Mimi Rothschild - Home School Support & Home Education News

By Mimi Rothschild

The core of home school, which is forgotten even in some good, solid Christian families, is Christianity. Just because the curriculum you follow does not introduce God and other Christian beliefs into the syllabus, does not mean you can’t include it in your daily home school routine.

It is a parent’s responsibility to teach Christianity to their children, and it is a duty of all Christians to share their faith with others. The best place to start sharing your faith is in your own home with your children. Home school allots a perfect time to include your faith beliefs during studies. Teaching Christianity during home schooling is part of God’s plan for reestablishing family life in today’s modern world.

Home school parents have understood that it is time to quit immersing ourselves in possessions, double income families and that it is time to invest in our children. It is the chief responsibility of parents to teach their children. Home schooling has quickly become a viable option for families—a way to instruct our children as students and teach them in the ways that we see fit. Christian families, who have less access to Christian-teaching centered schools, find sanctuary in home schooling. They now have the control over what their children are learning and how they are learning it. Now, parents can take the reins and teach curriculum to their children while instilling Christian values that are lacking in the educational system.

Non-Christian families are also touting the logistics of home schooling, claiming that it is a lack of secular education surrounding history, geography, grammar and literature. The fundamental motivation is the necessity of valid Christian instruction.

The United States is quickly becoming a secular democracy, which undermines and flat out ignores the rights of God in our society — one of the most elementary rights of man. Home schooling allows parents to teach Christian faith to their children, steeping them with moral values and a religious base that more mainstream educational institutions lack.

Home schooling recognizes the need for restoring family life through Christianity being taught as well as curriculum. Christian families are realizing the need to include themselves into their children’s lives — immersing themselves in the very fundamental aspects of their children’s lives — school. It is by teaching their children the likes of mathematics and sciences that they find routes towards God. Crevices in the educational breakdown that allow for segues to more Christian outlooks on problems and solutions.

By Mimi Rothschild

Christian homeschool parents can take advantage of the freedom to include Christianity in their children’s education. This is a choice that is not available to public schools, who must, by law, go by a strictly secular curriculum. Many parents choose to homeschool for this reason, because they believe that the teachings of Christianity are equally if not more important than all of the basic school subjects.

For Christian homeschoolers, teaching children about Christian principles and ideals is a priority; one that doesn’t have to conflict at all with regular school studies. On the contrary, Christian principles and teachings can be incorporated into all school subjects, opening the door for healthy and beneficial discussions. Your children can learn to read and learn bible stories at the same time. You can use examples from the bible to do math problems, such as “when it rained for forty days and forty nights, how many hours was that?”

When you include your Christianity in everything you do, including homeschool, you let your children know that their beliefs can be present in every part of their lives. They learn that the teachings of the bible and the teachings of Christ are relevant to everything that they learn, do, or say. There is no confusion about what is the “proper” time or place to practice their beliefs; in homeschool it is always okay.

Even though you can incorporate Christian teachings and principles into any of your children’s school subjects, it is also important to take some time where the learning is all about Christianity, and nothing else. You and your children can set aside time each day to have discussions about your faith, and as your children get older these discussions can become more in depth. Your children’s Christian beliefs will always be the most important aspect of their lives, and in the homeschool environment they can learn what this truly means. In homeschool, your children will know that they have religious freedom in all areas of their lives, and that it does not have to be “left at the doorstep” when they are being educated, as it does in public school. Your homeschool children will pray in their school, and will be able to acknowledge that all things come from God, and can openly thank him for this.

It is the Christian homeschool parents’ duty to teach their children about their faith, and help their children realize just how important it is in their everyday lives.

By Mimi Rothschild

The Bible says sin is what separates us from God. Even though our government is fond of separating God from every aspect of our lives except for church services, this is not what God intended for us. Colossians 3:17 puts it this way: And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. We can substitute the word “all” in the above verse with virtually any word and we should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. We should live in the name of the Lord Jesus and yes, we should homeschool in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That’s the beauty of homeschooling. We have the freedom to do all and teach all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Have you ever prayed over algebra? What about fractions? We could teach tithing as we teach fractions. As important as it is to teach our children about Christ and incorporate Bible lessons into our homeschool curriculum, we don’t have to separate the classes and wait until we’re having a Bible class to teach about Jesus.

Just as we can teach math in the supermarket, we can teach about Jesus during math class and science class and all of our homeschool classes. English class would be a great time to teach Job 27:4: Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall my tongue utter deceit. Not only do we need to teach the parts of speech in our homeschool English classes but how and how not to speak. As we teach about nouns and verbs, why not teach about truth and lies? That lesson could lead us into the teaching of the Ten Commandments.

The world likes to teach our children there is a time and place for God. Yet, Jesus teaches that time and place is all the time and everywhere. As we prepare our homeschool students for life out in the world on their own, it’s important to teach them there is no separation of Christ and life. Look at the damage being done today by the separation of the Lord Jesus and sex education. This is the very reason many of us homeschool our children.

As we are to “put on Christ” so are we to teach Christ. Our homeschool and our home should be Christ’s classroom every day and every class.

By Mimi Rothschild

With more parents becoming disillusioned by traditional teaching methods and the public education system, it’s no wonder that many are considering homeschooling as a viable alternative. Public school in North America is no longer doing its job academically, physically, and more importantly, it’s failing morally and spiritually. In addition, education in general has largely become the state’s business, and the state public education authorities tend to assume they are the regulators of education, even if children attend a private or a homeschool.

However, many parents who homeschool their children believe God has given them the primary responsibility for their children’s education. They take that responsibility seriously, raising their children outside of the conventional education system and within God’s standards, teaching right from wrong, biblical principles and character growth, which is absent and even rejected within public schools.

Homeschooling is the best choice for Christian children and families as the Scriptures clearly model a homeschool example. The Bible illustrates educational principles that support homeschooling as not only a viable alternative but a preferred choice to conventional schooling. To begin with, the Bible says children belong to God, but He has commissioned their parents with the authority and responsibility of raising them and teaching them according to His Word. A homeschool environment allows families to follow this commandment. Nowhere in the Bible does it say the state or government or any earthly authorities besides parents have the authority to raise and teach children.

Besides parents being the educational authorities in their children’s lives, which the homeschool environment supports, Scripture also clearly indicates there are certain conditions to be met with respect to educating children. For example, parents are meant to teach their children about God and His principles and commandments at every opportunity—not just “classroom time.” Having a homeschool is great because of the flexibility, and families are not limited to the same confines that exist in public schools. Every moment and everywhere they go can be a learning opportunity!

In addition, the Bible says parents must train their children to not only know about Christianity and believe as a Christian, but to think as a Christian. Homeschooling allows parents the opportunity to do just that, but public schools often teach in a way that negates Christian thinking. Furthermore, while parents are instructed by God’s Word to provide a biblically-based education, which having a homeschool allows them to do, they are also supposed to protect their children from the negative socialization found in the public school system. Parents who choose to homeschool their children often note the anti-Christian and anti-God atmosphere in public schools and desire to protect their homeschoolers from that.

Homeschooling is not only the best choice parents can make for educating their children; it’s the right, biblically mandated choice. Scripture supports the homeschool environment, and parents as the primary responsibility and authority for raising and educating their children according to God’s laws and overall design for the lives of His children and Christian homeschool families. Homeschooling is God’s ideal.

By Mimi Rothschild

Should you allow your children to attend youth group? This is a question that is posed by many Christian families as their children become old enough to go to youth group. The question may be differently answered for home schooled students than for children who attend main stream schooling.

Many Christian families do not allow their children to attend youth group as they feel it is more important for their children to be a part of the church as a whole instead of being segregated by their age into a separate group. Home schooled children look to their parents to be role models—at home and at church. Is it pertinent to allow your home schooled children to attend youth group instead of regular church or to allow them to participate in the youth group activities?

Many home schooling parents keep their children with them during the regular church services to build a routine with them in their Christianity. It seems to some that to send the children away to youth group during regular services is to keep them out of the church for 18 years and then spend the next 18 years trying to get them back.

Going to church and/or youth group is similar to home schooling. It is a time that should be spent with families—you can be your own youth group with your home schooled child! Youth group activities can be altered to be a family event—something that you and your home schooled children do together. Why not have pajama parties at home? It can really help to open the lines of communication and may present new inroads for education and can flow into your home school schedule.

The family idea, as designed by God, was created with the foundation of society that includes church. Church is meant to be one of the foundations of family and by segregating your children from that, their foundations are not as complete.

Some people will say that by not allowing your children to attend youth group and homes schooling them is sheltering them from life and from their peers. On the contrary, others will argue that it’s not segregating them, but raising them to believe they are part of a whole family unit—one that includes Christianity and God. Whether or not you allow your home schooled children attend youth group or not is a decision to be made within the family unit. You are the role model for your home schooled child in education—why not in Christian education and church as well?

By Mimi Rothschild

Home school parents know when their children are ready to read by observing, participating, and encouraging their development from a very early age. Home school parents interact with their children on a daily basis, open to their curiosity and supportive of their initiative. Since each child is different in personality and aptitude, only the home school parents can determine when is the right time.

Home school children will begin to take an interest in the words they see in their home school environment, the ones in books, newspapers, and magazines. They will be interested in the words and pictures on boxes, envelopes, and letters. Home school children will ask, “What is that? What does that say? The home school parent has the time to carefully explain the labels, the addresses, and the words to them. The first step in learning to read begins with the sounds of individual letters. The home school child learns to read by repeating and remembering what he hears. There can never be too much repetition of sounds and words.

Books with pictures are fascinating to the home school child. They begin to ask questions about each picture and soon learn the meaning of each one. The young home school child will try at an early age to tell a story in his own words, partially remembering the sounds he’s heard and later identifying the words he reads. Parents of home school children can help them learn to read with cutout or magnetic alphabet letters and building blocks. The home school child will soon learn that A is for apple, remember the sound, and associate the sound with the word.

Read anything and everything to your home school child. There are games that the home school family will enjoy playing, such as Hangman and Scrabble, which will help your children learn to read. Introduce your child to the library and make it a part of your home school activities. He or she will be excited to have his own card and books to bring home, just like Mom and Dad. Crossword puzzles are excellent tools for furthering reading, and vocabulary, skills. Reading can be a quiet pastime when the home school family reads together or alone, at times sharing what they read with each other.

Who wants to be a reader? We all do and teaching your child how to read in home school will open a brand new world of knowledge, adventure, and fun.

By Mimi Rothschild

If the thought of teaching your children in homeschool appeals to you, but you are afraid that you may not have what it takes, think again. It is easy to feel intimidated when you see another homeschooler doing everything right, teaching his or her children so well that they are thriving and excelling in every subject. What you may not realize, however, is that all homeschool parents usually start out feeling a little apprehensive about what they will be attempting to do. Most people grew up going to public school, and were taught to believe that a good education can only be had by adhering to the rules and curriculum of the public school system. It is hard to dispel these notions and learn that as a parent you can be your child’s best teacher, and your home can be his or her most effective school.

It does take organization and planning to be a homeschooler – there is no argument there. However, if you stop and take stock of how successful you are in other areas of your life, you will realize that homeschool is simply another challenge that you are perfectly capable of meeting. If you run a household, manage bills, help run church activities, etc, then you know how to organize and plan already. Planning your children’s homeschool curriculum and organizing your children’s homeschool days are tasks that you have the skills to accomplish.

You may worry that you simply don’t know enough to be effective as a homeschool teacher. Although it’s true that public school teachers have to obtain a college degree in order to be able to teach, this doesn’t mean that they are the only ones who are capable of doing so. One of the biggest problems these days with the public school system is the “categorizing” of children into groups, bypassing the individual attention that every child needs to get the most from his or her education. Your advantage is that you know your child better than anyone else, and in homeschool you can focus on your child’s personality and develop a curriculum that takes advantage of his or her particular learning style. Your homeschool child will learn at his or her own pace, and will be exposed to aspects of learning that public schools simply cannot provide.

You can be a homeschooler. All it takes is a little planning, a little organization, and the desire to give your children the best education possible.

By Mimi Rothschild

Parents consider homeschooling their children for a myriad of reasons, and you might also be thinking about turning your own child into a homeschooler. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to homeschool to control the atmosphere, curriculum and teaching style; perhaps you’ve become disillusioned with the public education system. There are plenty of reasons to choose homeschooling as a positive alternative for educating your kids.

First of all, studies point to evidence that children who are tutored do better academically than their peers in traditional school settings. Socially, children in a homeschool are actually protected from the potentially negative influences in a public classroom, and homeschool parents can still take measures to ensure their children interact with others in healthy and controlled environments. Another reason to homeschool your children is to develop and strengthen family relationships. Parents who teach their children and siblings who learn side by side grow together and learn to appreciate and respect each other more because of the quality time they are spending together. In addition, choosing and creating a homeschool environment allows the parents to help their children grow spiritually. Through a homeschool environment, parents are able to teach their homeschoolers ethics, morality and biblical principles as well as character growth, and give them the chance to study the Bible directly.

However, probably the best reason for Christians to choose to homeschool their children is because homeschooling is modeled in Scripture. The Bible asks parents to commit to raising and teaching their children in all areas and at all ages. Fathers are given the primary responsibility, but mothers are also required to raise and teach their children God’s commandments. Parents, as the child’s closest and constant companions, are also meant to teach about God at each given opportunity — anywhere, anytime; not just in a classroom from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday. This is why a homeschool environment is so conducive to living, learning and teaching the way God intended — parents can create their own homeschool according to God’s design.

The first and foremost component of study in a homeschool should be the Bible, or the true Word of God — the lens through which all believers need to view the world and everything in it. The second component of study in a homeschool is everything the Lord has created, which includes subjects like mathematics, history, science, geography, art, music and languages. Many homeschool parents decide to forego the methods regular schools take and study these subjects using a “unit-study” approach, which considers the relationship between all the subjects and how God views them.

If you’re considering homeschooling your children in a Christian environment, it’s important to keep in mind that the ultimate goal of home education is not merely academic or social preparedness but also character training — for the children as students as well as for the parents as teachers –that they would all grow together from simply a homeschool family to a family that is pleasing and honoring to God.

By Mimi Rothschild

A homeschool is both an institutition and an activity which encompasses interactive learning and communication. In a homeschool, children get to balance their academic education with extracurricular activities like dramatics and sports. In the same breath, one can say that running home school is a thrilling, self-satisfying but at the same time a busy activity for parents as well as children. The key to successful learning is the right kind of communication.

Does communication have to be present only when you are imparting education? What about listening and having a heart to heart conversation between the parent and the home school student? It is a common norm for parents to believe that such kind of “family discussions” should happen at the dinner table. So when the clock chimes at six, everyone is expected to assemble at the dinner table and talk about the day’s activities and what plans they have for the following days to come.

Though a family meal is a good idea, it has been observed that such dinner table discussions used to work well during the past. However in today’s world where life is quite hectic and people are constantly on the ‘move’, it is quite difficult to arrange a dinner table family discussion at a given point in time. Also as home school children grow up, they get busy with a lot of activities. They have to study or go for their choir practice, hit the gym or do part time jobs. So it is not just that traditional school students have no time to be present at the dinner table during the scheduled hour. Even home school children at times, find it difficult to be a part of the dinner-table meeting ritual as they have to accommodate to their busy schedule. It is not that home school children do not value time with their parents. It is just that they get involved in some activity or program that makes it difficult to take time out for a family meeting.

No doubt a family meeting and a heart to heart conversation is quite important. So, how do you create a win-win situation where you do not disturb the schedule of your home school child and also at the same time make the family meeting a certainty? To begin with, the home school parent should not be rigid about the family meeting schedule. The point is not to have the family meeting at a certain point in time, but to spend quality time with your family.

Quality time does not solely mean a family dinner at six. Think beyond the dinner table. Similarly family functions should also not be an excuse for planning a family meeting. Consider planning a family meeting on a weekly basis involving your home school children. At the start of the week, you should discuss with your spouse and home school children and arrange for everybody to meet at home on a specific day at a specific time at least, once a week. Be open to last minute changes like an illness or a sudden trip which a family member has to make. However you should choose a day which is least like to conflict any busy schedule.

Create a warm, lovable, humorous and a vibrant atmosphere. The homeschool child should be so charged up after the meeting that he or she should be ready to be a part of the next meeting with a lot of enthusiasm. During the family meeting, the homeschool child gets to learn a lot from the parents and the elders. They should provide a good example to the home school children by inculcating rules of good conversation. They should not speak out of turn. They should listen first and then only express their point of view without offending sentiments of others. Homeschool children who are very young may not have much to say. However you should make them present during the meeting. They can have a small room where they can play quietly. Over the years these small home school children will soon find their way into the hall where the meeting takes place and participate in the conversation. The family meeting is also one of the best ways to plan the home school schedule and family plans for the coming weeks and months.

By Mimi Rothschild

Setting up a home school for your child gives you a great deal of flexibility. You not only get the opportunity to choose what to include in your home school curriculum and when to schedule any particular lesson, you also get to maximize your child’s learning. In order to maximize your child’s learning experience in your home school, it is important to recognize the difference between teaching and learning and how you can teach your child to learn.

Teaching conjures up images of a parent, teacher, professor, pastor, or other learned person dispensing specific information to a group of learners. The group of learners is generally young, but not always. The teacher is speaking and the group is theoretically listening, understanding, and learning. However, in real life, this is not how people learn, especially children. Your home school gives you the power to break this mold and allow your child to learn in a way in which he will absorb the most knowledge that you, your home school curriculum, and the world has to offer.

Of course, common sense should tell you that the traditional teacher/student model that is employed in most traditional schools doesn’t pass muster. If you take a moment to recall your own experiences as a student in a traditional school, you will remember a fair amount of note passing, doodling, and daydreaming. If you were like most students, whatever the teacher was saying didn’t much interest you, and you learned by cramming for tests to get good grades to keep your own parents off your case. By setting up a home school for your child, you have the opportunity to rectify this situation, to teach your kids in the way that you wish you were taught. Home school gives your child the chance to expand her mind through the process of discovery and experimentation and not just through dry book learning.

When your kids are in home school, you don’t need to make them read dry history books. You can take them to local museums, show them interesting films and movies, and have them create projects so that they will really absorb the lesson. Your home school curriculum can include trips to the nature center, zoos, and aquariums. Instead of reading about fish and plants and animals, you can teach your child about the natural world through experiencing nature. Home school allows your child the chance to discover and absorb, so that she remembers what she is taught and can build on that knowledge through the years, instead of having to relearn the same set of boring facts every single year, as is the norm in traditional school.