Taking Inventory

Taking inventory is easy when it comes to books and chairs and clipboards. Internal inventories take a little more time. But, in the end, they are the only inventories that really matter.

Personal Inventory

These are important questions every Christian home educator should be able to answer affirmatively:

1. Do I believe in absolute truth that is found only in the Bible?
2. Do I teach Bible principles and promises and their application to life situations?
3. Do I teach principles and ideas, instead of just facts?
4. Do I give information and illustrations on the students’ level to support the principles or ideas I present?
5. Do I test on material I’ve covered or referred to in class?
6. Do I try to help every student succeed?
7. Do I respond objectively to my students’ behavior and not react emotionally?
8. Do I look for information and evidence to back up my opinions?

Student Inventory

You might want to challenge your children with the following eight questions that Dr. Walter Fremont includes in his congratulatory letter to his grandchildren upon their high school graduation.

1. How do you know for sure you are going to heaven instead of hell?
2. Have you ever dedicated your life to full-time service for Christ? We all don’t want to see you waste your life on some frivolous temporal goals. Always think in terms of eternity and how you can glorify God with your life.
3. Which attitude rules your spirit, love or hate? Let love, kindness, and submission rule your thinking and spirit so that hate, bitterness, and rebellion will not dominate.
4. What are your future plans? Invest your life in people, who are eternal.
5. Are you a testimony of Christ’s saving and life-changing power with your co-workers and friends? Tell me about your latest witnessing opportunity with them.
6. Some preteens and teens rebel against their parents and their Christian values and standards. Did that happen to you? If so, what changed your attitude?
7. Has there been a long period of time when you felt rejected by your parents? Why did you feel that way and how old were you? How did you handle it?
8. How may I pray for you?

You can wake up your children up by getting them to think about life and why God put them on this earth. One thought-provoking question or short discussion is appropriate at the start of the day or period, especially if it relates to the lesson.

Based on the work of Dr. Walter Fremont,