My wife has finally submitted the full curriculum. Yay! This calls for a celebration for the hard work and time she put in. Next, we'll need to prepare the room for home visitation once the curriculum is approved. Apparently, the requirement for this 6-year curriculum thingy only started not long ago. Application for homeschooling today has indeed become tougher than the past.
I received a call from the primary school where we had declined the vacancy. The admin staff said, "It's the first time we encounter someone declining the vacancy to go for homeschooling. So we are also not very sure what to do initially." She told us that we still needed to go down and fill up the forms. Thus, I brought J to go and take a look at the school environment. In a nutshell, he said, "I still prefer to be homeschooled."
I mean... which child doesn't like homeschooling?
Last night, J was pretty upset with some stuff. This morning, he recounted the reason as his eyes grew teary. To protect the external party, I won't be sharing the details here.
But this makes me think that it is worth the sacrifice for homeschooling. It will not be easy peasy for parents to choose this road. But it will be beneficial for the child.
A number of people have told me this.... "It is better for the child to face the reality of this world. He eventually has to... so why would you want to take him out of this society? Just put him in."
I personally think that this perspective is not well thought out.
Will you put a baby in the streets to survive on its own, since he will still be walking in the streets one day?
Will you put someone in the battlefield without first training him to war?
Will you put a new believer in a dark environment without giving him any foundation of who God is?
I think you get the point. A child is defenceless when it comes to the internal. His heart is innocent, tender and sensitive. This is why if you bruise a child's heart early in life, he will struggle a big deal when he grows up. There are many adults today with major 'heart' (internal) issues who still behave like a child. Research in psychology will tell you that an adult with mental/emotional challenges usually faced some kind of trauma or was wounded when he was a child. Yes, God can do the supernaturally to heal, etc.
But for many, it is too late (or rather extremely difficult) to deal with it when the child has grown up. Don't mistake academic success as true success. If we can't lead our hearts and direct the internal, it is not true success. When the heart is not built properly, no matter how high you go in the corporate world, you will fall greatly.
A child's early years of development is the time for us to build him up in foundations, especially in identity. When he is geared up, he will be ready to be sent out into the world and the society to face the battle and harsh reality. It does not mean that he won't be hurt in the process, but he has his heart better trained and values better shaped to overcome the challenges.
A child is God's gift to us. What we do with the child is about stewardship. How do we steward what God has given to us?
At the end of the day, God is not just looking at how great your ministry is or how successful you are in your work. He is going to ask, "As a father, what have you done with the child I have given you?" This is what we have to account for. #homeschooling101
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