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Debunking the Myth of Early Childhood Education

If you have young children…

Read this! Read this! Read this!

This is a GREAT article about the benefits of delaying education. This mother of many is the voice of experience. The things that she says in this post resonate with me.

Let the children come… at their own pace. That’s what I always say. 🙂

Let’s not make the same mistakes at home that they are making in schools. Let’s not burn out our young children and cause them to hate learning by starting things too early and possibly before they are ready for them.

And don’t be intimidated or convinced by their propaganda. Only do what the Lord leads you to do. Don’t do things because others are doing them or because “the experts” say children need to do this or that or they will be behind and never able to catch up. Each child is different and on his/her own timetable.

We don’t know what the Lord might be doing through “learning delays or disabilities”. Lots of healing can happen as we go to the Lord about our concerns and ask Him for direction and help.

God is really after our hearts. He uses circumstances in our lives to draw us to Him. Circumstances like: problems in our children’s lives, in our marriages, our finances, and our relationships. These things touch us deeply. He is the only One who knows the answer to such things. Don’t skip the One who can help you and go to man for your answers. Our Father wants us to come to Him with our problems, not “the experts” or our friends. Draw close to God, and He will draw close to you. That’s really what everything in this life is about.

Ask for wisdom, and He will give it to you. Ask Him what you should do with your young children. I know you have to keep them occupied or they find things to occupy themselves that are usually messy or destructive or both. But how much formal instruction and control should you exercise in their lives? I believe they need to explore and discover on their own. In order to really become who they’re supposed to be they need some freedom to learn, following their curiosity and interest. Many times I pray that God will help the little ones to stay out of trouble while I work with the older ones. I pray for their safety. But I don’t lock them up. We check on them throughout our reading time.

They still manage to make messes most days, but we have learned to calmly (usually) clean up and tell them that they were supposed to play nicely and not make a mess. Then we give them another chance the next day.

Eventually, they learn how to play with things without tearing them up, and they are ready to teach their younger siblings the same lessons. And their curiosity has not been squelched. And they have learned some important lessons. Exploration and discovery are important parts of early childhood and at least some of it needs to be led by themselves.

And if you place any value on what the older women have to say and want to obey the spiritual directive to learn from the older women (Christian women who have been led by God into wisdom), then you might want to check out other things on Sherri’s blog, Large Family Mothering.

Large Family Mothering

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