What do caves, corn and creation science have in common?  That’s right, they were all part of our homeschool group’s activities over the past month.  We’ve had an active “Back to School” season, filled with various events. 

Thursday Afternoons

We meet every Thursday afternoon for a time of enrichment; a time for families to come together to learn and grow in several areas.  Recently, we been doing drawing lessons and book discussions, in addition to presenting projects that the kids have been working on as part of their schoolwork. 

Since, fitness is important in our lives, we always play a sport during the second half of our time together.  In September, Danielle Harnisch was able to give us lessons in volleyball skills.  The month of October had great weather for football, so we donned our bandanas (for flag football) and the kids were able to score some touchdowns!

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Field Trips and Lessons

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In addition to our regular meetings, we were also able to go on several field trips.  In mid-September, we toured Crystal Cave in Spring Valley.  We had a great time learning about rocks, bats, and total darkness.  We were also able to visit Valley Feeds where Nick gave a tour of the feed mill, teaching us about what he does and what farm animals eat.  The kids were even able to mix up multiple bags of pig food, complete with learning to tie a miller’s knot. 

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One more opportunity that we were able to be apart of was a Creation Science class with Laura.  The kids learned all about fingerprints and the God-given, unique differences in them.  Who knew there were so many different kinds! 

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Prayer Requests

• That our day-to-day at home learning, teaching, parenting would glorify God
• For unity in our homeschool group

If you think back to your time in school, there was probably a subject you did not really like. When we are homeschooling our kids the same thing tends to be true for each one of them. It may be they just do not have an interest in a particular subject. It may also be the case that one subject is more difficult for them.

Whichever the case may be, it is important to encourage them that what they are learning in school is not just about getting through the lessons but it is about learning about the world that God created. Here is a podcast from Pastor John Piper where he responds to a question he received from an 8 year old that didn’t like math. To quote the article, “God loves it when his people, including 8-year-olds, study his world, and understand it, and use it for his glory.”

It is important for all of us to remember that there is a reason to study what we are studying. We learn math (or any subject) not just to graduate and get a job, but ultimately to use what we learn for God’s Kingdom.

This is one of those articles that isn’t just for parents, but its also a good one for kids (or college students and those who hate math) to listen to.

The Homeschool Group has been active over the past few months. We’ve done various sports, lessons and even some team building challenges to help develop skills in a group setting. For instance, many of the activities are geared towards learning to work together to accomplish or create something.

In April, we were able to take our first field trip of 2021. We spent the day at Irvine Park and Zoo, hanging out with the animals and hiking on the trails.

In May, we had the opportunity to get two different lessons in! Justin taught us some drumming skills, which turned out to be the ultimate challenge in teamwork! In addition, we are also able to connect with Laura for a Creation Science lesson.

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Now that summer has arrived, we’ve taken a break from our weekly “Schoolwork Time” and have taken on Team Building Challenges. The kids work together to construct various towers and other such things out of spaghetti and mini marshmallows, paperclips and straws, plasticware and Post-it Notes. Sometimes, it gets a little challenging, but the kids all seem to be having fun. In the future, we will be working on parachutes, bridges, catapults, and boats!

As for our fitness time every week, we’ve worked on endurance jogging, track and field events and, most recently, soccer over the past months.

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And lastly, it’s always fun to prank your kids on hot days by having them smile nicely for a group picture and then sneak up from behind with cold water!

Over the past months, the Homeschool Group has continued to meet weekly for a time of shared work and fitness. We’ve also been able to interact with several covenant members, as well as the whole Kindred Group.

In November, we bundled up at the church campground to look at the stars and planets through Cory’s telescope. We celebrated New Year’s Eve with a showing of The Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe with Kindred, complete with movie trivia. January brought a virtual Creation Science lesson with Laura, ice skating with Kelsey and a parenting discussion. Several weeks ago, the kids learned the different positions in ballet as Carrie gave a lesson in dance. We love that we are part of a church that has people with so many interests and talents!

Our weekly meeting is a time where the kids can share about different topics they are learning about. In this way, they are working on public speaking skills. Right now most of them are working on being loud enough for the people across the room to hear them as they speak with masks on. After a time of shared reading, workbooks are opened and practice spelling tests are given to each other. It’s nice to interact with friends during this time.

Why American Children Stopped Believing in God by Cameron Hilditch

There is no doubt that our society is becoming more and more secular. Why this is occurring is something that many people may want to debate. Some would say that more education is simply causing people to have less belief in God. Research seems to point to something else. In the article below the argument is made, based on research, that more education has never made people less religious. What has made people less religious, and more secular, is our education system itself and the secular ideology that it promotes.  

This quote from the article sums this up nicely:

Children learn more at school than reading, writing, and arithmetic. They imbibe a whole set of implied assumptions about what’s important in life. By excluding religious instruction from public schools, the government-run education system tacitly teaches students that religious commitments are not a first-order priority in life. Faith in God becomes a sort of optional weekend hobby akin to playing tennis or video games. 

It is worth noting that the above quote is true regardless of how secular the school is. Many public schools may not be teaching anything that seems blatantly anti-Biblical.  However, they are teaching kids what is important and what their focus in life should be. For many of us the answer to this issue is to take control of our children’s education by educating them at home.  Read the article and consider what it says about the importance of our children’s education.