I would like to start recording some of the conversations that go on in our family since I believe a lot of education happens at these times.  One reason for my blogging is to help me see the educational value in our lifestyle, in the things that we do.  We “do” conversations a lot though they rarely get recorded; consequently I rarely account for the education factor that happens in this component of our family lifestyle.  I would like to train myself to be aware of the educational value of such conversations.

The reason I like to train myself to see these things is that it helps me move away from the institutionalised education that I have as my only example of education.  As I learn to walk in a different model, a discispleship/training model, I need to rid myself of reactions and guilt feelings that only come from not doing things the same way as schools.

A good thing to remind myself of at this time is that I want to educate my children, I want to mentor them, to disciple them, to prepare them for their life; a life serving God and His purposes.   This helps me see the scope for the conversations that we hold dear.

This morning it is 8.30am as I write this and I have had 4 valuable conversations already!  Wow!  This is going to be some journal!!

1. We watched a movie last night, or should I say we watched ½ a movie, as it was not in keeping with our family movie guidelines.  I was disappointed in myself for letting this one slip through.  This morning I discussed the story line with the older kids, and discussed again the importance of being sure of what our eyes see and our souls are nourished with.  I apologised for showing that movie.  Of course I also had a similar conversation with the younger ones ensuring that they knew why we turned it off.

2. I shared this quote with Josh, “Teach your kids early the love of reading and in this way you'll nourish their imaginations. This is the greatest gift, after love that a parent can bestow upon a growing mind. If you read one good book a month to your kids you will do more for their education than the entire education system will achieve in ten years.” By Bryce Courtenay, “A Recipe for Dreaming”

Joshua disagreed with the second part of this quote intensely!  It created such a wonderful conversation with him.  He has no idea that his own education is very much along these lines, because I believe in giving him that one good book (he struggles that one book could possible be enough – how could you only read one book a month anyway…LOL).  We discussed the fact that schools don’t teach history as he reads history, that Shakespeare isn’t taught in our local school, and that no one in year 8 is studying economics.  We moved to discussing the differences between learning what to think and learning how to think.  We discussed the value of learning to learn and how it is important to have the ability think and these skills will enable him to learn those things that he thinks a book won't teach him (like algebra).  We even discussed the history of public education and the different perspectives there.  It was a fantastic, stimulating conversation that really has made him think beyond his presumptions that everyone is learning like he is.  I don't think he disagrees with Bryce Courtenay now!

3.      Jessica asked me a question from her Devotional Bible Reading from Luke.  Jesus is talking about fasting though uses illustrations of old patches on new clothes and old wineskins for new wine.  She didn’t understand.  We had a great conversation on the teaching style of Jesus – how he drew pictures that the people of the day could understand.  We discussed comparisons.  We discussed Jesus being a new “system” and that when we follow Jesus we don’t want any of the old “system” – we just want to follow Jesus.

4.      I discussed with my girls the moral choices they have when they are with friends and their friends are asked to do jobs/chores.  What should their response be?  We went through some scenarios and discussed the type of words they could use.  We also discussed what they could say to encourage their friend to be obedient if their mother asked them to do something yet they were being reluctant to do so.