose this method of education. We often have to justify our choices and put up with a bit of “constructive criticism” from those who care about us.
Thankfully we have so many witnesses surrounding us and so much evidence of the benefits and blessings of home education. For those who really want to know, the research overwhelmingly shows that home educated students surpass their peers in testing and in college performance.
But that is not why we homeschool.
Our real mission is to equip our children with God’s truths about the world, to form their character to be like Christ, to help them find their role in the building of God’s kingdom here on earth. We want their education to fit them to be useful vessels so that whatever God has for their future, they will be able to do all to His honor and His glory.
I do hope this finds you thriving in your homeschool, with you and your children looking forward to the year you have planned. If you are new, please do take a look at the article on Five Homeschooling Must Haves (see Page 7). Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest graciously allowed us to reprint her article for new homeschoolers. We are not trying to fill up your inbox or to give you more to do but it might be a good idea to take a look at these five resources and decide which ones might fit into your lessons.
I am signed up with most of them and have checked out all of them at some point.
Many thanks to the volunteers who assisted in making our Home Education Expo and Curriculum Fair in July such a success. Among them: Gary Hargraves as exhibit hall director, chief tape-layer and boss; Sam Clemons, his understudy; James Hindman, Jeri Taylor and Cathy Craig at registration, Renee Hipp and Carla Stevenson and all their volunteers in the vendor breakroom; the Scout troop and CAP with its members’ muscles; Jennie Landreth and Caroline Hunt who helped Jeannette with radio spots; the Hixson astronomy co-op and Eddie and Carlee Hilgers for helping with the newspaper story; Joyce McPherson for her faithful faxing to media outlets; Carole Hargraves for her hard work on the brochure; Sandra Stansell who’s once again busy with data entry; and Shan Hughey for our updated and helpful quickstart guides. And of course we could not have had this event without the work of Jan Bontekoe, who selected and coordinated all our marvelous exhibitors and their workshops. Be sure to send Jan any suggestions for exhibitors for next year; we already are starting to fill up (exhibitor.reg@csthea.org). Our fair has become a sought after one by businesses thanks to its success.
Thanks to many moms took two-hour slots at the registration tables. Others discussed homeschooling with moms and dads just starting on their own adventure. Teens helped vendors unload and reload their wares. Thanks to all of you for getting the word out, for inviting your friends, for passing out flyers. Most of the visitors David and I met at the CSTHEA booth said they heard about our expo from a friend. I was absolutely floored by the number of folks just getting started. If you have friends who are new, be sure you keep in touch with them and make sure they get connected in the homeschool community. We are all on this mission together. To God be all the glory!
—JMT