That year, we established an online teaching platform

Homeschooling journey~

Translation and editing/Wu Xinhui

▲Piper family portrait.

Preface

Tina and Galle grew up on opposite sides of the earth, but God arranged for them to meet! Tina was born in the United States in the northern hemisphere, and Garle was born in Australia in the southern hemisphere. In 1997, Tina went to Australia to study from the United States and met Garle at school. Tina attended church meetings with Galle, heard the gospel, and decided to become a Christian. In January 1999, Tina and Galle understood God’s intention for their union and got married.

After several long flights and moves across the northern and southern hemispheres, the newlyweds finally settled in the United States. The young couple dreamed of building a small family that would suit God’s heart, but God had “other ideas” for them. Over the years, Tina and Galle have raised eight children together. In addition to keeping their commitment to each other, Tina and Galle have also been guided by God along the way, including becoming a "home-schooling" family.

▲Transforming imagination into action, Piper finally established the Luma Learn online learning platform in 2016, a learning platform based on Christian faith as its business philosophy.

Embark on the journey of "home education"

Education has always been something we attach great importance to. In 2002, when our eldest son Jieden was only nine months old, we started "looking for" schools. We were surprised to find out that the tuition fee for a private Christian kindergarten is US$$6,000 per year.

At that time, I first came into contact with the concept of "home education" on a Christian radio station. Although I didn't know the details and the level involved, telling stories and playing early learning games with Jieden made me happy every day; Jieden is like a small piece of cake. A sponge, quickly absorbing everything I taught him.

Individual learning styles

After much research and prayer, we decided to embark on the path of "homeschooling". The second child, Alyssa, obviously has a very different learning style from Jaden; Jaden is a static learner, while Alyssa is active and lively. It took a lot of effort to allow two children with different learning and absorption styles to learn at the same time. From this, I understood that children not only have different personalities, but also have different learning styles. Although we know that there are three types of learning methods: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic, only by truly experiencing raising children with different personalities can we truly understand the meaning of "teaching without distinction".

Faith-based educational opportunities

For us, "home education" is the best way to train and establish the heart of Christ in our children. This is also the deeper reason why God allows us to choose home education. Parents can take the initiative to share spiritual experiences with their children, educate them in a timely manner, and become faith mentors, which is more direct than discussing things after listening to their children describe what happened in school. For example, when children quarrel over their favorite things, we guide them to think about God’s words. Only by being quick to forgive, sharing eagerly, and clearly expressing love can we become ambassadors of Christ.

Teaching materials that combine faith and academics are hard to find

Although the focus of education is on the spiritual and religious growth of children, we do not want to compromise on academic performance. I searched online, attended teaching conferences, and spent money and effort to find good teaching materials. I tried every means but could not find a suitable set, which made me frustrated and restless. Many textbooks are very good and cannot be faulted, but they lack what I think is the most important element - coherence.

▲The best advantage of home education - the learning time is flexible, and the whole family can travel and study everywhere with their parents.

Unlimited learning

After several moves, job changes, and children arriving one after another, we unexpectedly decided to sell everything we owned in the United States and move to Australia in 2010. After living there for a year, we moved our family back to the United States. Such running and moving is all based on prayer and faith. Although it was a very challenging time, due to the flexibility of homeschooling, we were able to make it happen without having to consider schooling.

Embark on an online learning course

It was during this period that we came into contact with online courses due to introductions from friends. The eldest brother Jieden is getting older and needs more professional courses. As the number of family members gradually increases, it is difficult for me to concentrate on the study of each child. Online teaching is just what you need. At that time, online teaching was very popular. Although most people derogated the online teaching method, once we came into contact with online teaching, we knew we could never go back!

Flexible time, diverse environment

I think online teaching has many benefits: First, the courses have been recorded in advance and there is no time limit. We can arrange class time according to our own schedule. Second, teachers with good skills can add extended content, and students can access the website at any time during the week. Third, children can take classes with children from all over the world and excitedly see the study locations of other students on the map. This expands the "home education" learning circle that was once a niche learning environment, and children can enter it with their fingers. Cross-cultural and diverse learning environment.

▲Although the class is held online, the class has a full physical feel.

From imagination to execution

In 2016, several online platforms for older children to attend classes suddenly shut down, leaving students in the middle of the semester at a loss. Galle put forward: "I see the market demand. Someone needs to set up a virtual platform to allow Christian teachers to design teaching materials and conduct online classes. Each teacher works independently, like his or her own business." I think Galle's The idea is great, but how to execute it?

The next day, Galle said: "Online teaching has its market. Teachers do their best to use the Internet to design their ideal teaching plan. 'You' can help promote it and draw some commission for every class. Pay expenses.

Galle is a person who sees black and white and pays attention to reality, but I am a dreamer who often creates unreasonable dreams and gets into trouble. That’s why I moved my family to Australia, took my five children at the time, and traveled around the world in a station wagon. . (This is another story later!)

Since Galle mentioned it twice, I started to implement this idea. So in April 2017, Lumalearn.com was officially launched! (Please refer to the small box of steps to start a business)

The establishment of the website teaching platform was the culmination of our home education experience. The children all participated in this project, and the whole family took a course on how to start a business.

Cute and special new member of the family

Of course, having seven children and a career on an Internet platform makes my time more compact and busy, and I need to manage it more effectively. But God spoke and led us to Colombia to adopt Julian, our youngest son, in February 2020. Julian was the apple of our eyes and taught us to selflessly care for children who were unable to care for themselves. No teaching material can enable us to experience and learn to care for each other. This is all given by God.

Julian needs to undergo many treatments and surgeries, so the online course solves the shortage of teaching resources in my busy schedule. Due to the pandemic, many parents feel as if they are suddenly thrust into a homeschooling environment. I want to encourage parents to search for helpful courses online and everything will be fine. After all, we don’t need to be knowledgeable, all-powerful teachers, but we can tap into each other’s gifts and use online resources to give children an extraordinary education.