In 1 Kings, Elijah calls out to his God to light the fire. I too, call out to God.

This is the first step in moving your family toward the Fire Philosophy of home schooling. As a family, you must surrender your children's education to God. I know you're saying, "But how is God going to teach my children grammar?" Well, isn't He big enough? Didn't He create everything? Does He not know everything? Give Him your children, and He will light the fires that need to be lit to ignite the passions within them.

I call the following step, "gathering the wood". I call it this, because if you are trying to start fires, it is vital that you begin with good wood. If you are using the world's standards of measurement, you are using green wood. If you are using God's standards, you are using wood that is perfect for burning. If you light a fire under a child and the wood is not good, it will simply fizzle and go out. We could gather all the sparks and matches we want, but without good wood, it will profit them nothing.

The Fuel Book

With your "Fuel Book", a Bible, a pen/pencil, and a locked door, sit down with the Lord. If your husband were a guiding force in your home school, I would encourage you to pray with him. If you can't do this now, then find a time alone when you can. Please do not read the next chapter in this book until you have been able to do this first step. Don't move forward one step until you've had the chance to pray.

Tending the Fire

Adoration--Acknowledge the sovereign power of God. Tell Him how much you love Him. Etc.

Confession---Confess that you have not been giving the home educating of your children to Him. Confess to Him that you have been allowing others to educate your children. Whatever confessions you need to make, make them now. For some of us (ME included) this may take quite some time.

Thanksgiving---Thank Him for loaning you His children, for they are only on loan to us. Thank Him for each child, by name.

Supplication---Ask Him to guide you step by step. Ask Him to take over educating your children. This would be the time to get specific. You might start with your own family. Ask Him what you should study as a family. Now, this is really important . . . Listen to His voice. So often when we pray, we talk and talk and talk, and then we hang up. Prayer is a communication, a conversation. Conversations are two-way. Listen.

When God is talking to you, take notes. It's okay to pray with your eyes open and pen in hand. You might try asking for specifics for each child while you do this. As things come to mind, write them down. They may be personal, spiritual, academic, or perhaps all three at one time.

You may also hear a sermon that makes you think of something you would like to be working on with your children. You may read something in a book that seems particularly important. Your child may say something to you which causes you to "take a note" that you want to come back to later. Your Fuel Book should become a part of you. You should take it everywhere you go, just in case you want to write down a message from God.

You can organize your Fuel Book anyway you want. I would recommend putting tabs in with the name of each of your children on the tabs. You might even have a tab for your family as a whole. A lot of education in our home is done with everyone together, including Mom and Dad.

Here is an example from David's page: Begin concentrating on the social graces of being a man. (David is currently 8) i.e. opening doors for Mom, bringing in the groceries, caring for his sisters, etc. Find interesting books for him to read. Concentrate on the sciences as the main topic. Biographies of Christian scientists would be great. Encourage memorizing math facts. Spur him further when he comes to me with a math conversation. (David will often come to me with some great mathematical discovery. I could let his discovery end there, or I could spur him on to a higher level.) Give David pages of poetry to copy in his notebook. Encourage him to read them and recite them out loud for the family. Encourage David to read out loud to me. Repeat what he has read, then have him read it again. Have him try to read the sentences as a whole, rather than word by word. Give him experiments whenever I get them through e-mail, or other places. Encourage David to spend time in his Bible. GET DAVID A BIBLE!

This reminded me that I hadn't bought David his own Bible yet. Last year he wasn't reading with any fluency, but now he is. He NEEDS to have a Bible of his own.

Having these pages helps to keep me focused. I usually just add to the list, but sometimes - like if I felt David had mastered his multiplication facts - I will cross it out. You can also use this as a base for your record keeping.

Speaking of record keeping, having a separate record book for each child's work is a good idea. You could have a separate page for each of the topics from the page in his Fuel Book. For example, the first page of his record book would say, "Begin Concentrating on the Social Graces of Being a Man."

On the page about social graces, you would write things like, "I stood outside the van door for three minutes yesterday, waiting for David to open it for me. Today, I only waited for one minute. I saw progress in David's kindness to his sisters." I like to keep the notes on these pages positive. If the child isn't getting it, then that should still be recorded in the Fuel Book.

One good way to organize the personal record book is to separate it by subjects that you work on. This way, you aren't rifling through page after page trying to find the one that talks about reading biographies.

The next page in David's record book might say, "Memorizing Multiplication Facts." You might write, "2/26/98 - We played the floor game today. David only missed two facts, both sixes. Will continue working on sixes, but he seems to have the 3's 4's and 5's down pat."

You don't have to record in this everyday. But they tend to learn a lot even when they aren't officially "doing school".

In order for this type of system to work, you must spend time with your children. You simply cannot be an absentee mom, waiting for your child to come to you with great insights. It is okay for your child to go off and be alone, but you should always be aware of what he is doing and even be engaged with him on a regular basis while he is doing something alone.

If your son or daughter goes off to build a rocketship, you need to peek in on him or her occasionally. You might need to offer some assistance, or perhaps point the child in a certain direction. You might need to help add fuel. You might need to call Daddy at work. Hopefully you do not need to call the fire department. Or, you might need to be there when an experiment fails. We need to learn to be sensitive to the needs of our children. Consider this "tending the fire."

God's Standards

When you are writing in your children's Fuel Books, use the system of measurement that is the highest. Do not base your ideas on the standards of the world. When we allow God to be in control, the standards we've had for our children will rise dramatically.

I'm going to give you two examples of standards for Ashley. The first one will be using the world's standards as my base measurement. The second will be using God's standards. (Ashley is my oldest daughter. She is currently thirteen years old.)

World's Standard:

God's Standard:

Do you see the difference?

It is important for us to know the difference between God's standards and the world's standards. If we are educating our children to fit into the world, we are falling way short of where God's standards lie.

I've said all this to remind you that as you are praying for your child, do not pray with the world's standards in mind. You can pray that God will give you the tools and guidance needed to get your kid to have a high SAT score. And, I am confident that He will, if that is your goal. But, wouldn't you rather pray that God will give you the tools and the guidance to help your child to have a heart for God, to develop the passions that God has given him for His purposes, knowing that this means a superior knowledge?

God has created each of our children so differently. Therefore, we must turn to Him and allow Him to show us what, where, when, and how to teach and instruct our children.

We all want the best for our children, which is why we must turn to the One who has the best standards.