SOME HOMES ARE BUSY WITH A LOT MORE THAN SEASONAL DECORATING 

I love the process here in this section of the blog where we try to turn our houses into homes by living out God’s ways inside our homes.  Lots of fun days have been spent here discussing seasonal decorating ideas that help us to celebrate the seasons that God has created and given us as perfect and timely gifts.

This is all very good; but there is something even more dear to the heart of God going on behind the walls of many homes.

Some days inside the sacred rooms of the many of the homes across our country there are very busy people doing many things other than choosing a new color scheme for the living room.  A lot of very active families are teaching their children some absolutely fine lessons in a process called home-school.

Our country will be so much the better because of the efforts of these amazing parents.

Please keep up the good work!

The interior of your houses will always still be there when those children grow up.  You will have time to worry about the walls and the floors later in life.  These precious children are the most important thing at the present moment.  You can’t redeem the time that you have been given to make a huge difference in their lives and it passes by so quickly.

MY DEEPEST REGRET

In The IN SEASON Lifestyle’s December Newsletter I mentioned that I would spend some time explaining to all of you one of my deepest regrets in life.  I hope I’ve managed to keep you guessing long enough to wonder what on earth this article was going to say!

I’m sure I made a whole LOT of people nervous with that statement!

Sorry to disappoint you with this very small amount of dirt in my life; but the subject of which I speak; the thing that broke my heart has to do with “homeschooling.”

One of my greatest regrets in this life was not being able to home school our four now-grown children.

How I wish I could go back and rearrange those days just a bit.

WHY GIVE PERFECT KIDS A PERFECTLY WORLDLY EDUCATION?

Please understand immediately that the reason I make this statement has nothing at all to do with the fact of any type of imperfections from our children.  They are, and always will be, PERFECT in every way to me!  (I may be a bit prejudiced.)

Also, it is not at all the fact that our children did not get an absolutely excellent education.  In the eyes of the world; they did.

They got an education in all of the things they needed for college; and they also got an education in all of the things of the world.  They were excellent at social skills and have high marks in the area of intelligence and general knowledge.  They were all very well-educated in the public school system. Thank God they survived it all okay.  A lot is to be said here for prayer and good kids who are well-loved.  They seem to make it through all circumstances.  I’m sure their guardian angels were always very busy when we were not noticing.

YOU CAN’T PROTECT CHILDREN FOREVER; EVENTUALLY THEY FIND OUT THE WORLD IS NOT ALWAYS A PERFECT PLACE TO LIVE

Most parents know and understand that you can’t protect your children from the things of the world.  They find them all out eventually.  I am not dumb enough to believe that this is at all possible; even with godly parents and an excellent home-school education.

Neither is protection my reason for making such a statement; though the public schools do seem to be more dangerous than ever; so are our homes and our city streets.  You can’t hide under a rock forever and live your life.  There is a certain amount of danger in everything that we do.  I don’t believe in teaching children to be afraid to live a normal life.

Actually, I am an advocate for a certain amount of controlled exposure to adult activities that happen gradually and responsibly as children mature, develop and grow into adults.  They need to learn facts and they need slow, gradual practice in the art of good decision-making.  They need the chance to learn from their mistakes; just as their parents learned before them.  They should grasp the fact that bad decisions bring about unhappy circumstances before they are grown and leave the nest and begin to make their decisions.  This is part of education.  A lot of life lessons come from the school of hard-knocks, and unfortunately, there is no better teacher for some subjects.

At some point you simply must let the apron strings unravel and watch those little birds fly out of the nest.

We had enough good natural home education going on in our home after school on the things that really matter; so I really didn’t worry too much about those types of things; but it was the little, unnoticed, quiet and gradual exposures to certain teachings in the public school on subjects that I did not agree with that were being creatively presented in a very positive way from the public schools that really bothered me as I began to look back.

AN ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE CULTURE OF OUR CHILDREN WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE AND APPROVAL

There were certain things that were the “norm” in the current educational system which I felt were “forced” upon our children while we were not looking.   For that matter these things were also probably forced upon their teachers; so I do not hold the teachers or the administrators to being completely guilty.  I suspect they were simply trying to do the jobs they were hired to do.

I think the culprit was actually money.

Isn’t that always the way it goes?

Large sums of money being funneled into our educational systems from political and cultural organizations who were quietly trying to change the culture.  They did succeed too in many ways.  Some of the success was actually good and positive; but much of the change came from cultures that I positively disagree with.  Our logic will never be the same and in some ways these subtle teachings have changed the logical thinking patterns of our children as they have grown into adulthood.  Their thinking processes are different because they attended public school than it would have been if they had been home-schooled.  Here is where the rubber meets the road with my thinking.

It all has to do with the choices of teaching styles that our public schools offer. There are SO MANY subjects that I think are taught wrong and different from the way I believe or would have taught them.  There were many heated discussions in our home as the children tackled homework from books that I considered to be totally opposite from my own beliefs.  Much of this though went unnoticed.    How could I have known?  I wasn’t there with them all the time in the classroom.  I didn’t actually read the texts and I didn’t listen to the lectures or do the classwork with them.  The children were fed a steady diet of different cultures and religious beliefs than ours and they ate this meal of unhealthy education daily.

I AM NOT OPPOSED TO BEING EDUCATED ABOUT THE WORLD

Don’t get me wrong.

I love all people and respect all cultures.

I’m all about different cultures understanding and getting along with each together.  I’m all about finding ways to peace and understanding among nations and cultures.  It is just that I also think, that the child’s very own culture should not be eliminated or held hostage to certain others that seem to have swayed the system somehow.  There should be a balance; the see-saw should go up and down and back and forth and not stay stuck in certain positions forever; until it is too late to learn otherwise.  The child’s original culture of origin should come first.

This happens even in our Christian communities and private schools which are full of good citizens with good intentions.  Because we have bowed to the Greek style of education that separates home/school/work/religion/socialization, etc.; we have fallen prey to the downfall of our own best ways of life.

I much prefer the Hebraic style of living and education where everything is blended into one package and mixed together with everything adhering and evolving around God’s law and the scriptures of the bible.  In our current school system; this type of teaching would be totally impossible.

EDUCATION SHOULD OFFER CHOICES NOT MAKE DEMANDS

In the public schools my children were exposed to other religions; not as a teaching/learning process to help them understand the elements of those religions and what is right and wrong about them; but they were exposed to them as if they were the only perfect choices available.  The religion of their own culture was often ignored and even shamed.  It wasn’t allowed to become a central part of their lives at school.   I don’t call that education; I call it brain washing.  Lots of things in history and social sciences leaned toward Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic and atheistic beliefs, and many of the subjects had a totally secular leaning; leaving God’s way of life completely out of the picture.

If you had an opinion; it didn’t matter. As far as the public school was concerned; your child’s education was their business and you needed to stay at home and keep out of their business. On a college level of education; the parents were bluntly told this fact, sparing no words whatsoever, at orientation; but they forgot to educate us about that fact while we were just beginning on the elementary, middle school and high school courses.  I suspect this was very intentional.  It was always a shocking surprise to most parents when they found out that their opinion didn’t really matter.

I hated that.

To be fair, in our local communities we had the blessing of many good Christian teachers and school administrators who wanted to do well and wanted our input; but they had to fight the whole system in order to make it happen and chances of that working out in a positive way that would benefit all  were slim to none.   We all knew who would win. We had to do a lot of extra un-teaching at home to combat this; and I’m not sure ALL of that took roots against the system’s way of thinking.  All I can say is we tried.  Had we not been in the background sounding like constant idiots and always going against the grain of their favorite teachers to our children, things would probably be really bad right now.  Sometimes they eventually got to the place of understanding why we took such a stand.  Not all the time though.

CHRISTIANITY IS THOUGHT TO BE A THING OF THE PAST

I find that children raised in the public school system tend to think Christianity is antiquated and a thing of the past. Many of the products of these systems look down on their parents if their beliefs are Christian; supposing that they are simply not as educated and simply do not know any better than to believe the way they do.

It takes a child who has been educated in this way, even if they came from a Christian home background, until they are about forty years old and have children of their own to begin to see that their parents knew more than they thought they did; and their form of religion was actually a perfectly good way to live.  How do they learn it?  The hard way.  By facing the circumstances they learned from the decisions the public schools taught them to make.

WE CAN’T BE OBLIVIOUS FOREVER

Part of this problem is that Christian parents have let the school system make the decisions for them for so many years now that they are oblivious to what is actually being taught. They have let the school systems coach their children’s life choices instead of getting personally involved themselves. This is not always the case; but in most instances it has happened without any of the parties being influenced even knowing what was going on.  A totally not normal process felt like it was completely normal to most of us.  The reason – we had been conditioned to believe in the public school system’s ability to raise our children.  This was never what God intended.

A WAY OF LIFE THAT INVOLVES THE WHOLE FAMILY ON A DAILY BASIS

In the home of a Hebraic thinking family; the whole family is usually involved in making the life decisions for the whole family. No one individual person is considered separate and independent of the others. Family values are emphasized and lived out together as a group; where in today’s Greek thinking secular school systems individuality and separatism are celebrated. This often forces children from Christian households to live sort of a split life, where they think and do things one way at school and another way at home.  Often; later in life they leave their parents values and drift into the secular values that the school reinforced.

Most parents are oblivious to the whole problem; thinking all the while that their child is accepting and agreeing with their family values; when they are just being agreeable to appease them and doing the same thing in the opposite direction when they reach the public school hallways. Hence; children have been raised to be polite instead of intelligent and peacemakers instead of world changers.  They no longer make good decisions that are honest, they simply try to get along and please others; whether they think they are right or wrong doesn’t matter.  All things are accepted and nothing is frowned on.

THERE IS A HEALTHIER, HAPPIER WAY

I simply prefer that my children grow up to be Hebraic thinkers; instead of Greek minded individuals. I think the Hebraic lifestyle is healthier, friendlier, and more in-tuned to God’s will for the world. Therefore; I wish I had been able to home school all four of our children; even though they turned out to be terrific adults and good parents anyway.  I think I owe this mostly to God and not to the way they were educated.   If I had it to do over again; I would make a different choice when it came to their education.

I still think they missed out on some very valuable life lessons; which I’ve tried to bring across to them in different ways over the years in family gatherings and family times; but that isn’t as intense and as valuable a teaching tool as the time of their formative years in the public classrooms.

So now I wish for my grand children to be home schooled!  Can you blame me?

I realize that isn’t my decision to make; and it will be their parent’s decision; so I have quietly and respectfully prayed and watched to see what would happen.  The verdict is still out.

One daughter has so far preferred alternatives to home-school; though she has been creative about a lot of how she has planned different aspects of her children’s education.

One daughter is considering homeschooling; hopefully as soon as our granddaughter begins school. I am hoping and praying that she stays with her decision to do this.

As a grandmother who knows when to mind her own business; I have remained silent up to this point; but my head certainly turns each time I hear someone speak of homeschooling.  It is a subject dear and near to my heart.  I offer encouragement in this area whenever the subject comes up in natural conversations.

HOMESCHOOLING MATCHES THE PATHWAY OF A HEBRAIC THINKER’S WAY OF LIFE

When I was wanting to home school but wasn’t able to do so; I began following the writings of a woman named Robin Sampson who came up with an education system she calls The Heart of Wisdom.   With the thoughts from her writings still lingering in my mind; I recently went back and reviewed some of her books and theories on home school education; wondering if I would still feel as passionate about the subject as I had years ago.

After rereading some of the writings again; I have to say I am probably MORE passionate than ever in believing that almost every parent should home school.

I know not every parent is cut out to do this; but if it were possible; I feel every child would benefit.

So; what do I love about this home-school idea so much and why do I find that I relate to this particular parenting style?

That reason ties in with the reason why I’m writing this blog post. I feel homeschooling meets with the pathway for a Hebraic thinker’s lifestyle.  I’m very sure it fits right in line with The IN SEASON Lifestyle that we are trying to cultivate and encourage and promote within this blog.

JESUS WAS HOME-SCHOOLED

The IN SEASON Lifestyle is all about living life as Jesus did.   It is about walking out and really living your faith in everyday life; which definitely, for many, includes the task of educating children.

I think of Mary and Joseph patiently and kindly educating Jesus in the ways of God.  It is mind-blowing to consider that they were educating God-Himself, in the form of The Son of God in the ways of God; but our Father in Heaven must have approved of such methods.  In those days Hebrew homes were full of home-schooled children, and the Father of the house was the one who did the heavy educating with the Mother backing him up.

As I reread some of Robin Sampson’s books I came across a quote she made which totally explained all of my fascination with the subject; even though I’m past the age of being able to use home-schooling myself.  I simply want to share these thoughts and suggestions with others who might be reading today who just might relate to these same thoughts, maybe some young mother pondering what to do next in her child’s education.

The statement that so resonated with me was this one:

“Ultimately, biblical education is instruction in a lifestyle.”

That’s it – that is what I’m promoting here – an all-out faithful lifestyle that walks the walk as well as talks the talk.

It is definitely missing from the public school’s educational methods.

OUR HOMES OF THE FUTURE ARE AT STAKE

Why shouldn’t educational considerations play a major role in the considerations of this blog and The IN SEASON LIfestyle?  These things are important considerations for the future of the homes of our children.

I have spent the last few months exploring more of these facts about homeschooling from a Hebraic perspective and have found them to be so thought-provoking; and so well-worth the sharing with those who are wading through this stage of their lives today.  How I wish someone had spoken up and given me this insight when I was at that crossroads in life.

So, give an ear and listen up; whether you think home schooling is for you or not; and see what comes of exploring the subject. Come walk through the process with me so that we can begin to consider what it truly takes to grow up well-rounded, Christ-grounded, talented, intelligent and resourceful children who will go out there and make a whole new world for all of us to live in.

OUR FATE IS IN THEIR HANDS

As for my own generation; our time to make a difference has passed.  We have missed our chance already; we can only offer prayer and support in the background and offer a helping hand along with whatever advice we have to offer from our past mistakes and experiences.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

So young Fathers and Mothers out there trying to decide; I will let you know my deepest regret in life is the fact that I did not home-school my children.

I hope hearing about my past mistakes will help you to decide on a different way and influence you to take a different path.

BE BRAVE AND COURAGEOUS

Please don’t listen to those who seem to know it all; those who want you to fall into a straight line behind them and imitate everything that everyone before them has done for years and years.

Be brave and courageous; make a change.

Home-school your children and teach them to think for themselves instead of following the crowd.

I dare you!