Biblical goals for successful lifestyle homeschooling, should be the foundation on which we build our homes and our daily schedules.
Homeschooling itself is NOT enough.
We have to remember the reason we are teaching our children at home, keeping in mind that it is a lifestyle of discipling our children and preparing them for the life of service that God calls them to.
The first and foremost thing to keep in mind is the need to focus on winning and keeping the hearts of your children.
When you have their hearts, they are open to your teaching and your influence. That gives you the opportunity to shape their values and point them to God and His Word. Isn’t that one of the main reasons that you chose to teach your children at home? You wanted to be the one who was pouring God’s truths into their hearts and minds.
Yet often, we get busy and caught up in a more traditional type of homeschooling, which is more like regular school, with a huge emphasis on academic goals as the key ingredient, forgetting that true education seeks to train the heart and soul, not just the mind.
True education seeks to train the heart and soul, not just the mind. Tweet This!
We can see the three Biblical goals for successful lifestyle homeschooling II Peter 1:5 where it tells us:
Add to your faith virtue (or character;) and to virtue knowledge.
We need to purposefully include God’s Word (building faith), character training (virtue), and then academics.
Biblical Goals For Successful Lifestyle Homeschooling:
1. Build your children’s faith.
It is important that we teach our kids about God and His Word. We should try to help them develop a love for God, and a desire to please Him.
We need to get His Word in their hearts and minds daily to build their faith and help them develop a relationship with the Lord that will give them that desire to do what is pleasing to God.
One of the main reasons it is so important that you get God’s Word into your kids’ minds is the process that is involved. Everything starts with a thought; thoughts lead to actions, actions develop into habits, and habits grow into character.
Where did all of that start? With the thoughts! As the Bible says, as we think in our hearts so we are.
Some simple ways to get God’s Word into your children’s hearts and minds:
- Make sure the Bible is part of YOUR life first.
- Read His Word to/with them, and teach them to start reading it daily when they are able.
- Memorize God’s Word together
- Train and correct with Scripture. Remember that wrong behavior is an opportunity to take our kids to God’s Word when they show wrong behavior, and show them what God says about it.
2. Build Godly character in your children.
Character should be the foundation we lay BEFORE teaching academics, as character is vital for academic success.
It just makes sense that your kids will do better with school work when they have developed foundational character traits such as attentiveness, obedience, diligence, etc.
I love the way that David Ballman says it in his book The How and Why Of Homeschooling:
The most important area of instruction is not academics, but the development of godly character. If a person has great intellectual knowledge but little godly character, his life will not have much positive impact upon the world in which he lives. Development of character is critical to the proper growth and maturation of a young child. Home educators are returning to the crucial development and nurture of character. The most important task of the educator is to prepare his students for life. And the best way to prepare a student for life is to teach, model, and promote the development of godly character. Character training is the most important and most laudable activity for a teacher to be engaged in. If a student is taught nothing else save character alone, he will be better prepared for life than those who are taught pure academics but no character.
While teaching daily character lessons intentionally is one of the key ways to train our children in character, we need to also remember that they are learning by our example as well. We need to be growing in character, as we teach them what it means to be like Christ.
There are also informal teaching opportunities that come up throughout the day when we can encourage them in Godly character. For example, when there is a conflict between siblings, teach them how to be peacemakers. When there is something that needs to be done, teach initiative. If you have a difficult child, you have opportunities daily to practice and teach self-control.
3. Teach them academics.
God says that knowledge (or academics) is third on the list.
While I believe it is our responsibility as homeschooling parents to be sure our kids receive a good education academically, we also need to be careful not to let academics become a distraction from our top priorities.
Take your job seriously as you teach your children. Spend time helping them learn what they need to know to be for prepared for life, and the purpose God has for them.
Keep these Biblical goals in mind as you make your school plans. They will give you guidance and direction, helping you to stay focused on the choices that lead to a successful homeschool.
To help you get started on character training, download these 4 weeks of FREE character lessons from Little Lads & Ladies of Virtue, and Lads & Ladies of Wisdom.
Kathie is a popular speaker at home school conventions and support groups, as well as ladies retreats. Her heart’s desire is to help and encourage parents to be purposeful in raising Godly children with strong Christian character, who walk in purity, and have a heart for God.
She is also the author of two popular character curriculums, and several other books written to encourage Biblical parenting.
- Biblical Goals For Successful Lifestyle Homeschooling - June 3, 2019
4 Comments
This post really hit home. I’ve always known what True Education was, but I have not made that my focus lately. This post really has helped to spark that fire again in my heart. Thanks.
Very encouraging and a great reminder to me of what is truly the most important subject in homeschooling, and that is God’s word. So easy to get bogged down by all there is to do in a day as a homeschool mom. Thank you for a reminder that I greatly needed.
This is my main goal for my kids, I do not want to focus on academics and miss the important part a real relationship with God. I could not have said it any better. Great post
This is our main reason for homeschooling. It’s about Jesus first and then an “education” second.