Chapter One
Homeschool Journey- Escape from Public School
In this chapter, Robin tells of their journey from public school to bringing the children home and the path they trod since. She likens their journey to the Exodus- the escape from Egypt. For those who are not familiar with this story, it might pay if we all refresh our memories. Start in your chronological bibles and read from Exodus 1 onwards. Briefly, the story tells about the Hebrews being set free, their walk in the wilderness, God providing, their looking back and of their entering the Promised Land- a land flowing with milk and honey.
Just as God set the Hebrews free, Robin tells of their story- their being liberated – being grateful for being home.albeit in a typical school-at-home setting. Then, Robin tells how she started to feel doubts, panic, unbelief just as the Israelites started grumbling after a few weeks of being led around the wilderness. Robin tells that she started to look back to Egypt, the ways of the school system. But it was about this time that she knew she needed to find a better way.
God provided nourishment each day! The Israelites didn’t need to hoard as God gave them fresh manna each day. During this parallel time, Robin started devouring information on learning styles, methods, and approaches. Soon the Israelites began to doubt and fear that they would ever reach the Promised Land and Robin seems to convey that she felt similar- that she was still ‘looking back to Egypt’. She felt that this was a fear based work and it wasn’t trusting in God as Jehovah Jireh-the Lord provides.
After time, Moses died and God speaks some VERY significant words to Joshua.
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night.” This was the time where Robin and her family started feasting on God’s Word day and night!
All throughout the story of the Exodus we can see God’s mercy, His grace and His justice. We can see how God used an ordinary man to achieve an extraordinary task. Robin encourages us to leave Egypt but then to go the distance into the Promised Land. Robin tells us that the moment academics begin to direct us, or slow our pursuit of God, it (academics) goes from being a helpful tool to the ‘cares of this life’.
Robin goes on to tell us that simply changing resources and/or utilising different methods were only surface changes- that deeper work was necessary and that came from being in God’s word and coming to an understanding of the knowledge of God.
Articles to read for further study and reflection:
One Needful Thing
Academic Requirements
LINKS
Heart of Wisdom
Purchase the HOWTA book: buy the book and view many sample pages
HOW Teaching Approach: for articles and further reading.
Helpful tools.
Science ~ All about God’s Creation
Math ~ About God’s order
History ~ About His-Story, His plan for the world and the redemption of His people
Government ~ How God has established human government for specific purposes
Language Arts ~ How to tell others about God’s truth (both writing and speaking)
Literature ~ To read of how He has affected other lives
Economics ~ To understand stewardship, God’s rules about money
Arts ~ To appreciate God’s gifts of music, drama, dance, and art, as forms of worship to Him
Health ~ To learn of God’s plan for nutrition and health
Discussion starters: (or points to consider privately)
- Where are you? Are you in Egypt? Greece? Wilderness or The Promised Land?
- Are you hoarding or storing up nourishment instead of receiving it from God on a daily basis?
- Do you look back to ‘Egypt’ (school system or other system)?
- Share your journey of homeschooling.
- On page 27, Robin talks about academics being important tools. What are ‘academics’ to you? Are they a goal…a destination? Why do we study English.or Maths?
- Share anything that touched you or ministered to you from Chapter one.
- Have you had, or are you experiencing, a paradigm shift or a renewing of the mind? Care to share? By what process is your mind being renewed? If you aren’t undergoing a renewing of the mind, are you ready to seek God…to leave Egypt and gain a ‘heart of wisdom‘?
I am glad to see you are doing this. I am a new homeschooling mom! My daughter is 4.5 and son is 3. We’ve done a little, very relaxed, preschool this year. I was gung ho and thank God I had some around me who prepared me so that when we hit walls, I didn’t freak out. I recently found HOW and won a unit study. Even though I think my kids are too young for the curriculum yet, HOW is my plan for homeschool. We are still figuring this stuff out and I bought Robin’s HOWTA book a few months ago and felt so excited to begin using her curriculm. Her book is so encouraging and rings so very true! I LOVED the Egypt analogy. I felt like that was an exact example of deciding to Homeschool. God definitely guided her hand!
I look forward to hearing any advice on Home School. We are currently considering My Father’s World for our curriculum in the fall.
Blessings and Thanks!
Melodye’s last blog post..The Family Pet
I recently stumbled upon your blog, bookmarked it, and hadn’t been back yet in a few weeks. Then last week, I somewhere else saw some info on HOW TA, and my interest was piqued.
I have a 5, 3, and 1 y.o., and we’ve already finished up Kindergarten w/ my 5 y.o., and have been doing relaxed preschool w/ my 3 y.o. As I’ve been trying to think through plans for next year, I just haven’t felt settled about just ordering his next year’s curriculum, and have really been praying on how to incorporate more Bible time.
Lo and behold, “I” thought to pop back in on your blog, and there’s HOW again! God is so faithful to direct our steps!
Sorry to ramble on so long…just wanted to say that I’m grateful for all the work you’ve put into this site, and I will eagerly await more discussion on HOW!
Wendy’s last blog post..Rebecca’s Bowling Party