Still No Escape
No matter which decision we make, we teach them.
When we keep our children with us so that we can manage their social learning, we teach them that socialization can be done in right or wrong ways. Using the Ten Commandments (talk about mandates-based education!), we instruct as we model for them the only way that works: God’s way.
When they are teens and actually need to socialize, they will walk in right habits of socialization, while turning to us and ultimately, to the God Who guides us, for further instruction.
If we abandon them to learn socialization willy-nilly from the same-aged social misfits that become increasingly more abundant in this world, we still teach them—that no matter how they socialize, that is how to socialize. They will learn that whatever is socially acceptable to their peers is the social lesson for today, and to abandon any semblance to their parents in their quest for some socially “caring” model. They will learn that it is okay to have two mommies.
When we take time to reveal to our children the glories and the tragedies of the history of man, we teach them that we can and must learn from our actions. From Genesis to Revelation, we help them see that God knows the end from the beginning and always has His way.
When they are teens, and learn to care about things on the outside, they learn that today many make the mistakes that wise ones will learn from in the future.
If we trust worldly institutions to handle their history lessons, we still teach them—that the past is unimportant to us. They will not care much about history, either, and in anger, will care even less once it conflicts with God’s Word. They will believe that they came from slime and that the future is debatable, at best, and purposeless at worst and will wonder if Hitler was not right, after all.
When we continue their health classes and physical education into the rest of their childhood, we teach them that our bodies are temples for God. They learn the good stewardship that gives careful attention to the feeding and care of our bodies.
When they are teens, strong and healthy, excited about expending their energy for good purposes, they will be able to say to God, “Here am I…”
If we thrust them into worldly lessons about the body, we still teach them—that the purpose of exercise is to be famous or formidable, and that ketchup is a vegetable. They will converse casually about euthanasia, believe that hormones are insurmountable, and toil under assignments to pretend to be married or expecting. They will grow increasingly comfortable with those conversations, beliefs, and pretenses, too.
__________________
photo credit: Wikipedia
Related articles
- All Parents Home School – 2 (katharinetrauger.wordpress.com)
- All Parents Home School (katharinetrauger.wordpress.com)
Home's Cool! 
So glad this series is out there.
LOVE IT!
Thank, so much, Leah, for your continued support! I first published this series in a popular home schooling magazine, and it was well-received, I am grateful to say. 😉
This series is a challenging read in many ways, since I grew up in public school, K-12. My parents DID, indeed, homeschool me, even though they didn’t teach me academics. I feel so blessed to have been the exception to the rule. All the lessons you are sharing that homeschool kids learn from their parents, I learned too, from my parents.
I don’t disagree with you. Far from it. I heartily agree. I just apply it to my own life and childhood, and find that God was gracious. My “schooling” never got in the way of my true “education.”
God is awesome.
Thanks so very much, Tiff. I know your heart. I, too, was public schooled, and my parents, I am sure, were doing the best they knew how. But there was so much more they did not know . . . I am thankful, also, for the truth they taught me, but so regret how the public schools constantly attempted to unteach that truth, and too often, succeeded . . .
I appreciate how my own children don’t have the baggage I have hidden in my mind which came from the public school system. I’m shocked when I realize I think/do something in such an un-Biblical-public-school-reinforced way. I’m also grateful my parents knew they were ‘homeschooling’. No telling what I’d think if they hadn’t!
I think it’s mostly about the baggage. Thanks!
But for the grace of God, there we go! I am grateful for my parents, too. The truth grafted in me DID save me, eventually! 🙂
Love this—and this is precisely how we (my husband and I) instilled faith, values, health, Godly behavior in our son. It is these steady lessons that ring true as they grow in His grace and wisdom. We had a lot to counteract, unfortunately, because for most of his elementary school years and part of his HS years he wasn’t doing all his schooling at home….if i could turn back time….
Oh, I know. There is a special way to deal with the child who had adopted the ungodly content around them when they are young, but few know of it. Perhaps later I could touch on that. 🙂