Homeschooling 101

A lot of beginning homeschool parents feel like blind people feeling their way through unfamiliar territory. Mark and Christine Field certainly did—but that was a long time ago, and now they have years and years of experience they're willing to share with others just starting out. Home Schooling 101 stresses the reason for homeschooling (training our children in godliness) and helps confused or frustrated parents discover the way to homeschool (putting matters of the heart over intellectual knowledge without marginalizing the latter).

The Fields implement a "HEART" acronym (hearts, eternity, abilities, right relationships, today and tomorrow), using these words as guidelines for educating children. A chapter on different schooling methods (Charlotte Mason, classical, unschooling, etc.) helps parents choose the right approach for their family, while subsequent chapters centered on specific subjects provide benchmarks and offer insights for instruction and selecting materials. Throughout the text and in the back the authors include information for contacting suppliers and finding helpful websites.

Home Schooling 101 isn't just about the three R's, however. Topics covered include helping your kids understand money management, study the Bible, be safe, and make the most of their time. The end goal, after all,isn't just passing standardized tests or getting a good score on the SAT—the desire of Christian parents is to train their children to follow Christ, and the home school situation is particularly suited to achieving this objective. The Fields by no means ignore the intellectual elements of education, but treatment of the common school subjects is always tempered with character development strategies.

There are plenty of books about getting started in home schooling, and plenty about the need to train homeschooled children in godliness. Home Schooling 101 isn't particularly unique, except that the Fields are especially articulate and able to draw on lifetimes of experience. Christine's Field Guide to Home Schooling is probably a better choice for the purely practical elements of home education, while Michael and Susan Card's The Homeschool Journey excellently addresses the spiritual and personality-oriented aspects.