How to Inspire Insights 4-7

Here are four more ways to inspire love of learning--

4. Seek Ye Out of the Best Books!
"Seek ye out of the best books, words of wisdom..." Best books are great, inspiring, and living. "We live in a world where knowledge is increasing at an ever-accelerating rate. Drink deeply from this ever-springing well of wisdom and human experience. If you should stop now, you will only stunt you intellectual and spiritual growth. Keep everlastingly at it. Read. Read. Read. Read the word of God in sacred books of scripture. Read from the great literature of the ages. Read what is being said in our day and time and will be said in the future.” Gordon B. Hinckley - Commencement Address, Brigham Young University 27 April 1995.
I ask, do most textbooks fill this admonition? Why not read the classics and other living books? Yes, some textbooks are classics. Textbooks though are a very poor substitute for original sources and well written classics. Our central classic, God's word, should be an anchor to our souls and our measuring rod of truth. Other classics have endured the test of time.  They are works we will return to and experience again and again, and be better for our experience.

5. Shepherd Them: Lead Them, Guide Them, Walk Beside Them!
A shepherd leads and guides. Shepherds had a close relationship with their sheep and their sheep would follow them.  A sheepherder drives his sheep, with dogs nipping at their heels. In academic terms a shepherd is a mentor or guide. They need mentoring to avoid the pitfalls and dangerous terrain, more than they need a sage on the stage professing what they should know.
6. Simplify: "Mothers Who Know Do Less!"
"Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power."Julie B. Beck, Mothers Who Know, October 2007.

Too often mothers who homeschool fake themselves out and head to burnout through over scheduling, busy work, and paper trail generating. The more complex an educational plan, the more opportunity to get derailed. Simplicity can be more inspiring and easier to keep moving forward than tedious complexity. As the tortoise learned that slow and stead wins the race. All glitz aside and great promises, simplicity is powerful and will usually win out.

7. Raise the Bar!
The bar referred to here is not a hurdle to mount, or leap over as some may think.  The bar is the cross bar of the ensign that was held high by the standard bearer.  In the home, the parents are the standard-bearer. Our children learn to do quality work as they work along side of us.  It is said, "If something is worth doing it is worth doing well." In as much as parents exemplify this in the work they do, their children will be trained up on quality. This is a pattern that through daily living is impressed on a child. When a child learns this way, quality becomes part of him. If "close enough," and minimal level is modeled and expected, well, quality is not internalized.

I love this verse, it is a great one for memorizing and committing to copy work:
"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;  Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3: 23-24

What about school work?  Do we want mere conformity, or do we want our children to strive for quality? In the early years of home education the goal is to learn to love learning and to gain a breadth of knowledge. As a child grows into a youth, has a solid foundation, a breadth of knowledge and experience, they become ready to engage in deeper scholarly pursuits. With him he brings the tools gained over his lifetime, including work ethic and doing quality work. This habitude of quality is who he is and what he does, not just an external standard.

So parents, let us raise the bar, let us be standard-bearers, and lets us nurture in our children a desire to do what they do well.