By Steve Demme

 

Our journey to homeschool our children began before we were married. In seminary I had a class on Christian education and another on Christian schools. One of the papers I wrote was entitled, The Millennial View of Education. If there was a millennium in the future, what would education look like? I was seeking a vision for education instead of trying to go back to the good ol’ days. I set out to be like Josiah, who was reading the Bible for the first time. With my old hardback concordance, I looked up every word that had something to do with educating children such as teach, teacher, instruct, instruction, instructor, etc.

 

After searching through these passages, I concluded, somewhat radical in the 1970s, that parents were to be the primary instructors of their children and the curriculum was to be based on the word of God. While there were verses throughout the scripture, Proverbs and Deuteronomy contributed to the lion’s share of the pertinent passages.

 

After graduation, my wife and I were married and God gave us children. A few years later, we attended our first homeschool conference and began meeting families who were home educating their children. We loved the fruit that we saw in the relationships between parents and teens and decided to home educate our sons.

 

One of the key portions of scripture that directly addresses teaching our children is found in Deuteronomy 6:7. I often read this passage and wondered how I was to apply this command, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

 

Should I be leading regular family worship times? What did it look like to talk of God’s commands when I sit in my house, walk by the way, lie down, and rise? I wanted to follow God’s design for families and wondered how to apply this scripture.

 

After many years of trying and failing, family worship became a staple in our home. I taught workshops on how we made this a habit in our family and even wrote a book about it. I also taught about discipling our children and modeling our faith in front of them as we walk by the way and sit in our homes.

 

Then one day a parent approached me at a conference and asked me why I started with the 7th verse and skipped the 5th and 6th verses. I said I did not know and at my first opportunity read them. Deuteronomy 6:5-6, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”

 

A light bulb went off in my mind and I saw the order in which the Holy Spirit had orchestrated His divine blueprint for family discipleship. What we were doing as a family was right and profitable, but I missed the order in which the Holy Spirit has orchestrated His Word. There is a reason verse 5 and 6 precede verse 7. Before I can teach my children to love God and His word, I the teacher, must love God and His word.

 

Before I can expect to teach my children to know and have a relationship with God, I must be in a heart relationship with God myself. I began asking God to help me to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I didn’t know how He would answer this prayer, but since it is clearly according to His will, I knew He would. I expected that I would wake up one morning and experience some sort of quickening in my heart and find my affections being drawn heavenward.

 

But God surprised me by how he answered my heartfelt request. My love for God has increased, but not how I anticipated it. Over a period of several months, God began making me aware of His affection for me. Through a series of experiences and scriptures, His Spirit has been teaching, revealing, and conveying to my heart how much He cares for me. Through these providences, He has been communicating to me how much He loves and even likes me.

One day I remonstrated God and said, I know you love me, but I want to love you with all of my heart. Then it dawned on me, this is how our heavenly Father operates. We read in 1 John 4:19 that “we love because he first loved us.” As I have been shown how much God loves me, I am finding that I love God more than ever. My newfound appreciation for God is in direct proportion to the revelation of His love for me. God has taken the initiative and made me know that I am His and He is mine.

 

I never doubted that God loved me because this truth is taught plainly in Scripture. However the verse that the Holy Spirit used to make me realize how much He loved, and liked me, was John 15:9: “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved You. Abide in My love.” The Father and the Son have an incredibly close, intimate relationship. As I read the gospel of John, I see how much God the Father loves Jesus the Son. Then to think that Jesus loves me as much as His Father loves Him is incredible. I am believing as never before how much God loves me and find myself loving Him more than I ever have.

 

Deuteronomy 6:6 goes on to say, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” I also need to ask God to enable me to love the Word of God and have it “on my heart.” The divine order of the whole passage in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 makes so much sense. When I love God with all my heart, and have His word on my heart, then I am equipped to teach my family to love God and His word.

 

When God and His Word are the desire of my heart, talking about God and His words will flow, when I rise up, walk by the way, lie down, and sit in my house. I see with new eyes that the best thing I can do for my family is to fall in love with God and His Word. A heart relationship with my heavenly Father is what prepares and equips me to teach my children.

 

In hindsight I see that my desire to teach my children is what led me to discover the pattern in Deuteronomy 6. Interestingly this is the same passage that Jesus quotes when asked what is the great commandment in Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  37 And he, Jesus, said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

 

I confess that I never gave much thought to whether I loved God with all my heart or not. But as I pondered on the wisdom and the beauty of this command and the order in which it is found, I discovered that I really wanted to love God with everything in me, and love His word, so that when I teach my children diligently they will know and sense that this message is from my heart and is the most important pursuit of my life.

 

Wanting to be a faithful diligent parent has led me to be a better Christian. Perhaps this is what happened with Enoch in Genesis 5:22 “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah.” He is also mentioned in Hebrews 11:5 “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”

 

May God help us to love Him with all our heart so that we may pass this love on to our children and grandchildren to the glory of God.

 

Originally published on Building Faith Families

 

About the author:

Steve and his wife Sandra have been married since 1979. They have been blessed with four sons, three lovely daughters-in-law, and five special grandchildren. Their fourth son has Downs Syndrome and lives with them in Lititz, PA.

Steve has served in full or part time pastoral ministry for many years after graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the creator of Math-U-See and the founder of Building Faith Families.

 

 

 

 


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 by Michelle Noonan, SPED Homeschool Partner Blooming Sounds

 

The benefits of music based learning are many and clear. Music helps development, cooperation, self-regulation and expression, and activates both sides of the brain, resulting in significant benefits to learning retention, motivation, and more! Luckily for homeschoolers on the go, music is all around us and lessons are readily available anywhere your classroom might be.  

 

Music in Nature

Are you homeschooling on the trail? There are so many opportunities to study music in nature. 

Listen to nature’s songs: Nature is full of little critters that make music–birds, bugs, and frogs, to name a few. Have your child note the different pitches and patterns of “song” they hear while out on a hike or around the campfire. Have your child mimic the bird’s call and response. Add a writing component by having them recount what they imagine the animal is communicating based on the tone and tempo of its call. 

Make music with nature: Kinesthetic learners will appreciate the feel of the crunch of the leaves under their feet and the clicks of pebbles in their hands. Tap rhythm patterns for them to copy with pebbles or stomp them on leaf piles.  Once they get the hang of it, let them lead you into rhythm patterns. They will receive reinforcement of the beat through the tactile patterns and a boost of self-confidence by having you follow their lead! Find different natural music makers, twigs vs stone, for example, and compare the timbre of the different materials.

Describe what you hear in musical terms: Teach musical dynamics by putting the proper vocabulary to the sounds you hear in your nature walks. Is the bird singing legato: smooth and connected between notes or staccato: distinct and separated between notes? Is the babbling of the stream piano: quiet or forte: loud? As you approach a body of water, do you notice the crescendo of sound, the gradual increase of volume? What about the decrescendo as you leave? 

 

Local Learning

Be sure to check out the live local music options wherever you take your homeschooler. Early exposure to diverse music, genre, meter, tonality, etc. benefits your young one for a lifetime. It makes it easier for them to identify, enjoy, express, and play music in the future. Besides the children’s music scene, take your kids to the local symphony, opera, music festivals, and other live events. Bring a sketch pad and crayons and have them draw how the music makes them feel. This can help solidify social-emotional connections and keep them quietly occupied. Add music history to the lesson by having older students research the composer and write a report on their life and legacy. 

 

Online Options

For those looking for more formal classes on the go, the internet offers many options! Families with consistent internet access can sign up for private, group, or family lessons for all ages. When choosing your class, be mindful of your internet availability, choose an instrument that is easy to travel with (for class and practicing in between), and your schedule availability. Many online options will be flexible, but you and your young one will benefit from being as consistent with class time, practice time and frequency as possible. 

 

Make Your Traveling Homeschool Soundtrack

Make up your own songs together, documenting your travels and experiences. You can simply change the lyrics to your favorite songs to suit your story, or you can compose your own tunes to go with it. Collective music making is such a great bonding experience and putting your adventures in song will ensure you will remember them for a lifetime!

Michelle Noonan is the owner and lead instructor of Blooming Sounds LLC, an online music center licensed by Music Together LLC and Canta y Baila Conmigo LLC to provide these amazing early music programs to 0-8 year olds and their grown-ups, including homeschoolers on the go! 

 

 

 

 

 


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 By Kathy Kuhl, from Learn Differently

 

“Socialization”, the word all homeschoolers hate.

This is not because we hate socialization, but rather the fact that relatives and even complete strangers keep asking us about it.

 

As parents of kids with special needs, we do want to help our kids develop social skills, just as we would if they were in public or private school, and sometimes we have to seize the moment.

“My son is just opening up this year, wanting to be around other kids and I am looking for friendly opportunities.”, Mary wrote today, asking if I could help her find a Boy Scout troop open to boys on the spectrum.

 

Whether it’s a Boy Scout troop, Girl Scout, scouting program, team, or extracurricular activity, here are my five tips for finding a good fit for your exceptional child:

  1. Ask your local homeschool friends. At local homeschool support groups, ask around. Don’t forget to post queries to local homeschool lists, message boards, and groups on social media. When you get replies, ask a few questions. Chances are, the parents will love to tell you about what their kids are doing.

If you are talking to someone who doesn’t understand your child’s special need, plan ahead. Think of short ways to explain your child’s behavior: “He loves camping and is very diligent, but is a bit socially awkward.”, “She misses social cues, but is very kind-hearted and loves crafts.” This stranger,  and even the group leader, doesn’t need too much detail initially.

  1. Ask your local chapter of your favorite special needs support organization: CHADD, the Autism Society, Learning Disabilities Association.
  2. Check with your local chapter of the ARC, which deals with a variety of special needs.
  3. Realize that every troop and group is different. When we were looking for a Boy Scout troop many years ago, a friend advised us to visit at least three troops. If we weren’t happy with the first one we visited, she said then we had options. Every group has its own personality.

And if you visited a group a few years ago and didn’t like it, you might go back. That kid your child couldn’t stand may have grown up, or your child may have. That unsympathetic parent may have moved on. The culture of the group could change, especially in places where people frequently move in and out.

  1. When you find the right group, give the leaders a little, but not too much, information. When they do ask a question, resist the urge to launch into your excellent five minute lecture on your child’s disabilities, I’ve felt that urge. You don’t want the leaders to become afraid to ask you anything. Keep it simple.

 

Keep it practical:

“Tom loves scouts. He has attention deficit disorder. He’s not hyperactive, but he is easily distracted. When you need his attention, please call his name before you give him instructions. A tap on the arm can also get his attention. Thanks so much for working with the troop.”

“Sarah is so glad to be in this group. She has an auditory processing disorder that makes it hard for her to make out one voice from other sounds. Her hearing is excellent. Talking louder won’t help, but make eye contact first, tap her arm, and say her name. Then move to the side of the room where it is quieter. We are so grateful for your work with the girls. Can I bring refreshments next month?”

When you’ve found the right group or troop, what’s next? See ‎my next post in this series for tips on helping your child succeed in that group activity.

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Kathy Kuhl equips and encourages parents to help children with learning challenges. After homeschooling a bright, dyslexic, creative, and highly distractible son for grades 4–12, she interviewed 64 families homeschooling students with learning difficulties to write Homeschooling Your Struggling Learner. This handbook helps anyone supporting teens and children with challenges—including learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, autism, and giftedness—and others who “learn differently,” whether diagnosed or not.

 

 

 


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by Zafer Elcik, from SPED Homeschool partner Otsimo

 

For a very long time, we’ve known that the best course of action when it comes to special education for children with special needs is early and intensive education that fits their needs. The past two years of the pandemic have shown us that in a world where there is already inequality in terms of access to quality education, a hiccup in the system can cause even more trouble.

 

Unfortunately, many people weren’t able to access education in general during this time period. This gap in access was even larger for those who were receiving special education and speech therapy support. This is the reason mobile solutions to special education, speech therapy, and homeschooling were suddenly on the rise.

 

Additional mobile solutions and educational support are nothing new for special education spheres. With the pandemic on the rise and everyone at home for their safety, they became of greater importance and attention was paid to effective homeschooling solutions for neurodivergent children.

 

Traditional education solutions sometimes fall short in providing the necessary, tailor-made interventions for kids with learning difficulties. With the pandemic, the systems in place such as IEP, which are there to help cover these gaps, were not being implemented at their most effective level. Naturally, parents and caregivers looked for materials they can leverage at home.  

 

Education doesn’t have to be in a single form. Currently, we have solutions that help integrate neurodivergent kids and children with other learning difficulties into a system developed with neurotypical children in mind. However, there are many things to say about how each and every single child learns differently and at different rates. Being able to school children at home proved this point.

 

It is possible to teach young children even with mundane items at home. When you are cooking dinner they can learn about the ingredients, or you can sit down and color by numbers. Each and every process teaches kids some essential skills. When we switched to distance learning, some kids with learning disabilities and difficulties struggled even harder as it may have been difficult for them to focus outside a school setting.

 

With a pen and paper a parent or guardian can study with their kids, but they don’t have to. There are low-tech and high-tech solutions that are specifically designed to teach children with special needs skills and curriculum based on their developmental level and struggle areas that sometimes come without much financial burden. In addition, these solutions also provided relief for families already burdened with the anxiety of being asked to access special education solutions by professionals.

 

For children with autism, applied behavior analysis (ABA) activities, a scientific technique where the goal is to understand behavior and how the environment affects this behavior, could boost a child’s education at home. ABA could also target a child’s learning disabilities to motivate them to achieve a specific learning goal.

 

A simple example of such an activity could be devising a color sorting game to target many developmental aspects. Get your hands on some colorful pom-poms and containers, and instruct your child to sort them into groups of the same colors. This will help them improve their understanding of colors, while also working on their fine motor skills when they pinch and drop the pom-poms. This is just a simple example of activities at home that could prove immensely useful.

 

Besides solutions that have been in use for many years, there are also mobile solutions that are high-tech. The mobile, high-tech, solutions out there address various topics, from learning letters and maths to social skills such as taking turns. Companies focusing on developing such solutions like Otsimo also offer information and suggestions so as to keep parents and caregivers informed.

 

Mobile solutions are now viewed as essential aides at home when it comes to homeschooling. It is possible to find an abundance of solutions that target different needs and can fit different budgets. The competition is especially high with high-tech solutions as smartphones and tablets are comparatively easier to access in the last couple of decades.

 

Now that we know mobile solutions, low- and high-tech alike, can be powerful tools in homeschooling, it is time for a perspective change in the big picture. There needs to be more investment, research and development efforts channeled to creating mobile solutions, more collaborations that help increase access to solutions by making them free of charge or at low prices where parents and caregivers can apply and implement these at home with ease. 

 

In school, at home, in the car while traveling: every opportunity is a learning opportunity and we can make this happen, because we have the tools and the know-how already at hand.

 

Zafer Elcik, is the Co-founder of Otsimo, a mobile education platform for children with disabilities that he originally designed with a friend to meet the learning needs of his younger brother on the Autism spectrum.

 

 

 


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