Your Children ARE Learning!
The question that plagues modern homeschoolers, in the same way that men and women
in the middle ages wondered if the world was flat, is: are we making any progress
and are my kids really learning anything? I say ‘modern homeschoolers’
because I don’t think the pioneer homeschoolers asked that question.
For them, it wasn’t about whether their children knew enough, but about ‘what’
they knew. They used God’s standard in the Bible as their standard. In the
last couple of decades, we’ve changed that standard.
Now the standard used is the level of academics a boy or girl should be at by age
8, 12, or 17. We look towards the “experts” who say a child should be
reading chapter books by age seven, doing algebra by 9th grade, and taking Chemistry
in 11th grade.
“Sez who?”
It certainly isn’t God. The truth is that some children don’t read until
they’re ten, struggle to learn algebra, or never make it to Chemistry. And
that’s OK!
Your children are learning! They will be well prepared for whatever it is God created
them. That doesn’t give us license to blow off school; instead, it gives us
grace to enjoy our children at whatever level they are.
I think it was one of the THM readers who introduced me to one of my new favorite
quotes.
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”-Albert Einstein
It’s not just good … it’s TRUE. So believe it, and …
Be Real,
Todd
Biographical Information
Copyright, 2009. All rights reserved by author below. Content provided by The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC.
Todd Wilson, “The Familyman,” author of Lies Homeschooling
Moms Believe, Help! I’m Married to a Homeschooling Mom, and The Official
Book of Homeschooling Cartoons, is a dad, writer, conference speaker, and former
pastor. Todd’s humor and gut-honest realness have made him a favorite speaker
at homeschool conventions across the country and a guest on Focus on the Family.
Todd and his wife Debbie homeschool their eight children in northern Indiana when
they’re not traveling around the country encouraging moms and dads. You can
visit Familyman Ministries at
www.familymanweb.com.
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