AA (Agape Academy) crossing the finish line (continued)

It has been a great adventure and not just because we were pilgrims in the physical sense but more so that we are pilgrims on our way to the Celestial City and we bid our children to come with us, leading them in the paths of righteousness, knowing full well that it is the Father who leads us and them for that matter. The journey has had its highs and lows. It is hard to believe that life is racing on and I want to be able to savor the moments and really take things in....leave my phone behind or off even for just a few hours at a time and just be present wherever I go especially when I am with my kids.


I have not been very good about blogging about the girls being launched, not the way I would have hoped to have written. The notes are more like doggie ears within the blog instead of actual posts. However, the girls have been coming and going for some time now, both are college students and for the most part Michael has been "home alone and in the world" with his parents for the better part of 2 years.

We have a plaque that was Dan’s mum’s it reads:

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children –

one is roots, the other wings.”

Children are meant to grow up and become adults. Do you want them to soar? Then don’t clip their wings when they start showing signs of maturity. I recall saying the first time I put Grace on a plane, “most people put their kid on a big yellow bus at age 5 and here I am putting my almost 15 year old on a plane.” Do you want them to be wise? Teach them to fear God and not men. One of the greatest truths that I have learned from the experience of educating my own children is this: No matter where your children are educated (home, public or private), there will be educational gaps. Do you want them to succeed in life? Then don’t let academics become an idol.  Who among us has not made a bad decision or two or three? Let your kids make bad decisions here and there, while they are still with you, that way you have the opportunity to walk through the process of learning from it with them. 

Seeking first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and growing in wisdom and knowledge have been our first priority, whole heartedly believing if we kept God as our first priority, academic excellence would be added because for sure many people, not just the pagans run after these things. Of course, we are to do everything with excellence but not so much so that it becomes the driving force in our lives, leaving our hearts in the dust. 

More still to come.....

Agape Academy crossing the finish line (an overdue update)

When our kids were young and we had grown from "educating our children at home is a year at a time" to it becoming our lifestyle we decide to give the educational branch of our family life a name, "Jesus Agape Academy." Many years later when it was time to submit a transcript for Grace's high school years we decided to shorten it to Agape Academy. Transcripts, the documentation of that branch of our life is what the schools of Higher Education care about and we did not want those institutions to be distracted by our "school" name. We are not ashamed of the gospel.  The Academy in the formal sense has been on sabbatical for nearly 6 months but all of us continue to learn and our last student will transition from home to college toward the end of the summer.   

This past December Michael finished his studies at home. If you have followed my blog over the years you may recall me writing about raising/educating children at home and comparing it to the Boston Marathon and the teen years being like Heartbreak hill which is about 19 miles into the Marathon and can make or break a runner.  We crossed the finish line without much fanfare. It wasn’t how I pictured it. There were hard and trying times, along with sweet and treasured ones. More importantly, we stayed in the race and we were victorious by God's grace and a bit of human tenacity. 

It is with quiet satisfaction to have completed this season of parenting, not so much that I had accomplished a daring feat (though some may think so) but that my children have turned out to be lifelong learners. They are teachable, creative, daring and finding their way along the Pilgrim Highway. Our parenting and educating of our children were interwoven. (I am aware of the fact that not all homeschooling families subscribe to the same philosophy of education.) We discipled our children in the LORD, did our best to consider the whole child, not just their heads, but their hearts. It was our goal to educate the whole child: body, mind and soul. When our children were young, I became a student of each one and each one has a different learning style. This required customizing the method as well as the curriculum.

My educational philosophy in a nutshell is that we as parent educators are to equip our children with the tools of learning and then provide them with the resources in order to be able to learn many things on their own. This means that they learn from other people directly and from books and from life and circumstances. It does not mean that they are force fed knowledge.


to be continued......