Ever feel like you’re on a treadmill?
Often “education” can feel like a checklist of unattainable demands. We are told that the success of our home education is based on whether or not our children can do a/b/c, or d/e/f.
Have you been there? You feel like you are on a treadmill, running endlessly but never really getting anywhere. Education seems more like a burden than a joy.
Courage to Step Off
What if you dropped the list, let the pressures fade away, and took a whole new approach to education?
Think about it this way …
You know those days when your children are bouncing in their seats and humming loud tunes … and it seems well nigh impossible to complete any school work?
You wish in vain that your children would sit quietly and master their multiplication tables. You are frustrated, they are frustrated.
You may have what one of our friends calls a “pencil resistant” child! Give them a paintbrush, lump of clay, a stack of blocks … anything but a pencil and paper! What are you supposed to do?
Consider this: each of your children is a unique creation of God. The typical “one size fits all” educational box doesn’t not take that diversity into account. Instead, it leaves you as the teacher frustrated and exhausted from trying to cram your children into the box!
So maybe your children are not the problem …
Maybe we should reconsider our educational approach.
If our end goal is to equip our children to be the person God made them to be, then we should be asking ourselves: “What does God’s design for education look like?”
What is education modeled after God’s heart? That’s a deep thought!
We know that in our Christian lives God has called us into relationship with Him. The thing about a relationship is that it is not programmed or static. It is individualized and dynamic.
Walking in relationship with God is a step-by-step process. If God is relational, and made us to be relational, then whatever we seek to do, if it is after God’s heart, must also be relational.
That is why we believe that education, at its heart, should be relational.
What does relational education look like?
It starts by recognizing that each of your children is uniquely designed with different strengths and styles of learning. Relational education is structured in such to give opportunities for these differences to be explored and appreciated.
Relational education means that instead of seeking to conform your child to an arbitrary standard of education. You seek to create a nurturing environment where they can grow.
We teach our students relationally, not as mechanical computers intent solely on transmitting facts—with no heart, no artistry, no intuition —but as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. We honor them, listen to them, learn from them, and on and on.
Instead of measuring your children by an educational yardstick, you can enjoy them for who they are!
Does that sound freeing…or does it sound like a lot of work?!!!
You are probably thinking, “How in the world am I supposed to teach relationally? I don’t have a curriculum for that!”
But we do!
Our curriculum was designed to facilitate a tailor made educational approach! It provides a unique combination of structure, making it easy to use, and flexibility, making it perfect for your specific needs.
Without the teacher having to analyze every student or to create a dozen different activities, our program offers suggestions for creating that variety. That means you as the parent don’t have to do all of the preliminary work. You are free to jump in and enjoy the learning process with your children!
Through our curriculum our goal is to set your free FROM the demands of an education checklist, INTO the freedom of a learning adventure!
We want to give you the encouragement needed to get off treadmill and onto the path that leads to real learning! Leave the checklist behind, throw off the burden of unnamed educational standards … be free!
Recognize that education is about relationship! Enjoy your children! Find a way to make learning fun!