Christianity and Homeschooling: Making ACTS A Part Of Your Home School Routine
By Mimi Rothschild
One of the reasons that you may have decided to home school is so that you can make sure that worshipping God is an integral part of your children's education and lives. When your children are young they will readily believe in God because you, their trusted parent, tell them that He is real. They may, however, have difficulty understanding the importance of prayer. In your home school curriculum, you can have specific sessions dedicated to teaching your home school students how to pray, and also how to find God in every aspect of their lives. This will help your young students build a fundamental relationship with God, and will set the stage for them to lead the life that God wants for them.
ACTS, which means Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication, is a relatively easy prayer concept for adults to understand; but your very young children may have difficulty understanding those big words. You can, however, set aside time in your home school curriculum to teach your children ACTS on a level they can understand. When you have a special class devoted to learning about how to worship and follow God, your children have the freedom to ask questions about God without the fear of being told that "this is something we can't talk about," as would probably happen in a public school.
To begin, you can tell your home school students how happy it makes you when they tell you they love you, because you love them so much. Explain to them that God also loves them very much and takes care of them, so it also makes God happy when they tell Him that they love Him. Show your young home school students examples of God's love in their lives. During these special home school sessions you can also set aside a time when you and your children can confess wrongdoings to God and ask for His forgiveness. Explain to your home school students that confessing is simply saying that you know you did something wrong, and that you are sorry. Let them watch you confess and ask for forgiveness during this special home school session, and put your prayer in simple words that they can understand.
Before you start each of your home schooling sessions, pray together with your students. Let them hear you give thanks to God for giving you everything you need to home school your children. Let them hear you thank God for other things, even small things, so they can realize that God gives us everything. Ask each of your students to say a prayer of thanks for the things that they are happy about. Giving thanks is one of the easiest prayers for them to learn, because young children can think of many things that make them happy.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling mother, writer, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of home education company Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of 28 years reside with their 8 children right outside Philadelphia, PA.
Rothschild launched Learning By Grace, Inc. because she believed that our nation's public school system has failed parents and students. Learning By Grace, Inc. offers online education through a multimedia-rich curriculum to PreK-12 children across the country and throughout the world.
An accomplished author, Rothschild has written books regarding education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Homeschooling News Café Blog consists of the most current and relevant education news.Electronic reproduction of this article is permitted if content is published unchanged, appropriate credit is given, and the article title links to corresponding article webpage.
