Technology, Academics, and God- some thoughts I have

December 16, 2009

homeschoolers christian All of my posts until now have been strictly about technology integrated into our home school. Just so you know, our family does have a life outside of the realm of technology and social media…

On a more personal note, our faith is what keeps our school strong.

There are days that I ask myself why I’ve chosen to home educate my children, and I continue to answer that question when God gently reminds me of His faithfulness in leading me down this path even before my first child was ever born. It was a prompting of interest, and then later desire that lead me to decide on home education as opposed to private or public schools. There are many practical reasons we’ve chosen to home school as well.

I have been teaching my 7 year old at home since she was 2, and have recently begun homeschooling our newest 2 year old. During this 5 year journey I have been tempted to select different options for her education, and have not been totally opposed to the idea of public school either. But I continued to home school after really re-evaluating our family priorities. After seeing the social, emotional, and spiritual benefits in NyGirl’s life as a direct result of her being around us more as a family and having her education carefully handpicked and selected just for her needs, I don’t think I would want to have it any other way at this point. If the day comes when we have to choose otherwise, she will be just fine in other settings and will transition well… I KNOW there are wonderful public and private school educators out there, and I am so grateful for them. But for now, homeschooling is the BEST option for our children. And that is what we want essentially- all teachers and parents for their students alike.

So now that we are here, traveling down this road, I’ve also found myself attempting to decipher all the massive amount of choices available for homeschoolers in terms of curriculum and educational style. How do I go about teaching my kids in the way that is appropriate for each of them in their unique learning styles, and in a way that I can easily adapt to my teaching style, and by using the best curriculum choices for them at the particular stage/age that they are in currently (knowing this, too, shall pass from stage to stage)?

It’s a big undertaking.

But a few things have been very helpful to me in this journey:

Resources to help me determine my route. I’ve sifted through tons of materials and resources at homeschool conventions, book stores, libraries, used book sales, co-op groups, online groups, etc. While going through materials I kept in my mind that I needed to know what I was trying to achieve in my children and family. Usually knowing this bit of info was key to helping me locate the right resources for that year.
Recognizing my children’s learning style. Each of my children are uniquely different and I must be adaptable to teaching things using different approaches. I am starting to learn to think in “teacher mode” far more often. As I’ve mentioned before, my undergrad was in Child Development, so my focus for the younger Pre-K and baby/toddler years was always to provide a nourishing and emotionally and intellectually stimulating environment where our younger kiddos always feel safe and secure and loved. But as my oldest has gotten bigger and is now in the Big Girl stage, I’ve had to adapt my teaching style to that of a more structured approach, and have really been racing to keep up with her! Which is good, by the way. She is pretty flexible in how she can conceive ideas and learn content. I can present them verbally and visually as well as kinesthetically and she does just fine. In my book, though, I see the verbal/audio side of her peeking out more, so on that note, I’ve provided more audio books, videos, and lessons and books where I read aloud.
Realizing my own teaching style. Well if I must know my children’s learning style, it just goes to say that I must know my teaching style and be adaptable. I’ve found that I’ve had to break out of my mold of too MUCh structure, and loosen up the reigns a bit to let her explore some learning on her own. NyGirl has a capacity to learn that just blows me away…and I realize if I just show her a little bit, give her verbal directions, and trust her, she can usually take off with her and surprise me with a pretty cool end result!
Knowing the spiritual goals we have set for our children. This is probably the biggest of all the ideas that have helped me along my home schooling journey. Contrary to the title of this blog, we are NOT just a tech savvy home educating family (as much as I totally digg the concept of integrating tech in schools)…but we are first and foremost a Christ-centered family with values. We teach our children those values and all knowledge pertaining to our faith in Yeshua the Messiah – Jesus Christ. We want our children to be aware of who they are as individuals, but they cannot function in society or know who they are unless they first have a CENTER and a FOUNDATION. That is what our family provides them. Learning math, grammar, social studies, science, technology, and the arts all comes secondary and ends up being a wonderful result and easily obtained and understood as a result of their security within the family unit. I would like for their educational results academically to be strong…but I am more concerned of their spiritual status than I am of their academics.

Technology comes second.

God is first.