HG Bishop Basil: You are Encouraged to Homeschool

“Education is the first need of the community after bread”
St Habib Girgis

The Encouragement of the Scriptures

• Deuteronomy 6:6-8
  • “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
  • Fr Louka Sidarous says about Fr Bishoy Kamel that he was living at a higher standard than what he was saying
    • Most of the time we teach at a higher standard than what we are living
    • Be an example to your children, because they are going to see you more and see more of you
• 2 Timothy 3:13-15
  • But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
• 2 Timothy 1:3
  • “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.”
  • Go and spend time with grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc. with the flexibility of homeschooling

The Encouragement of the Church

• Baptismal Commandment
  • ”Sow in them beautiful qualities; righteousness, praise, purity, obedience, love, holiness, compassion, charity, justice, godliness, patience, goodness, honesty and every good work that pleases God so that your souls and your children’s souls may live.”
  • It is for our own souls that we sow these qualities in our children (as well as for their souls)
  • The way that we are teaching in Homeschooling is the way we sow these qualities
  • ”You have received this gift according to the Law, and the priests of God and the Church have witnessed on you the… Teach them…” etc.
  • Why didn’t St Paul tell parents to love their children (Colossians 3)? Because that is natural! So he commands them not to provoke their children to wrath!

The Encouragement of the Saints

• In the evenings, the family would gather to read scripture and reflect on the lives of the saints and martyrs… the family lived from the feast of one saint to another” - Life of HHPK
• The lives of the saints and the martyrs in the Synaxarion
  • Teach them all holiness
  • Teach them how to defend their faith
  • Teach them to be strong in morals and principles
  • Pilgrimage to the saints in the local area on their feast days

The Encouragement of the Liturgical Life

• The ability to live more in the Liturgical Life
  • The Lectionary of the Church
    • Lectionary of the Great Fast is like a catechism for the whole Church
    • Goes through the Sermon on the Mount part by part
  • Being able to attend the Feasts that are during school days/school weeks
    • Theophany, Ascension, Minor Feasts, Pascha
• Praying from the Agpeya
  • Like a school that has a morning routine (pledge of allegiance, etc.)
  • A Homeschool family can purposefully start their day with the Agpeya
    
  • “O God you are my God, early I will seek you” (Psalm 62)
    • Fr Bishoy Kamel + Tasony Angele story
    • ”Is that why you don’t make me breakfast in the morning??”
  • Bells in the Monastery instruct the monks to do something (e.g. prayer)
    • The hussle and bussle of the home and all the sounds, are like the bells of the monastery

The Encouragement of the Natural Life

• The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament declares His handiwork
• With the freedom of homeschool, go out and learn from nature - God’s book; God’s beauty
• Incorporate the Natural Life
  • Physical nature
  • Going out for a walk
  • Learning the names of the plants
  • Plant a vegetable; Eat the vegetable
• God created nature beautiful and organized and good, so that we can see His beauty and goodness
• Having meals together
  • Sacred time for a family
• Incorporate the subjects in the chores of the day