Train Up a Child

My philosophy of homeschooling can be summed up by Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” As homeschool parents, we have the incredible opportunity to know our kids—what makes their eyes light up, what they have a special knack for, what they will rush through their other subjects to get to do.
We get to glimpse the spark our Creator God blessed our children with in an up-close and every-day way that most parents can’t imagine. The catch is we have to be willing to pay attention and give them the freedom to explore the world.

Then, when we see signs of “the way he should go” we have to do the really hard thing. We have to be willing to trust the Lord with that information and pray He will help us to develop that special gift that we have been blessed to witness.
So, what does this mean as we open the books on Monday morning, knowing we have five math, science, English, history lessons to complete before Friday? How do we prepare our little ones for what they will need in the world—and guide them to be who God created them to be?
Next week I will share a list of practical suggestions, but for now I just want to encourage you not to flinch if you have an idea of the particular bent of one or all of your children. Your neighbors may scratch their heads and look at you like you are crazy, but go ahead and let Junior scour the alley behind your house for scrap wood he needs to build furniture for his room. (I did. True story.) Grab on to the awesome adventure God has opened up for you and your family.