Season of Re-education

& Renewing of the Mind

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(#3)

How to Get

Started on Your

Season of Re-education

 

     

I'm doing this in three

parts to clarify the purposes

of the steps:

  

~ Getting registered and signed-up  (steps 1~3)

  

~ Getting started on the course itself  (steps 4~8)

  

~ Getting your Certificate of Completion (step 9)

  

   

 

  

Getting registered and signed up...

  

1) If you have decided you want to take this course, the first thing you need to do is to read EVERY single word on ALL of the pages explaining this course.  Sorry, there are no short-cuts to this step.  You REALLY need to know what you're getting into.  So first read the Course Intro Page If you're still "with me" after that, then read everything linked from the Season of Re-education - Main Page.  "Do not pass GO, do not collect $200"; do not do another thing until you have READ EVERYTHING there, including the page you're on right now.   Once you have, please come back to this page and continue with step 2...

   

2) If you are "officially" enrolling in the course and doing it following my suggestion for such a course, wanting a Certificate of Completion, then the Course Syllabus is the next thing you'll need to get.  It's $7 and is described in the Season of Re-education & Renewing of the Mind ~ Course Contents Outline.  (It's the very first item on that page.)  NOTE: You don't have to have the syllabus to take the course on your own.  (You DO if you are enrolling in the course.) However, even if you are just doing it casually, on your own, the Course Syllabus provides a good way to organize yourself and express and clarify (to yourself) your thoughts as you progress through it.  The syllabus is its own separate resource and is not contained in the Guide-a-log.

     

3) OK, IF and ONLY if you have done steps 1 and 2, you may now sign up for the course via the Registration Form for Homeschool Course.  Then continue on with steps 4~8 below...     (I'm smiling, but I'm very serious!)

 

   

  

   

 

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"!  

     

 

     

  

 

Getting your Certification of Completion...

  

9)  Once you are completely done with the course work in the Course Syllabus (please do NOT send portions of it to me along the way ), just make copies of all the pages in your syllabus and send the copies to me.  I will already have your Student Record on file, so no need to send all the information again. Just be sure to send your latest email address (in case the one on your Registration Form is outdated) and your phone number. 

  

   

  

  

FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT:

   

        First, please don't think of this as yet another set of "requirements"!  It's just what I have come up with because people like some place to start.  Allow God to lead you, not just my outline!

        And finally, be aware going into it that it's possible that some ~ maybe even a lot of what you'll be reading will not make much sense to you right at the start, even well into your season of reading and praying. But I adjure you, oh precious Daughter of God, oh Woman-coming-out-of-Egypt, just keep tucking things away in your heart!  Everything doesn't have to all make sense at the beginning.  God is doing a deep work in you, and He will eventually make it all come together for you.

  

   

       

I hope you're looking forward to this,

as it will truly be an exciting time if you are open

to God's work in your heart!

   

   

   

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On to the next Season of Re-education article

        

Back to Season of Re-education Main Page

 

 

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