Thursday, August 12, 2010

Are They on Track?

One of the questions I get from non-homeschoolers is: How do you know if your kids are on track?
This question shows a reliance on the government to tell us what the "track" is. As Christians, we don't depend on the government to tell us what skills are and are not important. Not to mention the obvious fact that the government schools are failing miserably to stay anywhere near their own track!

I have two goals of our homeschooling:

1. to produce in my children a love of learning (out-schooling produces just the opposite as you well know)
2. to produce godly character in my children (out-schooling again aims at just the opposite)

Academics, while definitely a big part of our homeschooling, is really just gravy. If my kids hate learning and have no character, it doesn't matter one whit that they can use the Pythagorean theorem and quote Shakespeare. Academics alone do not produce success.

When someone asks if your homeschooled children are "on track", ask them what track they mean.

5 comments:

MommaofMany said...

Excellent post! You hit the bulls-eye on this one!

Mendi... said...

Totally agree!!! After many years of homeschooling, I have finally "grown up" and found so much assurance from the Lord in this way of thinking as well! This year we are "thinking outside the box" on many of our curriculum choices!

Blessings~
Mendi

Anonymous said...

Amen! Love this post. Jamie sent me over...thanks for the wonderful reminder! What God wants our kids to know is so much bigger than the world. : )

Michele

Rachel Marie said...

LIKE :)

Ma said...

When my dad asked me the question "How do you know they are on track?" I just asked him who created the track? He said "Yeah, you're right." And hasn't asked another question since. he seems very proud of his grandchildren.