A Vision for Home Discipling

You don't have to read very far in this blog to see that I am an advocate of discipling your children at home and believe it is God's call on the Christian to do so. Whenever I run across people considering bringing their children home (or never sending them out in the first place), they always have similar questions, usually having to do with which curriculum they should use. This is because, although they know there is something wrong with sending their children away, they are coming from a paradigm in which they had been "educated" in an age-segregated, scope-and-sequence-driven classroom and thus think the curriculum is the most important component of what they are considering doing. 

My advice to them is they absolutely MUST get the big picture before starting, for if they simply try to reproduce "school at home," they will burn out. They MUST determine what the goal is at the end of their endeavors and work backwards to determine what they should be doing now. This goal should be saturated in Bible, and they should carefully examine their own attitudes and ideas for cultural assumptions that aren't in line with Biblical principles. That's the hard part because of the paradigm blinders each of us has.

Here are my recommendations for three books to help you do that. In my humble opinion, these should be required reading for all parents looking to disciple/educate their children at home, for they help tremendously with developing an unshakable conviction for why you are doing what you do and what you are aiming for at the end. One warning though... I heard Dr. Voddie Baucham interviewed on Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey, and he was repeatedly referred to as someone who will "rock your boat." Anyone who's been in a rocking boat knows it sometimes makes you a bit ill. These books WILL cause you to examine your closely held beliefs and paradigms and will thus "rock your boat." Sometimes that is exciting; sometimes it's uncomfortable. But either way, your children will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Enjoy!

The first, and in my opinion, the most important, is When You Rise Up by Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr. While it is available through Amazon (use the book list on the left), it is also available through his ministry website HERE.

Unfortunately the third book isn't available at Amazon. It is Upgrade by Kevin Swanson, a second-generation homeschooler who is the head of Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC). Swanson's book can be purchased directly through CHEC at the link HERE.