The 170 page ebook contains much more content than the posts you find here. It also includes a ton of resources and freebies from other websites. It was a true labor of love, and I know you will love it!
Welcome back to 10 Days of Large Family Homeschooling
If you have been a reader of Raising Arrows for very long, you know how our family tends to put outside-the-box homeschooling far in front of traditional schooling methods. We choose to make the extracurricular intra-curricular and we are typically rather creative with our schooling.
This kind of methodology stems from our theology. We believe a child’s education is not meant to make them rich so they can retire happy. We believe true wisdom comes from knowing the Lord and all aspects of a child’s education must be subject to the Lord’s leading.
At the Midwest Parent Educator’s Homeschool Conference in Kansas City this past weekend, my husband and I had the express pleasure of spending time with convention speaker, Israel Wayne. My husband interviewed Israel on his stance on homeschooling and I want to share with you this vision in the video below (if you cannot view this video, please click here.)
In the near future, I will be doing posts on what an education based on this understanding of Scripture looks like, but for now, I want to offer you some quick out-of-the-box ideas for what school looks like when it doesn’t look like school…
Working alongside Mom & Dad
So much can be learned by working WITH someone on a project or even in everyday duties. Our children will all run households of their own someday and will need to know what it means to live life as a man or woman who seeks after Christ in all they do.
This requires patience on the parent’s part because children are not always going to live up to your dreams and expectations, but what God calls you to, He will equip you for and you can LEARN patience. So, take the time to mentor your own children because all the book-learning in the world cannot take the place of a truly interested and loving parent walking alongside their child.
Real Life Learning
Kevin Swanson of Generations with Vision made some really great points this weekend about taking knowledge and “plugging it in to something.” He said we often approach education as the be all end all sort of like learning to ride a bike by taking Bike for 12 years and never getting on one. Our children need to know WHY they are learning what they are learning and how it fits with the ultimate goal of knowing, loving, and serving God and loving and serving others (again, a hearty thank you to Israel Wayne for bringing this Truth to our family!).
Entrepreneurships
In the spirit of plugging a child’s knowledge into a real life scenario, entrepreneurships are a lost method that must be brought back! Our children need real life application in a career field before they commit to years of study and work for that field. I’m not an advocate of wasting time and money, so I would much rather waste a little bit of time and money giving my children opportunities to make informed decisions. A quick note here: do not for a moment think a college counselor or someone at a career fair is a good representative of what a career field is truly like. They are there to tell you what you want to hear. You need to meet real people doing the real job and find ways to get your children working with them in real situations if possible. Many young people see glamour in a job and totally miss the truth.
Field Trips & Vacations
I grew up going on vacations that were edu-cations so this has been something that has come naturally. Even when Ty and I go places without the children, we tend to visit museums and other historical and informative sites.
When you have a large family, it is often much nicer and easier to go on field trips without a huge group of people along, so years ago, I quit going on organized field trips with homeschool support groups because it just seemed like utter chaos. I’d rather take my time with my own children, guiding them through the field trip and not have to compete with their friends and a lot of extra noise. I am sure they learn much more when we do this as a family.
Delight-Directed Extras
I have been a HUGE fan of delight-directed homeschooling ever since I read Gregg Harris’ book The Christian Homeschool.
Think about how you learn as an adult. Aren’t you more apt to study and research and grow and learn when wanting to know more about a subject that truly interests you? Your children are the same way! And since God has wired each and every one of them differently, it is so very important we study our children and learn who they are and what makes them tick. This is one of the beauties of the homeschooling environment! Don’t squander it trying to fit into the box.
Multimedia
This is the section where I tell you not all media is bad. In fact, it can be an awesome learning tool, especially for children who are visual learners. My children have learned so much about Ancient Egypt and the Crusades and even how to make maple syrup from multimedia sources. We listen to CDs, watch DVDs, and use computer software like World Book on CD-ROM on a daily basis. The technological age does not have to be something that warps our young people’s minds. It can be harnessed and used for good if we are always diligent to keep it in check.
That is exactly why our family has chosen to invest money in family films that give our children more than just entertainment. And this is the reason I am pleased to offer my readers an opportunity to win a family film from Moore Family Films!
This giveaway has ended.
And thank you for thinking outside the box!
{to discover if you are thinking inside or outside the box, click here!}
Michelle says
Great thoughts here, Amy. This is so true:
“A quick note here: do not for a moment think a college counselor or someone at a career fair is a good representative of what a career field is truly like. They are there to tell you what you want to hear. You need to meet real people doing the real job and find ways to get your children working with them in real situations if possible. Many young people see glamour in a job and totally miss the truth.”
This type of real-life exposure must take a lot of planning to make it happen for your family, but I am sure it is worth it!
Suanna says
This week part of our school is getting the garden planted. So far we’ve had math, geography, reading, practice following instructions, choosing which seeds we want to plant and physical exercise.
Lydia says
Thank you for this! So many people are stuck on the book learning but my father has always said “Don’t let the child’s education get in the way of their education.” 🙂 There’s a lot more important things to learn in life than just what books teach!
Aadel says
I grew up taking huge family edu vacations too! We had a farm to run, but in the summer we would take a crazy-long camper trip to the national parks. I was a Jr. Ranger in 4 different states- Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. I remember my dad wanting to stop at every single museum we passed on the road!
Kerry says
Amy, I just saw the Christian Homeschool book image. Wow…that brings back memories. I read that the first year I homeschooled so many years ago. It still has great principles.
Amy says
The Harris’ were very “cutting edge” and I dearly love that book! 🙂
Sherry says
I love this post–there is so much more to learn than what we would expect from a conventional school setting, and when we allow ourselves to think otherwise, our children benefit!
Cheryl @ Moms in Need of Mercy says
I definitely agree with what you said about learning patience. I am there! We had a trying homeschool day last week, and I reflected and prayed about it, and wrote about what I learned here: http://momsinneedofmercy.blogspot.com/2012/04/home-school-or-home-school.html
Basically, are we focusing on the SCHOOL part or the HOME part?
Kristin says
I really enjoyed reading this post. The kids and I are in the process of talking daddy into taking a looooong trip to Yellowstone in September. I bought a dvd about Yellowstone called Explore Yellowstone with Noah Justice from Awesome Science. It was a little over the head of my 8 year old but he loved all the cool footage of the park. It was very interesting and has gotten me even more excited to go!