Education in Our Home

I am ready to participate in another blog hop on Sunday Society. I have been doing all the readings, but have been too caught up on my worldly cares to have time to write. I have repented and am back at writing.

This issue was so timely for me. I am preparing to purchase books that I would like to have to use for our 2011/2012 school year. In the section about education was written

Education essays to elevate the child to an honorable position in society, to assist in making him a competent, intelligent and virtuous citizen, a good patriot.

This is a better worded version of our school motto. This is our goal with our children. We have been working to raise children like those described since our oldest was born. The second sentence in the paragraph made me pause and consider.

If this be the aim, it is palpable that too little stress is often laid upon the moral and religious training of our youth.

My husband and I decided many years ago that nothing matters more than a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. If our children don't have this they have nothing and no amount of education can make up for it. We teach reading so they can study the scriptures, we teach math and art to show the beauty of our God. We study to science to show the order of His creation. We teach history to show that God cares about individual lives and the world as a whole. Everything we teach leads us back to God, if it doesn't, we don't teach it. The bulk of our school time is spent on reading the scriptures and talking about them, memorizing words of our prophets, and character building. We add history, science, math, and others when the Spirit directs (which is almost every day), but some days we only focus on those basics. We have taken some flack over the years for our ideas about education, but Joseph Smith said,

"If we seek first the Kingdom of God, all good things will be added."

This is our attempt at seeking to establish the Kingdom of God or Zion in our home. We try to be governed by God and nothing else, not our whims, desires, or passions, but by what God wants us to do. This means that we are not child led in our school and that our children know that sometimes what God wants us to do is not what we want to do. My children are still so very young and trust everything I say. When I say that their father and I prayed about it and this is the answer they are very willing and anxious to do what God wants. The pressure is on us to make sure that we are having them follow Gods plan and not our own. We are seeking to make His will our will. Thankfully He led me to Milestones Academy so most of the work has been done for me. We take her work and make it work for our family. (thank you Kate, the finding of this site is a miracle that still makes me smile whenever I think of it)

The final paragraph in the article is also another better worded version our our family motto.

When you can get a scholar to obey and to study because it is right, and from a conviction of accountability to God, you have gained a victory which is worth more than all the penal statutes in the world, but can never gain such a victory without laying great stress upon religious principles in your daily instruction.

In the end what matters is that my children are happy and have a firm testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and have the discipline and knowledge to follow His direction.

(I really need to update our family photo, we are missing a person)