I have the blessing of writing for the Front Porch of Homeschoolblogger.com this year. I write the "Homeschooling Through High School" column, which is published every Wednesday (click here to view the articles).
Normally, the Company Front Porch is the only place you'll find these articles. But the one I submitted today for tomorrow's edition represents my heartbeat and my passion when it comes to this time in the lives of my kids, and it is what I really desire to share with everyone through my blog here, Plans4You. So I decided to post it here today. I hope you enjoy it, and perhaps are blessed by it. Let me know you've stopped by!
WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!!
The Front Porch theme for this week is "Back To School." My 15 year old son and I were heading from the parking lot of our community college to the building in which he takes his German class, and I asked him if there was anything that he did to "gear up" for the fact that, this week, our school year begins full-on. The first thing he did was to look at the can of diet Pepsi-Max in his hand, raise it up slightly, and say, "WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!!"
If you do not see television at all, this would make no sense to you. But if you've seen it on occasion, as we have, you may be familiar with the humorous commercial which features multiple sleepyheads in need of a "jolt" to bring them to a state of consciousness.
Once we got serious, he said that, typically, he would play as hard as he could for the couple of days leading up to the Monday start! Play for him would be ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and practicing/playing with "Flightgear," the computer flying program he enjoys doing with a couple of serious aviation students in our church. This season, owing to a badly sprained ankle the beginning of August, he has been sitting with his foot up for a few weeks. So, he told me, the beginning of full-time school is a welcome relief from not having enough to do.
Telling...our high school students are not little kids any longer. They are young men and women; adults-in-training. I love to reflect upon the things my sons tell me...to "chew" on them for a while in order to extract the full "flavor and nutrition" from them. What have I "extracted" from this brief interlude?
1. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:27-28)
Our young people were created in the image of God and for the purpose of "having dominion" over the earth. If they are not engaged in such pursuits, they will feel a sense of restlessness. They will seek "something" to "dominate." Is it not best that we guide them in this quest?
Have your homeschool students grasped the link between the work of school that they are doing and the fulfillment of their created purpose and longings? Have you??? What about the student who fanicies himself a future engineer...and just isn't excited about the study of Government and Economics...how does he "gear up" for this course? How about the daughter who has to take freshman biology this year, but has NO interest in the inner workings of a dead frog?
Find the tie-in. Find that which will take the present situation, from which they feel "disconnected," and link it to the future that God is planting, whether subtley or overtly, in their hearts. Link them...connect them...help them to see it, to look for it. Teach them to pray for it, and pray with them!
From homemaker to engineer, everyone in this nation is going to experience a major change in the structure and scope of "power" of our government...and soon. As Christian adults, perhaps as married adults with children of their own, should Jesus' return be yet another generation away, our sons and daughters will have a pressing need to understand the basis of government (God's Word and Love), the various ideologies that have crept into our society and are being applied in this country and how to spot them in political rhetoric, proposed laws, etc. (I hope, by this age, that we do NOT fear having such discussions with out young adults, as we are not citizens of this world, but of Heaven). Understanding the past is the key to unlocking a "big picture" comprehension of the present and the future!
Does your daughter enjoy flowers? Food? She LIVES in biology! Would she, as a future wife and mother, like to have a vegetable garden to help provide nutritious, cost-efficient food for her family? A study of the science of life, created by God, will help her to understand what happens when we hybridize and genetically modify our seeds, our animals...our food.
Do our students comprehend that the entire universe operates via mathmatics??? Every single thing? That it is clearly important to God, as he used it to make everything run...so doing the best we can in math thanks Him for it, and honors Him? And that grumbling and complaining about it "disses" His created order?
We're back to school now, and we want our students excited, motivated, and engaged. Help your sons and daughters to formulate a vision of their futures, based upon their God-given gifts and the desires of their hearts...then show them how their homeschool studies, one course at a time, are moving them along the path to the fulfillment of those God-given desires. Each child is different, as God has created and gifted them. Delight in the process of "preparing them to launch!"
I like to compare these years to the Space Shuttles of NASA. If you've ever visited the Kennedy Space Center, or watched the preparation for a launch, you are familiar with "the crawler." The crawler is the enormous vehicle upon which a finished and ready rocket is placed and secured for the trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the launch pad. These rockets are heavy, and must be moved extremely carefully. Thus, the crawler moves at the incredible pace of 1 mile per hour, with the entire trip from VAB to launch pad taking between 5 and 6 hours. It is almost painful to watch, it's so slow! And yet, with every passing inch by every passing inch, the anticipatory excitement of the coming launch builds. If you've never seen the crawler in action, you can view it here in this one-minute-long video...(click the "stream" icon when you get to the intro page.)
Did you see what I saw? As the crawler inched along the path, the launch pad was clearly in view. "Atlantis, Welcome to Pad A" signs awaited it! The anticipated arrival was planned for, thought out, acted upon, celebrated! The folks operating the crawler could see it! They knew, while on that slow, arduous, heavy path, what the target was, and they had it in their sights, ever before them, urging them on through those long 6 hours of slow, slow progress.
I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at: can your homeschooled high school student see his or her launch pad? Do they understand that they are the Shuttle, preparing for launch? Can they see how the classes they are taking now are part of the things that make up the crawler, which is supporting them, transporting them, to the launch pad (Graduation Day)? Are the classes they are taking transporting them to the life that God has put in their hearts to pursue? Or are they on that crawler with no launch pad in sight???
Back to school? No idea where the launch pad is? Perhaps you need to delay the start by a week or two, and take an extra camping trip with your teen, or have some backyard picnics with the whole family if that is how things can work for you, to discuss the things of the heart...your teen's heart. Help them see the launch pad. They'll tolerate the crawler much better...and maybe even enjoy the ride.
May God Bless you and your family this week!
