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Many people ask me about the benefits of Christian homeschooling. The reality is that these conversations usually turn into addressing people’s trepidation about the idea of ‘Christian’ homeschooling. What people need to remember is that Christian homeschooling is one of the greatest manifestations of liberty and freedom in the US. That means that whatever Christian homeschooling means to you, then that is what you implement. You are not under any strict rubric to determine the level of religiosity in your teaching. Clearly, this is one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling. It gives you the opportunity to direct your child’s learning based on your own family’s values, not the values of the local school board or government. That’s not a swipe at my own local school board, but merely a recognition that I am the best person to share my values with my children.
One of the great parts about homeschooling is that you don’t really have to worry about snow days. Everyone loves snow days, but they can really interrupt the flow of your curriculum. That said, snow days can provide a really important opportunity to add ‘balance’ to your child’s life. Especially, so for high school students who are working really hard.
That said, you may not want to interrupt your curriculum. I found what works best is a compromise. Don’t think that your child won’t know that the public school kids are out for the day. What I learned worked best was offering the student the morning off. Sleep, play games, read, do whatever. During that time I took 30 minutes to 1 hour to come up with a very interactive or ‘fun’ lesson that supplemented the curriculum that we were already working on. I didn’t simply go into the existing curriculum, but did something more hands on and interactive.
It is one of the most difficult things for homeschool teachers to manage: the right degree to challenge your students. It is well known that a strong homeschool curriculum is one that is challenging and rigorous. But if we challenge our students too much, thereby focusing on the ‘product’ of good test scores, etc. do we neglect the ‘process’ of developing strong Christian adults. The number one thing you want to avoid is not challenging your students at all. In private schools they often speak of ‘teaching to the high end’ — meaning the high end of the class. I recommend that you twist this to focus on teaching to the high end of your child’s intellectual ability. It goes without saying that you can only push so hard and that continued pressure and challenge is only met with diminishing returns. There is no silver bullet to answer these questions, but it is quintessential that we remain cognizant of them.
Welcome to my new blog, Christian Homeschooling Help. I am a mother of 3 children, two of whom successfully completed their elementary and secondary school education in my Christian homeschooling program. I have one more ’student’ working to complete his high school degree and head to college. In this blog I hope to provide help and resources for other Christian homeschooling families. Best of luck with your own Christian homeschooling curriculum, if you have any questions, please post them in the comments.
