Home school conventions and curriculum fairs are full of them: stressed-out homeschooling moms in search of the “perfect” curriculum. Anxious faces suggest meandering through the crowded hallways and sifting through myriads of material is no easy task. Moms stop other moms to ask, “What curriculum do you use?“, hoping to discover the link to a successful school year.
What am I really asking when I implore another homeschooling mother about her curriculum choice? Because in all honesty, the curriculum she uses with her children probably won’t help me with mine.
Giving myself the benefit of the doubt, perhaps her child does learn the same way as my child. Maybe that’s why I’m curious. Maybe I really am looking for the most effective way to teach my child their ABC’s and 123’s.
Or maybe, I’m liking the way her kids are turning out and want my kids to turn out like that too.
It’s silly isn’t it? That I can think the key to a successful home school lies in a brand of textbooks. It’s silly that I can stress over curriculum as if my choice will make my child turn out okay. I can put more thought into how they’re going to learn the comparably insignificant three R’s when my focus ought to be teaching them about our ruin in Adam, redemption in Jesus, and the renewing of our hearts and lives by the Holy Spirit.
What an awful lot of unnecessary pressure we put ourselves under, when ultimately, it’s the grace and power of a super-natural God that is absolutely necessary to make any home school successful!
In the end, it matters not whether Johnny learns to read. Reading won’t get him into Heaven. Neither will his ability to write, compute numbers, or dissect a frog.
“If you try to give people knowledge, and you haven’t trained them in character, based on faith, they will become intellectual reprobates.” – Doug Phillips
In the end, what matters is my child’s salvation. This is not something that can be found in a curriculum, worksheet, or activity binder. I can’t give them a page of multiple choice questions and give them a passing grade. I can’t do anything to make their salvation happen.
Hallelujah!
From beginning to end, salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit, applying the atonement Jesus paid for with His blood to sinners who God loved for no reason in ourselves (Hebrews 7:25).
This is what gives me hope as a home school mom. The God who can save my child is the same God who takes no delight in the death of the wicked, but desires everyone to come to repentance (Ezekiel 33:11). He is the same God who promised that those who seek Him shall find Him (Proverbs 8: 17). And these promises are certain because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrew 13:8).
Therefore, as a homeschooling mom, I ought to be pouring my energies, sweat, and tears not into curriculum, but into familiarizing my children with the Bible because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
Don’t get me wrong. We ought to do due diligence in choosing curriculum that corresponds to the individual needs of our children. But if it’s not working, don’t sweat it. There is one thing needful in a child’s education, and that is to sit at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10:42).
Start your day in God’s Word. Choose curriculum that is Word-centered. Pray for the salvation of your children. Present them with the Gospel as you sit in your house, walk along the road, when you tuck them in bed at night, and when you get up (Deuteronomy 5: 6,7).
Go forward and home school in hope. The salvation of your child does not hinge on your curriculum choice; it rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ who has freely offered Himself in the Gospel.