“Having Christ at the center of our homeschools means more than just isolated Bible lessons. It’s about integrating scripture into every aspect of our day and modeling a Christian life for our children.”
Amy Sloan
I recently sat down for a thought-provoking conversation with Amy Sloan, of Humility and Doxology, delving into the significance of making Christ the center of our homeschool. Offering a wealth of wisdom from her personal experiences, Amy shared valuable insights on nurturing faith, cultivating relationships, and embracing the unique journey of homeschooling. In this article, we will explore the key takeaways from this inspiring interview, highlighting a few powerful quotes from Amy that encapsulate the essence of her message.
“What I’m seeing even more clearly now is just what a gift it is to be able to bring the gospel to bear across everything we’re doing. This is our life, this is God’s world.”
A Comprehensive Christ-Centered Education:
Amy emphasizes the importance of nourishing our children’s hearts, minds, and souls in homeschooling. It goes beyond simply having isolated Bible lessons. Instead, integrating the teachings of Christ into every aspect of life lays a firm foundation for children to deeply understand and connect with their Creator and Savior. By making scripture a seamless part of their daily routines, homeschooling families have the opportunity to instill fundamental Christian values, build a sound Biblical worldview, and foster a genuine love for God’s Word in their children’s hearts.
“We need to prioritize Christ as our ultimate goal, rather than viewing homeschooling as an idol. It is a powerful tool, but not the end-all solution.”
Balancing Priorities and Embracing God’s Sovereignty:
Amy reminds us of the danger of placing too much focus on homeschooling, inadvertently turning it into an idol. While homeschooling undoubtedly offers numerous benefits, it is essential to remember that our ultimate goal is to glorify Christ. By prioritizing our relationship with Him, rather than being consumed by the pressure to achieve specific outcomes through homeschooling, we find peace and freedom from fear and anxiety. Trusting in God’s sovereignty, we can rest assured that He is at work in our children’s lives, even when the journey becomes challenging or veers off the expected path.
Homeschooling to Nurture Faith and Family Bonding:
Throughout our conversation, Amy shared her personal experiences as a homeschooling mom (and second-generation homeschooler herself). She and her husband made the decision to homeschool even before they got married, recognizing the immense value in personalized education and the opportunity to prioritize their faith within their home. By homeschooling, they have been able to spend quality time with their children, witness each of their educational milestones, foster deep sibling connections, and integrate their faith into every aspect of learning.
Navigating Challenges and Encouragement for Parents:
Amy compassionately acknowledged the challenges parents may face during difficult seasons with their children, irrespective of age. She encourages parents to create safe spaces for their children to express their emotions, actively listen to their concerns, and nurture understanding rather than always trying to fix their problems. Sharing her personal struggles, Amy underscored the significance of family worship and the non-negotiable daily practice of devotions as a means to seek God’s guidance and strength – but she also recognizes that, ultimately, the outcome of homeschooling and parenting isn’t up to her. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is the one who helps us understand and apply the Word of God. It is the Spirit who transforms hearts and enables obedience
Conclusion:
Hopefully, my conversation with Amy will serve as a guiding light for parents embarking on the homeschooling journey. With a resolute focus on Christ-centered education, Amy encourages parents to cultivate a holistic approach that seamlessly integrates scripture, family relationships, and individual faith growth into their homeschooling experiences. By embracing Christ as the ultimate goal, relinquishing control, and trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit, parents can navigate challenges, nurture their children’s hearts, and create an environment where their faith can flourish.
To listen to the full conversation with Amy Sloan, follow the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast on your favorite podcast app and embark on an empowering journey toward Christ-centered homeschooling. Also, please take a minute to share this article or Amy’s interview on social media. It is one of the simplest and most effective ways to support the Schoolhouse Rocked Ministry.
Recommended Resources:
Homeschool Conversations With Humility and Doxology Podcast
Humility and Doxology on YouTube
Humility and Doxology on Instagram
Humility and Doxology on Facebook
Related Podcast Episodes:
Discussion Questions:
1. How can we bring Christ to the center of our homeschooling in comprehensive ways beyond isolated Bible lessons?
2. What are some tangible ways we can integrate scripture into our daily routines and activities?
3. How can we model repentance and humility to our children, showing them the need for Jesus in our own lives?
4. Have you ever struggled with defining your relationship with your child by a challenging season? How can we avoid this tendency?
5. How can we consistently show unconditional love to our children, even in challenging moments?
6. What are some practical ways we can demonstrate love and affection to our children on a daily basis?
7. How can we ensure that we give equal attention and quality time to all of our children, even if some are easier to parent than others?
8. What are some benefits of homeschooling that you have personally experienced or observed?
9. How do you prioritize integrating your faith into your homeschooling, and how has it impacted your children’s understanding of God’s world?
10. How can we combat the misconception that the “right” curriculum or parenting model guarantees specific outcomes for our homeschooled children?
Read the Full Transcript:
Continue reading “Bringing Christ-Centered Homeschooling to Life: Insights from Amy Sloan”
It may surprise you to know it was never our intention to undermine public schools through Schoolhouse Rocked. In fact, in our first Documentary Film Proposal, and in many following revisions we had this statement, “Schoolhouse Rocked is not an anti-public school movie. It is not an anti-government, anti-vaccination, anti-classroom, anti-NEA, or anti-Department of Education movie. Schoolhouse Rocked is a pro-homeschooling movie.” Over time I have realized that statement was a bit pollyannish. While we wanted to stand FOR homeschooling rather than against public schooling, it is downright irresponsible not to warn people of coming disaster. As many have said, “if you know that the bridge is out a mile down the road, you have a responsibility to warn other drivers who are headed toward it.” Public schools are a broken system, which promote destructive ideologies to the detriment of our children, of families, and of culture. The bridge is out! Turn around!
While homeschooling has been the standard educational model throughout history, in the last 150 years public schooling has taken over the education of our children. In that time the vast majority of parents have become convinced that it is normal and right to send your 5-year-olds off to a government institution to be taught by “experts” for the next 13 years (at least) of their lives. Many parents willfully ignore that this modern model of public schooling is based on socialism and secular humanism, and that the intent of its founders (men like John Dewey and Horace Mann) was to separate families to allow for the indoctrination of children. For too long, parents haven’t believed that there was a viable alternative to public schools or expensive private schools (many of which use the same industrial educational model as public schools, but sometimes wrap this instruction in a layer of Bible), so they have sent their kids off to the threat of violence, to negative social influences and peer pressure, and to indoctrination in progressivism, socialism, perverse sexuality, evolution, and the religion of secular humanism. To top it off, while violence and godlessness is on the rise in public schools, academic performance is declining. This massive social experiment has failed!
Ultimately, we feel like the time is right for this important film. There is growing displeasure and disapproval of public schools among a large portion of society. Stories of school shootings, teacher misconduct, pushes for blatantly anti-Christian instruction, gender and sexual insanity, and failing academics have even sympathetic, secular, progressive parents questioning whether it is profitable to send their kids to public schools. This is evidenced in the growing percentage of secular and non-christian (mormon, jewish, muslim, etc) families homeschooling, when for the past several decades the vast majority of homeschool families have been Christian. Now, taking your children to the grocery store in the middle of a school day doesn’t even raise eyebrows. Now, telling people that your kids are homeschooled usually elicits a positive response, where it used to spark a stream of probing questions and confused looks. We want to capitalize on this momentum and use Schoolhouse Rocked to pour fuel on this growing fire of excitement for homeschooling. We want to follow the film with a call-to-action and then provide them with the resources and encouragement they need to actually DO what we are asking of them – Bring their children home and teach them well.
Ever been to a homeschool group and overheard a mom share an award her child just earned? And you immediately felt a slight sinking feeling? Or, scrolled through social media and read about a homeschool family with three children winning first through third place in a competition? And, felt like maybe you weren’t doing enough so that your children won competitions too? It’s very easy, sometimes, to fall into the comparison trap and try to “keep up with the Joneses”, especially if we have recently faced challenges in our homeschool days. The grass seems to be greener as we try to remind ourselves “everyone has something they are dealing with that we don’t see”. But it can be hard to work on that proper perspective after days of tears from not understanding a new math concept, and I’m not just talking about those of your children. However, there are some things we can do and keep in mind to remember the next time we start to feel a longing for that grass that seems greener.
When things don’t seem to be going very smoothly in one area, complement your child (and even yourself) for remaining patient during a difficult learning process. A saying in our house when we have to work a little more or harder on something is “slow and steady wins the race!” This helps us focus on the fact that sometimes there are going to be challenges, but we can work through them a bit at a time and keep a steady and good outlook about it. We don’t feel the need to be the best or the fastest. We also explore with fun and excitement the areas that God has bestowed on us certain talents, skills, interests, or abilities. We are thankful for the specific unique qualities that we are given and able to use in this life.
If you are going through a challenging time, find your inspiration and refreshment someplace else, other than scrolling through social media. It’s hard to not focus on something, sometimes, when it comes across your screen while you are trying to do something to relax.
In practicing to celebrate the successes within our family, we are also practicing the ability to step outside ourselves and celebrate the successes of others outside our family. So, the next time we hear a mom talk about an accomplishment of one of her children, we can be one of the first to say how wonderful that is and share in her happiness.
Here’s the reality, once we deposit our money into a commercial bank, we no longer own that money. Wait! What? That’s right, at the moment we deposit our money into a commercial bank we become a creditor to the bank. Our deposit turns into a short-term unsecured loan to the bank. Then, because of fractional lending, every dollar deposited into a bank tends to get loaned out twelve times. What? The only logical definition for that is making money out of nothing.
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