Christians look to the creation of Adam and Eve as an example of individuals made in the image of God. Their garden home and how they lived in it are a model to the human race. Adam and Eve were students of the Creator of the universe. The garden of Eden was their classroom and nature was their textbook. Can you fathom how amazing it would be to have God as your school teacher? What an opportunity! The one who created everything and who had all knowledge taught to His creation the secrets of the universe. Chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, biology, art design, history of the universe, music, philosophy, language, are only a sampling of subjects that Adam and Eve studied in their communion with God as their teacher.
As we observe the life of Adam and Eve before sin entered the world, we discover that God commissioned Adam and Eve to take care of the garden [Genesis 2:15]. Although they lived in a sinless, perfect world, they were not left to languish in a field of flowers! They were given the assignment of learning the secrets of the universe [study]. Useful employment was given to them, as they were to take care of the garden [work]. God’s love reflected upon their hearts as they cared for one another in perfect love [service to others].
God designed the lessons He taught them in their Eden home to teach them completely, encompassing their intellect, physical strength, and spirit in communion with Him and with one another. The garden of Eden represented all that God desired for mankind. The desire of His heart was that Adam and Eve would have children, grandchildren, and future descendants that would establish homes and schools just like the one He modeled for them, and that they would reflect the knowledge of His glory. The first school was of the God of creation.
"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
Albert Einstein
Do you have a philosophy of education for your homeschool? Taking time to think about what is important to you in the education of your children provides you and your family with a base for all decisions related to how your children learn and how you teach. Once this has been done, selecting curricula, establishing schedules and routines, and choosing extracurricular activities becomes easier, as your belief system has been well thought out and decisions have been made about what is important to you.
For most of us, educating the whole child is of top priority. Helping him or her develop spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally creates a well-adjusted child that has the talents and abilities necessary to succeed in today’s world. Homeschool families in 2010 are given opportunities to choose from a myriad of academic resources. Curriculum companies have been quick to write textbooks and provide resources for the learning needs of homeschooled students. Sometimes it is easy to forget that a child’s education is not one-dimensional, but that academics are only one piece of the puzzle. Spending equal time planning for physical, emotional, and spiritual elements is key in creating a well balanced child. For example, character is developed through work and service to others. Physical wellness is also a result of hard work. And service to others helps the child discover that a happy heart is one that tends to the needs of others as it focuses outward in life.
If you haven’t taken the time to write down your philosophy of home education, why don’t you take a moment to jot down what you really believe about educating your child. What is the foundation of your home school? It is the core of your family system of education.
An excerpt from “Teach Your Own” by John Holt, the educator who promoted freedom for children to learn naturally and coined the term “unschooling”.
“I have used the words “homeschooling” to describe the process by which children grow and learn in the world without going, or going very much, to schools, because those words are familiar and quickly understood. But in one very important sense they are misleading. What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools but that it isn’t a school at all. It is not an artificial place, set up to make “learning” happen and in which nothing except “learning” ever happens. It is a natural, organic, central, fundamental human institution, one might easily and rightly say the foundation of all other institutions. We can imagine and indeed we have had human societies without schools, without factories, without libraries, museums, hospitals, roads, legislatures, courts, or any of the institutions which seem so indispensable and permanent a part of modern life. We might someday even choose, or be obliged, to live once again without some or all of these. But we cannot even imagine a society without homes, even if these should be no more than tents, or mud huts, or holes in the ground. What I am trying to say, in short, is that our chief educational problem is not to find a way to make homes more like schools. If anything, it is to make schools less like schools.”
Close your eyes for a moment and picture a young boy of ten or twelve years of age with dark hair, bright eyes, and a ruddy complexion. Can you visualize him slowly ambling up a warm, Judean hillside? Picture Him deep in thought, yet very observant — unusual for one His age.
This child, Jesus, was happiest in the fields and on the hillsides. There, among the birds and flowers, through their actions and interactions, God taught Him many practical and spiritual lessons. Jesus learned through the symbolism that He Himself had embedded into the things of nature when He created the world. A mother bird, sheltering her brood under her wings, taught Him of the security of His Father’s care. A tiny seed, pushing its leaf up through the hard earth taught Him of the power of the implanted germ of new life imputed in human hearts by God. A pure white waterlily, floating on a murky pond, taught that He could live a pure and holy life, even amidst the strife and turmoil of the world. Many of the lessons that He later taught on the hillsides of Galilee to the eager throngs, He learned through careful attention to the lessons taught by the little things around Him.
As human beings, we are a part of His creation. We also fit into the symbolic scheme of the natural world and are commissioned to be examples of spiritual truths. As His highest and most intelligent of earthly creatures, God is asking us to be vessels that reveal His love to others. Through the tender bonds of love, we are to symbolize Christ to the world. We are to be symbols, a model or representation of God’s family. Our relationships with those around us, both at home and beyond, may be all that those in a sin-sick world can see of Christ’s love. Expressing His character through our actions and deeds is what God asks us to do. Quite a challenge, but the power to achieve it comes from Him. Just look to the tiny examples in nature that share this truth.
~M
David tells us in Psalm 19:1 that “the heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands”. All of God’s creation is an expression of His love for us. His principles and truths are shown through observation of the things He has made. Object lessons from nature teach children concepts that their minds may not be able to grasp from books or school routine. Learning like the child Jesus did, at a mother’s knee and in the woods or fields surrounding a child’s home, gives each one the opportunity to gain the same knowledge of God and His character as Jesus observed. The book, Education, says “let the child from his earliest years be placed where this wonderful lesson book shall be open before him” [p. 101] By looking at the landscapes crafted by God as the artist, observing the change of seasons, and seeing all that God made, the foundation of true education is firmly given.
These were principles that my maternal grandmother and mother firmly believed in. Both were school teachers, and both used nature study as an integral and significant portion of their lesson planning and instructional method. In the classroom, Sabbath School, Pathfinders, and at home, the study of the planets, stars, moon, and sun were balanced with rock or shell collecting, finding and creating butterfly and insect collections, observing birds and their nesting or migratory habits, learning to identify trees and creating leaf crafts, or studying botany by roaming mountainsides and fields in a search for early spring flowers. Nature was left undisturbed, but small aspects were brought into our home for our continued enjoyment and learning. Stories and books about nature filled the gaps in between the moments spent outside. Art always centered around something found or seen in nature. Watercolor, pastel, and pencil scenes ranged from vast landscapes to tiny parts of a flower gathered in the woods. Stories from books like Benny the Beaver, Girl of the Limberlost, or A Tippy Canoe and Canada Too taught of nature’s lessons and fueled our imaginations. My sister and I received untold blessing from the influence of these two amazing women and the lessons they taught from God’s second book. Such a heritage becomes a part of who a person is, and that heritage is something that was passed along to my own children in our homeschool. Much of my instruction reflected that of my mother and grandmother. Sometimes Mother and Grandmother would come to visit our homeschool, and I would turn the reins over to them. They become honorary instructors for the day. Their lessons continued through the generations as four generations observed God’s creation together.
Time has passed, and the life cycle passed more quickly for some than for others. My mother’s lessons remain in my heart, as she is no longer here to share them with us. But Grandmother’s influence still is cherished in her 102nd year. A recent visit with her was spent with me pushing her in her wheel chair through the gardens at her pleasant Canadian nursing home. We would stop to smell the flowers, and I would pick one of each kind and gently tuck them into each buttonhole of her sweater and in the band on her hat. The common act pleased her, and as we wound our way through the garden paths, I was both joyful and tearful as I remembered the days gone by. Teaching and learning had gone full-cycle and the roles reversed. But the joy of sharing God’s creation remained a firm bond in our relationship. Nature provided many lessons which became a significant part of our family legacy. The children and grandchildren of the future will enjoy lessons that were established by the careful instruction of generations before.
What are you doing to implement nature as a part of your homeschooling? Are you creating a legacy for your children? Please leave a comment and share how nature is an integral part of your teaching method.
