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Getting
started on the course itself...
4)
You'll want to get
something ready for your children. See the previous page for my
suggestions for that. Once your child(ren)'s plan is set up, IF you're
going to do that, it's time for Mom to get moving on the course. (Dad too,
hopefully! ~ at least to some extent.) By the way, in case you hadn't
noticed, I interchangeably refer to it as "the course" and the "season of
re-education and renewing of the mind." They are one and the same, at
least when I'm talking about them.
5)
There are several resources you will want to get a hold of
next, as
listed on the "Course Contents"
page. Whether you purchase or borrow
them doesn't matter to me; I'm not out to make a sale on you! We carry
them (except NOT the Lifestyle of Learning books) for your convenience because so
many of them are not easily obtainable. But if you find them elsewhere or can
borrow them, that's fine! But until you have those in hand, you can still...
6) Get going on the
many articles here at this website ~ which are actually part of the course!
Here is the Homeschool Guide-a-log Table of Contents
if you want to know which ones are required reading for the course
itself, but I hope you will read them ALL, as I have added A LOT of good
stuff since putting together the Guide-a-log! Here are few
suggestions to get you started in case you are stuck:
~ "HELP! I Need to (re)Start Homeschooling But Have No Idea Where to Start!"
(Both the pink and the yellow windows at the Main Lobby take you to this
article. Pretty sneaky, huh?!?) That article gives a good introduction
to my philosophy and what you'll be encountering throughout the course.
~
Then read the rest of the articles
here at my website that are listed in the "Course Contents"
list, and
then move on to whatever books you want to start with. There's no best
order. (There'll be more on that later in this line-up of sections on the
course.)
~ The article
entitled "The
Stitchery" will give you a "word picture" or analogy of the
process of this season, and what the various aspects will be doing in you.
~ The article after that called "The Biblical S.A.T.'s of Learning"
by Marilyn Howshall will give you a good intro to what a Lifestyle of Learning is
all about, a concept that is commonly misunderstood, but, as you'll soon find
out, is foundational to understanding "true education."
7) As you go along, in the above order or whatever
order you opt to do it in, be sure to check off the articles on the DFF for
the Guide-a-log! (Most of the articles in the Guide-a-log are here
at my website, and then some!) You'll find out what DFF means in the "Directions"
section of the syllabus, and you won't need to know about the DFF's unless you opt to do this
course with
the syllabus.
8) As
you progress through this season, let prayer
be your constant companion and guide. Have a set-aside prayer time, but also
pray and converse with God just as you go through the
regular routine of your day. It will be like water moistening and softening the
hard-packed ground, (which took many years to get that way**), refreshing you in
the process, preparing you for what the Lord wants to say to you. This doesn't mean you must constantly escape to your bedroom
~ or
bathroom, or wherever you are able to find peace and quiet. [Slight
sidetrack: Even the bathroom
didn't work for me when my children were young! They had built-in "Mommy
Detectors" that flashed and beeped whenever I went into the bathroom.
I
heard that Susanna Wesley, mother of a large houseful of children including John
and Charles Wesley, made it known to her children that whenever she put her apron
up over her head, she was praying, and wanted it quiet, or at least to be left
alone. You'll need to find
something that works for you.]
**By "hard-packed ground" I do not mean to suggest that you are
hard hearted! What I mean is that our ideas are generally pretty
solidly packed into our minds if only because they have always been
there, and never been challenged ~ which is like the plow breaking them
up and preparing the mind for God's new seed!
No matter what you're reading, allow God to minister to you as you read,
asking Him to speak to you personally "between the lines" and make sense
of it for you as you go along. He will help you interpret and assimilate
it for you and your own family in due season. He may even lead you to
other resources not listed in my suggested course outline!
Do not fear or shrink from uncomfortable feelings. At times you will feel some "disequilibration"
(as Marilyn Howshall calls it in her writings), but that's just an indication that
God is truly at work, shaking you up, not for the fun of shaking
you up, but for the purpose of loosening and discarding the useless
"old" in your thinking and your life, and ushering in and establishing
the life-giving "new"!
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(I'm smiling, but I'm very
serious!)
