My Husband-to-be's Goals for the Education of Our Children

After we discussed practical home education on the phone one day, Tait sent me the following points in an e-mail:

1. We will emphasize character education. We will work on character prior to formal education, and emphasize it just as one would academics. We will emphasize our children’s relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ much more highly than we will academics. Our motto must be “No amount of education matters if our child goes to hell.”

2. We will heavily, heavily emphasize reading first out loud, then on their own. This will be the major thrust of our teaching.

3. We will work heavily on phonics and basic mathematics. Once these tools are mastered we will expect our children to do the bulk of their learning on their own. This does not mean that they will be unguided or not have to report in; it means that we will help them to set realistic goals, and work through those goals with accountability. On the flip side, this does not mean that we will use any curriculum type standard for what they work on. For example, if one child is interested in archeology, we will feed rather than discourage that interest, meanwhile helping them to balance that passion with other needful interests.

4. We will emphasize a notebook approach to school. The goal: That our children would not just learn to digest spoon fed mush, but would be able to accurately digest information for themselves through a biblical worldview.

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Photo of my fiance, Tait, holding his two youngest nephews, Liam and Aiden