The earliest classroom a child ever enters is not a preschool, a kindergarten, or even a church program—it is the home. According to Child Guidance, the home is divinely appointed as “his first school,” where the child begins to learn the foundational lessons that will guide him throughout life: respect, obedience, reverence, and self-control.
The first three chapters of the book—Importance of the Home School, The First Teachers, and When to Begin the Child’s Training—paint a compelling picture of the home as a place where character is shaped, values are formed, and destiny is influenced for eternity.
The Home: The School Where All Education Begins
Chapter 1 opens with this striking declaration:
“It is in the home that the education of the child is to begin. Here is his first school.”
The home’s influence, though often “silent and gradual,” becomes a powerful force “for truth and righteousness” when guided by godly instruction.
But the warning is equally clear:
“If the child is not instructed aright here, Satan will educate him through agencies of his choosing.”
This gives solemn weight to the calling of every parent. The home environment—its words, habits, routines, and atmosphere—forms the child’s earliest conceptions of God, self, authority, and duty.
The foundations laid in these early years encompass physical, mental, and spiritual development, requiring “earnest thought and prayer” as well as “patient, persevering effort”.
Parents: The First and Most Influential Teachers
Chapter 2 reinforces the divine appointment of parents as teachers:
“The father and the mother should be the first teachers of their children.”
This responsibility is not simply instructional; it is formational. Parents are tasked with preparing children to face a world of temptations, dangers, and moral confusion:
Parents must train their children so that when they go out into the world, “they will do good and not evil.”
More than human wisdom is required for this sacred work:
“Parents need more than human wisdom at every step.”
The book reminds parents that the preparation for a child’s character begins even before birth: “Even before the birth of the child, the preparation should begin.”
Above all, the home is to become a “school where the children are indeed fashioned in character after the similitude of a palace,” a place of refinement, training, and godliness.
When Should Education Begin?
Chapter 3 answers plainly:
“Education begins with the infant in its mother’s arms.”
Education is not merely academic; it is the shaping of thoughts, values, attitudes, and habits from the very earliest days of life:
“As soon as a child is capable of forming an idea, his education should begin.”
The early years are uniquely formative:
“The mind is the most impressible” in babyhood, and the lessons given then “are remembered.”
For this reason, the home becomes a continuous school:
Children should be virtually trained in a home school from the cradle to maturity.”
Parents are encouraged to learn daily in “the school of Christ” so they can reproduce His love, patience, and spirit in their homes. Before reason is fully developed, a child can already “catch a right spirit from their parents”.
The Far-Reaching Scope of Home Education
The influence of the home extends into eternity. The training given there may prepare a child for earthly usefulness and heavenly citizenship:
“Your home is a training school… preparatory to the higher school in the kingdom of God.”
This is why parents are urged not to allow anything else to take priority over their children’s early training. What happens in the home is not secondary—it “occupies the first place in all true education”.
Conclusion: The Home—A Divine Institution for Life and Eternity
The first three chapters of Child Guidance make one truth unmistakably clear:
The home is God’s appointed school where eternal destinies begin.
The atmosphere of the home, the example of the parents, the words spoken, the habits formed—all serve as the curriculum of the child’s first and most important education.
Through love, prayer, consistency, and Christlike example, parents can make their homes places where children learn to love God, serve others, and build strong, beautiful characters that will endure for eternity.
