Lurgy continues....

Well its some days into 2011 and we have been stuck down by yet more illness. Exactly 14 days after Bear came out in chicken pox, so did Elijah! Just in time for our re arranged visit to see The Gruffalo's Child! Luckily we did make it and he thoroughly enjoyed it, even if his parent's stress levels were through the roof (picture if you will, getting stuck in Leicester Tigers game traffic, missing our turning off a one way system, getting lost further on the one way system, one child wetting them selves in their sleep all over the car seat and finally arriving at the theatre 5 minutes into the play = STRESSED!)

Still, the enforced quarantine has been very relaxing and we still havent shifted our body clocks from the 9.30am awakening that began over the Christmas holidays - it will be even harder to shift when we do have to get back to the real world.

It is the deadline for school place applications this friday and so many of my friends have asked me whether I have filled in the form "just in case" or "to keep my options open". I haven't. I feel so confident in my decision to home educate right now, and God has a plan and gives us stewardship over our children:

Psalms 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. (My fave verse!)

Hebrews 2:13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given me.

Ephesians 6:4 And, you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Isaiah 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Schools fail to train up each child according to his or her unique giftings, learning needs, and future callings. When one teacher has to manage a classroom full of children, many simply fall through the cracks. It is no wonder that the number of private tutoring programs and learning academies is growing so rapidly; each week in our local paper I see numerous adverts from private tutors offering to improve your child's maths or english.Britain has one of the worst teenage drop-out rates of any developed country, with more than one in ten of those aged 15 to 19 not in school, work or training (Times Sept 2009).

Our children have a special purpose in God’s plan, and no government institution that shuffles millions of children through an efficiency-based system can come close to addressing this the way parents can in the home.

By placing their children in the school system, parents basically relinquish their authority to teachers, coaches, counselors, administrators, and local education authorities. With such a fragmented National Curriculum, poor teaching standards in many classrooms, constant staff turnover and supply teachers I often wonder if parents even know what their child is actually learning in school.

A child left with other kids for a minimum of five days a week, 195 days a year, will learn to accept and do whatever is necessary in order to gain approval by his peer group. He will learn how to talk, how to dress, how to act, what music to listen to, and which TV shows and movies to watch, and he will get a steady dose of popular culture. It’s interesting that one of the main red flags raised by homeschool skeptics is socialisation. The Bible has already forewarned us about what happens to “a companion of fools.” (Proverbs 13:20b). And whilst I think it does not do our children any good to be completely removed from the popular culture of the world, the Lord tells us to be in the world, but not of the world.

I could ramble on for ages, but instead here are some pics of what we've been up to this last week (despite the pox!)