Why Home Education?
Freedom for Bible,
Prayer & Morals
Positive Learning
Environments...

 Freedom to study the Bible, pray, and teach moral and spiritual truth 

Why Educate at Home?
Home Education is a valid legal educational option available to you. It can be helpful to consider the advantages that can take place within the home environment in contrast to a what may be occurring in a typical day school setting.

Freedom to study the Bible, pray, and teach moral and spiritual truth
As a Home Educator, you are able to start the day and include within the day Prayer and praise. You may also include Biblical principles within your lessons and ensure that issues are addressed within a Biblical frame work not just from the worlds view. if you wish. Obviously, this would be considered inappropriate within most school days.

While offering a rich diversity of study topics at home, you can still avoid controversial topics such as witchcraft related themes or contexts for study or creative writing. Halloween, for instance, can be a favourite topic in the day school planning calendar in October among many teachers. As a parent who is educating their children at home you will have the ability to exercise discretion in the themes your children are introduced to within reading material. Your child doesn't have to read books that you consider to have undesirable themes, such as Harry Potter... Your child can also do Easter and Christmas units of study that explore deeper meanings than Easter Eggs and Santa, celebrating the biblical stories behind these celebrations.

In Science, evolution in schools, is often presented unquestioningly as a scientifically proven fact. With the definition of True Science being observable, repeatable and testable, Home Educators are able to examine evolution as it really, a theory. There is scope to discuss the theory's major flaws, and present alternative views of Inelegant Design and the many scientific findings that support creation.

As Parents you might also consider how the personal views of the teachers, in the Education system, that you entrust your child to, impact on classroom practices, discussions and influence topics of study. A teacher’s views may be at odds with your own. Many teachers would advocate the Bible as a myth, relativity, situation ethics, premarital sex, abortion, homosexuality, the occult, etc., How do teacher’s views permeate classroom discussions or attitudes. Does this have an influence on your child when Christian families teach their children to listen and respect the Teacher?

Most schools endeavour to be impartial but they seldom permit prayer or introduce the presentation of Biblical truth. If a School has Religious Education then it is usually limited to 30 minutes a week and there are clear guidelines and constraints on what the volunteers are allowed to teach.
In home-based learning parents are free to teach respect for the Bible and for God, with absolute values of right and wrong. Bible teachings can be freely discussed and integrated within any subject at any time.

Positive Teacher's Influence
Families who are enrolled with Faith School of Distance Education (as in many Christian schools that still employ teachers with a strong faith in God) can be confident that teacher will have a strong faith in God and the Bible, be good role models and view their job as a ministry not as just a means to pay the mortgage.

A Teachers' worldview does influence the way in which students are viewed and subsequently treated. If a teacher believes that God created each child special and has a good plan for their lives, this can only be positive. I have often seen families who do not consider themselves to be “Christian” seek out and desire teachers who believe this Christian caring view of their child, as apposed to a belief in evolution and “survival of the fittest”. Within classroom environments, that are often challenging for the teacher, a “survival of the fittest” belief leading the class may not ensure positive outcomes for each child.


Learner Centred
Educational programs can be truly learner centred in Home Education as Parent Educators are willing to take on new ideas and teaching strategies. Free from concerns about the extra work involved when changing existing practice, but instead with a focus on what’s best for their children parents can greatly assist students to reach their full potential through work that is individually tailored for each child. This gives more freedom to explore a wider variety of options and solutions available for students in contrast to Day Schools' “best practice” which is often determined by attitudes surrounding work loads , limitations of resources, class sizes or a lack of time or funding within the program.
Our Distance Education parents in committing to work with their children, really want to be there. This too makes a big difference!

Effective use of time
Unfortunately within Day School arrangements, by their very nature, students have a lot of down time- waiting for; buses, travelling to and from school, moving from class to class, waiting in lines or for teachers to arrive, listening to negative interactions between teachers and behavioural problem students, waiting for help from a busy teacher or waiting for other students, who may be to distracted to finish work - so that their group or class can move on to the next step or concept.

Sadly, it is not surprising, that in the high pressure school environments, studies on teacher interactions within classrooms can report high frequency of negative teacher communications than the frequency of instructions or words of encouragement or praise.
In the home learning environment Parent Educators work directly with each student, progressing when the child is ready. Usually parents who want to work with their children have positive interaction styles and are truly learner centred. It is not surprising that many students learn more in 3-5 hours within the home, without the down time and distractions, than students who are away from home for 7 hours or more per day -only to arrive home to assignments or set home work. It is perplexing when considering that most adult would not have to do the long hours that secondary students are expected to do? Could student time be used more productively?

Individualised teaching and personal attention
Instead of one teacher dealing with a class of 20-32 students, home-based parent tutors are dealing directly with each child with support from an experienced teacher just a phone call away. Within many classrooms, each student has little access to the teacher's time. Within Home Based Education there is more interaction between adults and children. Problems can readily be perceived and dealt with. If the child has a question or needs attention, help is more easily available.

Because the incidence of adult input and support is much higher within the home based situation, it is easier to meet individual needs. The pace can also be more easily adapted to the needs of the student. A learner having difficulty can be supported at their own pace. A students finding a section or topic of work can be advanced and extended.

More flexible use of time
We believe our Distance Education families need an individualised long-term program for each student and to set goals and utilise a daily planned schedule. However, parents can still feel free to fit in special learning opportunities that fixed classroom hours may not allow. Students can take special field trips, attend interesting events, or visit with informative people. Families can plan vacations during the off- season while other children must be at classes. I have had in the past students who scheduled their academic work around Church Ministry, representative sports training and coaching, music programs and even part-time work. 

Quality learning outcomes
Reports have abundantly documented the high incidence of students who are passing through our State Schooling system and leaving without the basic academic skills they require. In home based learning parents work directly with their children and this insures they do not fall through the cracks. Parent supported by an experienced teacher see immediately if the child is not learning well, so they can take action to resolve the problem early before distrust or anxiety around the topic of learning is formed.

Better discipline and behavioural standards
Unfortunately, School standards of behaviour and discipline seem to have diminished over the years. As a result some Schools are not always emotionally or physically safe environments. Peer pressure seems to be the strongest influence in many students’ lives and even students from good homes may adopt poor behavioural standards and rude behaviours. Students can be mistreated by other students who have little regard for others. Within a loving home environment parents are free to manage the behaviour of their children, setting higher standards and exercising control over the influences of negative peer pressure.
It is interesting to see how students who have solid foundations laid while they are young and impressionable are better able to withstand peer pressure later in life, demonstrating independence and confidence.

Some have argued that students need to be in the “real world” and that school bullying and emotional pressures are part of life. With years of experience within both education and industry I would suggest that if employees had to suffer the negatives within a behaviourally challenged classroom or school setting, they would go off on stress leave and even sue their employer for failure to provide a safe working environment.

Very few working environment subject people to the treat of physical bullying or emotional abuse. In most work places perpetrators of the negative behaviours we see in schools would be asked to leave immediately or even face criminal charges. So is, or should bullying and emotional abuse be acceptable for our children?

While we want our children to learn resilience I believe this level of resilience, that many adults do not have, should not be expected at age 5 to15.

Better control of peer influences

One of the biggest problem in schools is the bad influence some students have on others. Sadly, many homes do not encourage healthy social behaviour and leave it up to schools to address this issue. Home Education students associate with the children that their family chooses for them to associate with. This weakens the harmful influence of "bad crowds."

Strong Family Relationship
When children are at school 6-7 hours a day (not counting extra-curricular activities and travel time), family ties may be weakened, especially if family values are contradicted by teachers or other student influences. Spending time together, as a family is special and naturally strengthens family bonds.
Our families study, work, play, and pray together. Children learn to love and appreciate parents, brothers, and sisters. They enjoy and learn to relate to children of various ages and adults - not just their own age group.
Through extra curricular activities, youth groups, clubs and sports our students enjoy developing relationship skills within constructive situations. In fact, with program flexibility and more effective use of time, home-based education often allows for greater involvement in extra curricular activities.

Teachers who know and understand each student
Parents have lived with each of their children since birth. Who could better know their individual strengths and weaknesses? A classroom teacher may take months to get to know each student well and sometimes a quiet student is never even noticed.

Better self concept
Students at Day Schools can face rejection and mockery from other kids for:

• struggling to grasp skills,
• being a gifted learner,
• too tall or short,
• having different religious views
• or otherwise being an individual.

This creates a rejection of individual differences and damages self-concept. Parents on the other hand, generally appreciate the specific qualities and abilities of their own children.

This encourages a celebration of individual differences and an acceptance of others. Above all, the faith your children will have, the chance to develop in God, will give an understanding of the exciting plans God has for all of our lives and how special we all are to Him.

Better Preparation for Life
Studies have found that Christian home-based learning environments produce students with equal learning outcomes, generally higher behavioural standards and healthier self-concept in comparison to many day school students.
In 2003 Education Queensland completed a large review of Home Schooling and families with Independent Distance Education schools. Their findings, similar to other studies have been very favourable towards home-based learning. As the media has publicised these findings, it is interesting to see public opinion changing and dispelling the myths and misconceptions. Children who are educated at home do not miss out on learning social behaviours. They do, however, often miss out on developing many of the anti-social behaviours that are generated within classrooms of “mono-age” cultures. These classrooms often contain students who are the product of very negative influences of dysfunctional home lives, violent computer games and inappropriate movies and sadly many of the students who are on the “wrong track” have a stronger influence within the class than other students and sometimes they even have greater power that the teacher to control what happens within any given situation.

For many of our parents their most desired outcome for their children is to develop a "real life" faith in God, while gaining the academic skills and qualifications they require to ensure future opportunities. If this is your goal you need to ask, “are my children most likely to develop a strong faith if they are placed within an environment consisting almost entirely of people who advocate principles contrary to our own family beliefs?

Children at an impressionable age need the opportunity to form strong foundations upon which they can build their future lives and fulfill their God given destiny.

Who we are?

Faith Christian School of Distance Education, is currently in the process of applying for accreditation for Term 1 2012, to be a registered school in Queensland. We are operating under the governance of CHBE LTD, a “not for profit” board of Godly Home Education fathers. We will have a growing team of Christian locally based teachers, under the leadership of Jason Caldwell with a strong Ministry Vision to support Parents who want to invest in their children's future through Home Education.

In keeping with this vision the content of this website, is being made freely available to the wider home education community for the benefit of the next generation. Material may not be used for commercial use or by other schools without permission for Jason Caldwell.