Part 4 -Home Schooling High Schoolers + Marilyn's Recommended Reading List for High Schoolers

Laura on a missions Trip in Romania

Why I'm Glad I Homeschooled Through High School - Reasons #11-#13

11. Crucial time to develop their relationship with the Lord, like no other time in life

We have been inspired for years by the following quote: "Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God". Habits developed during the teen years establish a great pattern for life.

It is a wonderful time to establish the practice of Bible study. We wrote a study, Power in Proverbs, to help our high schoolers learn how to gain their own insights for daily living, using a Bible concordance, looking up practical topics from the Book of Proverbs; topics such as finances, friendships, attitudes, the use of our words, etc. Also for my junior high/high-schoolers I put together a set of flashcards for Scripture Memory, Daily Wisdom Flashcards. They give students practical life verses to memorize and meditate on. Guide your teen into spending considerable time daily in studying God's Word as a guide for how to make daily decisions at this crucial time of life.

Consider having your high-schooler attempt projects for the Lord such as writing a book, being involved in missionary exploits, taking part in learning trips (our kids participated in a study trip to Israel conducted by the pastor of our church with a group of adults/teens who took their Bibles and learned what happened at the sites they visited. The kids attested to the fact that they will never read their Bibles the same again. As they read, they can picture the places in their mind.), service projects for others, helping elderly, pouring into lives of children, nieces, nephews, friends, etc , build a business, political endeavors, educating themselves by CD’s, DVD’s, books, creative pursuits- quilts, whatever, saving money to prepare for future while living at home and developing a nest egg for getting married, starting a business, etc. You get the picture!! Never will there be a time in life they’ll have as much free time.

In preparation for a vocation, let your high schooler try out different jobs to see what they want to do, what fits, where God is leading them. Often they can be way ahead of those attending college who have no clear goals, and are just doing it because that’s what everybody does. I wouldn’t let my child go to college with out having a clear goal first. Maybe they could take courses online in areas of their interest.

Our daughter, Emmy, wanted to learn specific skills in piano. She went to a local university and was tutored once a week in piano by one of the profs, learning what she needed personally instead of getting a liberal arts degree and not having much time actually spent in music. She instead focused on skills she felt a need to acquire and now is in charge of the music for our church. During that time she cleaned houses and saved money instead of spending it on a degree that she didn't need.

Grace, another daughter, is now working for our ministry the Learning Parent, saving money, studying her Bible, reading books, spending time with her horses and animals and developing relationships with other like-minded girls and older women of all ages. She recently took a middle aged lady and an elderly lady for wagon rides behind the horses and all had a wonderful time!

12. This time of life can be the best preparation for life-Beware of sacrificing the most important for vain substitutes

I'm going to list a few of vain substitutes that many parents put their kids back in school for, just so they won't miss out on these events:

Sports-Rick addressed this in a previous blog posting, but consider teaching character through honest work, family cooperation, investing in others, and deferring to others. Sports is a god in our society. There are many people who are sacrificing the spirits of their children on the altar of sports

My son Rick, in our DVD presentation, Educating for Eternity, cautions parents against thinking they are 'involved' by spending hours taking their kids to sports practices and watching them play. They think they are involved, but really they are just spending time with a bunch of other kids and their parents, not quality, concentrated time on their own child. He says their is a huge difference between building a close relationship with your child and training them to make wise decisions which takes close, personal time and racing around to practices and hollering at your child from the stands.

There is a better way yet!!

Proms-yuk! We as parents need to evaluate our own values. We need to teach Biblical standards of dating, not prep for divorce. Just because we may have grown up doing things in public schools and enjoyed it at the time, doesn’t mean it is going to be a spiritual benefit in our children’s lives.

Debate-Arrange one with another family or within your own family

Drama- Our kids put on productions. The little kids do a Fourth of July parade every year and learn songs from Take Your Hat Off When the Flag Goes By . The older kids and adult kids put on a quality presentation each Christmas called Holiday Carols and invite members of the community, some of whom would never attend a church service and here they hear the true story of Christmas!

For several years our family sponsered and sang in Benefit concerts and helped to raise thousands of dollars to help a suffering family at the same time or present the gospel, etc.

Labs- use the kitchen! Don’t need a Bunsen burner. You’ve got the stove top. We get used to not thinking and just doing what we’ve done the way we were told to do it. Videos of dissections are available or specimens are available, too, if you think it is something your child would benefit from. Make those determinations on an individual basis, child to child

Friendships- be careful with this one. The Bible tells us the companion of fools will suffer harm. Indiscriminate social relationships can be counterproductive and even deadly. The beauty of home education is that you can choose godly people to expose your child to, of ALL ages. Invite older, godly people into your home. Teens can benefit from the wisdom of aged and not become addicted to the folly of youth. Teens can also develop a sweet tenderness for the young by helping with little ones. I love to see the closeness of most homeschooling families.

Beware of electronic entertainments- habit-forming. Limit time spent on computer games, X box...Some things you may never want to introduce in the first place. Provide plenty of wholesome opportunities and challenges, real things so electronic entertainmenst won’t be so attractive.

Beware of too many extracurricular activities. Our purpose is to build spiritually prepared servants of God, not well-rounded individuals seeking to have their wants or desires met. Prepare them to meet the needs of others.

Be creative. If your child needs something you don’t know how to provide, look to creative alternatives to gvt. schooling- ex. Rosetta Stone- languages, church ministry groups, ESL, speaking to those from other countries in person.

Math-u-see- lesson provided by DVD each week, with simple to follow instructions that promote self- learning.

13. God’s Plan for Perpetuating Godly Generation

“While 80% of evangelical children are abandoning their parent’s faith and life, among homeschoolers, an estimated 90% plan to carry on their parent’s vision by home educating their own children!! That’s huge!! That is from research done by Brian Ray www.nheri.org)

Consider the potential of raising godly seed.

The average couple in the U. S is having children at the rate of 1.7 per couple. The average homeschooler is having kids at the average rate of 3.8 and God has laid on hearts of many to let Him plan their families. God is using the Homeschool Movement to bring about revival in our land and I’m excited about it and want my family to have an active role in it!! Kevin Swanson of CO. did some projecting based on current trends, and if things progress as they are now, by 2027, we should see 6 million kids being homeschooled, and by 2050 , 15 million. Now that is all projection, but consider the potential of godly families perpetuating their vision to their posterity!!

Brian Ray’s studies of 18-25 yr olds show that in the general population, political involvement

beyond just voting is 17% as opposed to 70% of home schooled adults between the ages of 18 and 25. That is huge!!

I've recently been studying preachers of the American Revolution. They were the impetus behind the stand for freedom. They believed that resistance to tyranny was obedience to God- a sacred duty to posterity and to God.

Quoting from Rev. Samuel West of Dartmouth in his election sermon of 1776:

“To save our country from the hands of our oppressors ought to be dearer to us than our lives, and next the eternal salvation of our souls, the thing of greatest importance-a duty so sacred that it can not be dispensed with for the sake of our secular concerns.”

We are on the brink of losing our godly heritage and our godly culture, but I have hope for our country because of you- the dedicated men and women who are raising up our next generation of leaders. Let us not grow weary or buy the lie of Satan that we are just not qualified. God has given us a job to do, and He will provide the means for us to accomplish what is best for each of our children. Press on! It's exciting to be a part of God's moving in our times and you and your family are right in the thick of it! Glory to God!!

~Marilyn

Many of you have asked for it- Marilyn's Recommended Reading List for High Schoolers

"This is a list of books I gave my kids for them to choose titles to read during their high school years. It`s not meant to be exhaustive, but titles we found beneficial."

Download it here for just $1