There are a number of advantages to homeschooling your child. One of the main advantages to educating your child in the comfort of your home is that you can appropriately instill values in the homeschool classroom. You no longer must worry about the “morals” your child is obtaining from their peer, their teachers, and other faculty and staff members in the traditional classroom setting. Here, you will learn some important information regarding the process of instilling values in the homeschool classroom.
Many parents have the unfortunate mindset that children should be taught values in the educational institution in which they attend. However, this is not a responsibility of the school system. While many lessons offered in the traditional classroom do try to prepare the student for real world experiences, such as following rules, respecting the rights of others, and sharing, this is often only touched upon lightly. However, as a parent who homeschools their children at home, I have the ability to instill a strong sense of values in my children on a consistent basis.
Whether you send your child to private school, public school, or homeschool them, it is ultimately the responsibility of the immediate parent and/or caregiver to instill the appropriate values in a child. This may come as a harsh reality to many parents and other caregivers to children, but it is the truth. Instilling values in our children is one of the most important and lifelong skill sets that we are all directly responsible for. It is time that we accept this responsibility, and learn how to do the best that we are able to in this area. This is especially true if you homeschool your children.
The first step to instilling values in the homeschool classroom is to understand that your children watch and absorb every single little thing that you do. If you are teaching your child values, it is important that you “practice” those same values. Children are always learning, in one way or another. Many times, parents will attempt to teach one thing, and then they will say and do something totally different. This is often very confusing for a child – especially a young one. The first step in teaching your child values is to lead by example. If you fail to do this, your lessons will go unheard and the child will not absorb the value appropriately.
The second step to instilling values in the homeschool classroom is to introduce your child to a particular faith, or spiritual path. Many theologians, counselors, and educators around the world have studied the effects of faith and spirituality on children to find that when a child has some sort of faith, or hope of things in which they are unable to physically see, they naturally carry a higher level of values. Children need to know that they are not alone, and that each of us are special and unique in our own way. Having faith in something can help to maximize the effect of this particular lesson.
The third step to instilling values in children is to expose them to conversations, games, people, media, and situations that can encourage them to take pride in the fact that they are doing the “right” things. Place a high emphasis on those things which you want your homeschooler to value. In our home, it is important to us that we eat meals together, have a special “family” night, and watch some family related television programs together. We want our children to value their family, and the “team spirit” of family. All of these things we place a high emphasis on, so, as a result, our children are thoroughly excited about them.
When instilling values in the homeschool classroom, it is important to hold your children to a high level of accountability. Our government and our society on the whole are governed by “core values”. Our relationships with others, and are actions are all governed by values. Children must understand this, and also understand that there are consequences to our actions. If we uphold our values, we will live highly prudent lives. However, if we oppose our values, we are quite likely to experience many troubles.
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