earlier, I posted a set of questions from a couple of sites that help with adoption funding. I wanted to share one of the answers I gave.
What is your philosophy regarding the education of your children?
First of all, please understand that, as a homeschooling family, our philosophy in this regard is very likely more detailed than that of those who have chosen to delegate their authority to educate their children to someone else. Given that much, we can still sum up our philosophy so:
The goal of education is to raise adults. I will consider the education of my children to be successful if they go out into the world fully equipped to take on the responsibilities and privileges of being an adult. To this end, I will give them what they need to grow spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. I believe the best plan for that is to start with a strong Christian foundation, then teach them how to learn, how to think and how to make decisions from there.
This starts with having a firm foundation in Christianity. While there are many aspects to adulthood that they will need, the only one that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for sound judgment in this world and salvation in the next is faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. From this flows wisdom, compassion, hope and joy. From these, they will make sound decisions regarding relationships, possessions including money, goals and priorities. With compassion, they will strive to leave the world better than they had found it. With hope, they will find the resolve to continue through difficult times and with joy, they will remember the blessings they already have. I desire to equip them with many tools for their adult lives, but if I fail to give them everything save a firm foundation in Christ, I will still have succeeded. However, from this spiritual foundation, I believe my children will, in fact, be more successful in the rest of their education. With a strong foundation, my wife and I can build an education
With a strong foundation comes a set of knowledge. They will know biblical history, morality, reason and Christian philosophy. This can build into a vast array of knowledge. Our homeschool structure comes from Konos - a Unit Study oriented curriculum based on Christian character traits. Using this approach, we start with God and relate everything we learn to his various aspects. For instance, our children recently finished the Orderliness section. This included hands on projects and activities exploring creation, the solar system and planets, animal classification, plant classification, mineral classification, sequencing and measurements.
One example of a specific activity included making cutouts of the planets that had the same relative ratios as the real ones, coloring them to resemble the planets and pasting them on the hallway wall at distances from the door that were proportional to the relative distances of the planets from the sun. They had fun doing it, learned the relative sizes of the planets and their order from the sun and enough facts about the planets themselves to discuss them from memory while on a train - witnessing a three year old and a five year old talking with detailed knowledge of the planets left several of the other passengers in shock!
They learned a very large amount of information very well in a relatively short amount of time. Using unit studies with a central Christian theme not only teaches them the facts, but organizes them, makes them meaningful, more interesting and more understandable. This means that they are learning, not just disembodied data, but the underlying landscape. They learn to look at knowledge with an eye toward meanings, connections and the big picture, which means, when they come across knowledge later on in life, they will be better equipped to understand why it is as well as what or how.
The above method has another advantage as well. It encourages children to further explore connections, details and related topics to flesh out the big picture. In other words, it encourages them to learn how to further learn and to continue learning even after the “lessons” are done. So, we are equipping them with the ability and drive to continue to learn as adults and not simply stop when “school” is over. Our children will continue to learn for the rest of their lives.
Beyond simply learning facts, our children, through exploration and synthesis, are learning the principles of thought. Our approach to math is based on the principle of learning how to think about solving a problem before practicing the rote algorithm. To this end, we use Singapore Math and Miquon alongside our unit studies. We also encourage logic based games such as chess and Blokus and focus reading and spelling skills on phonics based rules rather than memorization (this has worked extremely well! Our six year old, Zachary, is reading approximately three grade levels above his peers and recently won our homeschool group’s spelling bee in the first grade division and our four year old, Zoe, can sound out most three or four letter words and is starting to recognize the more common ones by sight). By learning problem solving skills, rational thinking based on rules and manipulation of ideas, our children are learning how to process knowledge and come up with new ideas.
Ultimately, as they become adults, they will be expected to act on what they know and can figure out. This is where, as adults, their education will bear fruit. By utilizing unit studies that involve the completion of projects and activities, they learn by doing. This means, when it comes time to do something, it will be natural for them. By basing their unit studies on Christian character traits, they learn to act in a Christian manner – they learn moral action, obedience, charity, patience, stewardship and honor just to name a few things. Finally, by grounding everything in a firm Christian foundation, they learn to base their actions on God’s plan. They learn to trust in God and keep faith in Jesus Christ. And ultimately, faith in Jesus Christ is the only lesson that really matters.
(update - I linked to the original questions I posted. I could have SWORN I did that when I first wrote this post. Sorry for any confusion)
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