August 30th - Learning in 2010/2011

Learning..

Today, we started our 15^th year of homeschooling. Boy, have I learned a lot! This is our New Year’s day, and has been for a long time, now. This is the time of year when things are new! The notebooks are fresh and the pencils are sharp. The curriculum is exciting! The crayons are gone now, but they used to be new. (I could chase a nostalgic rabbit right here, but I think I’ll keep that precious memory to myself for now. J ) This is the time of year when we resolve to do things better than last year…This year, we are (trying) to start some new habits, and (trying) to break some old ones.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but God can. J

One of the most uncomfortable and frustrating feelings in this life is when we are faced with our own failures and shortcomings. I think that is why children don’t like school. They are constantly bombarded with things they don’t know for nine months out of twelve! As parents/teachers, we look at things they need to know, and present the problem with (hopefully) smiles and expectations of greatness, often forgetting that this is new territory for our child. Lo and behold, just a few days later, we expect what we fed them to be spit out on the paper in the form of a test, and we are disappointed when we don’t get the results we expect. You just can’t hide that from your child, you know. Try as you might, they KNOW you are disappointed, and doubly, they are disappointed in themselves.

Thankfully, we can tie ties of love and acceptance with our children even though they (unintentionally) fall short of our expectations. As homeschoolers, especially, we have the opportunity to tell them over and over how much we appreciate their efforts and we can help them overcome those learning obstacles. We can let them know that they are not SUPPOSED to know all the things that they are faced with. That is why it is called LEARNING!

It’s also an opportunity to share Christ with your child! You see, ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No matter how hard we try, we could never attain to God’s greatness or expectations. We just can’t. We are sinners! Our flesh inhibits us from ever having peace with God. The only way that can be accomplished is through faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood atonement made on Calvary.

Learning about this shortcoming isn’t comfortable for anyone - UNTIL they learn the test answers! I have a copy of the key! It’s called the Bible. The Bible says that it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us. God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He made a way for our salvation!

When we learn that, we have learned a great thing!

So, dear reader, as you start your academic venture this year, don’t forget to share Christ with your child. Don’t keep Him to yourself! Math, English, Social Studies, Science, History… none of those can compare to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He has provided for the REAL future- the eternal one!

This entry was posted on August 31, 2010 at 11:36 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.