Born in the Heart of God

HOME SCHOOLING

At first, we were not sure which curriculum to use? Would my wife and I be capable of teaching adequately? What was the cost? Had other evangelists taught their children? Would it work?

Because my training at Samford University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary did not include a teacher's degree, I felt inadequate and ignorant at choosing a school curriculum. So, at least three years prior to teaching our children at home, I began to ask some evangelists who were teaching their children which curriculum they were using. Music evangelists Ron and Claudia Henderson of Albany, Georgia were using the Calvert Curriculum out of Baltimore, Maryland. This is a very detailed school requiring much paper work (as do most correspondence schools). The Calvert program goes through the eighth grade. At that time their son was in high school and was in the Independent High School Study Program out of the University of Nebraska for grades nine through twelve. They had lived in a travel trailer during all the years of their son's schooling. They had enjoyed the curriculum and had great confidence in his education.⁵⁶

In our local area one of the private Christian schools was using the A Beka Curriculum out of Pensacola, Florida. Before my family began to travel with me, I wanted to take a step of faith, and I placed my daughter in the A Beka Curriculum so that we could become familiar with the material, especially since the same material could be used in correspondence teaching. My daughter spent two years at Clayton Christian School that allowed my wife to become semi familiar with the material.

The familiarity with the A Beka material made it our logical choice when we began teaching our children in the fall of 1983. My wife has done an excellent job as a teacher. The only difficulty she had was the amount of time it took each night to prepare the lessons for the following day, especially when we spent most weeknights in the revival services. The class work demanded at least six full hours each day, about four hours were instruction and two hours were busy work. At the same time she had to take care of our son. I would ask her to stay home from the revival services at least a night or two each week. However, she was always ready to get out of the trailer and place our son in the nursery. She said that it was a rest to be in a revival service and to get out of the trailer.

This never changed even after Sam started first grade. Her schedule was exhaustingly full until the fall of 1986, when we entered the A Beka Video School. Two sixth grade teachers were video taped as they taught each subject. The teachers were excellent and exciting. My daughter was given a new incentive, because she saw other students her own age answering questions. My daughter increased in her interest of school and her speed skills as she competed with the students in the video class. My wife was able to spend her evenings free from the several hours of preparation for the following day's lessons, because experienced teachers had already done that for her. This was a tremendous blessing for our family life.

Every two weeks we received five videocassette tapes with lessons for two week's worth of work. My wife still collected the assignments and graded the tests that were mailed to the school along with tape-recorded reading sessions and book reports.

During the 1986 87 school year (sixth grade), the cost for books, videocassettes, and correspondence teachers was $675, plus the UPS costs in returning the cassettes to the school. The cost for their regular correspondence school without the video taped classes was $475 that year. My wife insisted that the video class is the best thing that had ever happened to correspondence education.

A layman from the Centercrest Baptist Church in Centerpoint, Alabama donated the videocassette player that was necessary for the video school. God has helped educate the entire family, because when the school is in the home (albeit a travel trailer) everybody learns.

Shirley wrote the following article in God's Way concerning our family life:

"Shirley's Sayings"

This year has come and gone so fast! Our family is doing just fine. It seems that we are constantly traveling and have had precious few moments at home this year.

Keith has been very busy studying for his doctoral degree along with his many other routine activities, like preaching almost every night of the week with only very few exceptions. He also does most of the driving, which is no small task pulling that 40-foot rig. Pray that God will continue to bless him with good health.

Angela is eleven years old and is in the sixth grade. She is doing well in school. This year we are trying the new video school through the A Beka Video School. She watches a video teacher for about 3 4 hours of the day, and then she has independent work assignments that she completes by herself. I only stand by as a consultant and grader, so this has freed me from some of the teaching chores. I am so very thankful for this newfound method of teaching! Angela continues to take her violin lessons as often as possible and she even plays her violin in church sometimes. She has recently been singing specials, too. Pray for Angela to be used by the Lord in our ministry. We praise the Lord for our lovely daughter.

Samuel is always called Sam. He's quite a character now at the age of four, almost five. Sometimes he does his preschool lessons while Angela is busy with her work. He is all boy and demands much of Daddy's attention. Pray for Sam that he will soon give his heart to Jesus. We are indeed proud of our son, too.

Last of all, pray for me that I will be all the mother, wife, teacher, and secretary-treasurer that the Lord Jesus can make me.⁵⁷

Correspondence schooling is the only way for a man to keep his family with him while traveling. Every itinerant evangelist that I know who has used a correspondence school has had great success with it. In fact most of those did very well in their college work when they left home and went away to school. Since it has worked for fellow evangelists in the past, God made it work for my family. The added advantage of a Christian School curriculum is that much Bible knowledge is gained in a Bible class and in relating practical studies to the Word of God. By the way both of our children were B average students in college. Both were very active in the Lord’s work and all school activities.

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