To Be Teacher at Home
Part 2
Last time we talked about the fact that you are your child/ren primary teacher. My hope is that you always will be. Regardless of the education method you choose, you should still be involved in their learning and education. It is a God mandated responsibility.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Teach your child when you sit and when you rise and when you walk along the road.
To re-cap what was said last time. To be an effective teacher you must:
- Know your child/ren.
- Evaluate each child individually
- Go to God in prayer about their education
- Importance of an Open Mind.
- Model life long learning.
- Importance of reading
- Importance of limiting TV and Computers
The first step to being a teacher at home involves training.
What is the difference between teaching and training?
- Teaching is imparting knowledge or ideas.
- Training is practice of skills.
What are some areas that we want to train our children?
This is where I suggest you take some time with your husband and decide what values are important to you as a family.
Here are some suggestions:
First and Foremost
Train in Obedience.
This is where it all begins. They must learn to obey, even when they may not want to.
God has given children 2 commands:
- Honor your father and mother
- This involves respect and appreciation.
- Exodus 20:12:
- “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Deuteronomy 5:16
“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you.”
Ephesians 6:1
“ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
Honor speaks to attitude and Obedience speaks to actions.
~~Your job as a parent is to teach your children to honor and obey you.
You need to have both. You can make your child obey you but you also need their honor. They may do the right thing but have a bad attitude. This can be displayed by pouting, whining or sulking.
We will talk more about the purpose and “how to’s” of discipline when we discuss the next chapter.
Sally Clarkson in her book, Educating the Whole Hearted Child states that we need to help our children develop what she calls “mental muscles.”
The first Mental Muscle is:
Habits: A habit is the ability to act upon common duties or tasks without the necessity of deliberation. In other words, it becomes so ingrained it doesn’t require much thought.
What are some of your habits?
Developing good habits is a powerful tool toward righteous living.
Here are the habits that she emphasizes:
~Habit of Attention/Concentration:
One way to develop this habit is to make sure he is listening and not repeat what you say. If you continually repeat what you say, they won’t be as motivated to remember the first time.
Another way to develop this habit is through books. Start out with short books and increase the length of reading time. This will increase their attention span.
This is also why limiting TV/video/computer is so important. If they are continually exposed to 30 second sound bytes, you are training to a short attention span.
~Habit of Excellence:
You only affirm when you feel they have tried their very best. It isn’t the outcome you are praising but the diligence in effort.
~Habit of Orderliness/Neatness:
Train them to put away their toys.
~Habit of Truthfulness:
~Habit of Self-control:
The ability to govern ones thoughts or feelings.
~Habit of Diligence:
constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind.
Mental Muscle 2:
Appetites: Train your children’s appetites. Not just their physical appetites but their intellectual appetites as well. Avoid giving them “spiritual or intellectual junk food.”
Appetite for:
~Good Literature?
What are your favorite books?
What books have had a profound impact on your life?
Why do people that want to run for office write a book first? Like Profiles in Courage by John Kennedy, It takes a Village by Hillary Clinton and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.
Books are powerful. You can tell good literature from fluff. Good literature stays with you, influences the way you think and feel. It is timeless.
Books that help you pick good literature:
Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson
Books that Build Character by Kilpatrick
The Sonlight Curriculum catalog
Provide good books for your children. Weed out the fluff. Make going to the library a weekly event.
Take advantage of story time, even when they have a hard time sitting still. Make getting their own library card a big deal.
We have a saying at our house after a trip to the library, “We are rich with books.” Remind them that going to the library is a privilege.
When they are around 3 years old you can get the story books with cassette tapes with the beep sound to tell them when to turn the page and they can “read” all by themselves; a great quiet time activity.
~Art
Come Look with Me books and Draw Write Now.
~Music
Classical music should be a part of everyone’s diet as well as praise and worship.
Kids music that is good is:
Raffi: “Singable Songs for the Very Young” (Down by the Bay where the watermelon grows, up to my home I dare not go for if I do my mother will say, did you ever see a llama eating his pajamas down by the bay?
Steve Green: “Hide em in Your Heart” is great for scripture memory and teaching God’s truth.
“The Rainbow Kingdom” by Paul Tracey
Peter and the Wolf Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra/Carnival of the Animals, teaches children how to recognize the sounds that different instruments make in an orchestra.
Mental Muscle 3
Language:
Create a Verbal Environment
Talk to them and listen to them.
Learn early to ask open ended questions.
Don’t just assume you know how they feel about something.
Don’t put words in their mouths. Ask questions like, “When Sara wouldn’t share with you, how did that make you feel?”
Read, Read, Read!!
The single most effective way to strengthen your child’s language is to read aloud to them. When they get older let them narrate what the story was about back to you. That helps them own the material and narration is the beginning of becoming a good writer.
Mental Muscle 4:
Creativity:
Ways you can inspire creativity:
~Read good books.
~Provide tools for creativity:
Arts and crafts material,
building blocks,
legos, duplos,
dress up outfits, don’t neglect the boys on this,
tools, their own gardening equipment,
cooking utensils,
playdough,
musical instruments.
How many of us can remember making forts out of old sheets or blankets and a table? Taking toys or games or books into the fort and spending a great hour in there?
Allow free time/Boredom
Time is needed for creativity and you need to make allowances for mess and noise.
Mental Muscle 5:
Curiousity:
God has instilled in all of us an innate thirst for knowledge.
Your job as a parent is to help your child to be a self-directed learner.
A self-directed learner
Think about this, you are not in school, getting no degree for any job and yet there are many things you may be curious about. What do you do with that curiosity? I recently saw the movie, Invictus about Nelson Mandela and was so fascinated by the story and the man that I got books from the library to read about his life.
So how does this happen?
Your child asks a question like, where do the stars go during the day? You answer the question and then the next time you go to the library you get a book about space that will interest them. Let them go a little deeper.
Take them into a closet with a flashlight and shut the door, let them see how dark it is, turn on the flashlight and let them see how bright the light is in the darkness. Now go into a bright room, turn on the flashlight, and explain that it is hard to see the light because of the brightness of the room. The light is still there, but unable to be seen.
Take it a step farther, sin is the darkness and living for God is the flashlight in the closet. It will be bright in the dark world. Tell them they want to be a flashlight for Jesus.
Discussion Questions for Becoming A Teacher At Home
Part 2
What values do you want to impart to your child/ren?
Where do those values come from?
What is your favorite children’s book? Why?
Is it a challenge to resist the temptation of using the television as a babysitter?
Make a list of other things that you could use instead that would be less passive.
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