Read to Your Children—Fathers and mothers, obtain all the help you can from the study of our books and publications. Take time to read to your children.... Form a home reading circle, in which every member of the family shall lay aside the busy cares of the day, and unite in study. Especially will the youth who have been accustomed to reading novels and cheap storybooks receive benefit from joining in the evening family study. (CG 38.1) MC VC

“Train,” Not “Tell” —To parents is committed the great work of educating and training their children for the future, immortal life. Many fathers and mothers seem to think that if they feed and clothe their little ones, and educate them according to the standard of the world, they have done their duty. They are too much occupied with business or pleasure to make the education of their children the study of their lives. They do not seek to train them so that they will employ their talents for the honor of their Redeemer. Solomon did not say, “Tell a child the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” But, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. (CG 38.2) MC VC

Teamwork Begins in the Home—The work of co-operation should begin with the father and mother themselves, in the home life. In the training of their children they have a joint responsibility, and it should be their constant endeavor to act together. Let them yield themselves to God, seeking help from Him to sustain each other. Let them teach their children to be true to God, true to principle, and thus true to themselves and to all with whom they are connected. With such training, children when sent to school will not be a cause of disturbance or anxiety. They will be a support to their teachers and an example and encouragement to their fellow pupils. (CG 319.1) MC VC

The children will carry with them into the schoolroom the influence of your training. As godly parents and godly teachers work in harmony, the hearts of the children are prepared to take a deep interest in the work of God in the church. The graces cultivated in the home are carried into the church, and God is glorified. (CG 319.2) MC VC

If parents are so engrossed in the business and pleasures of this life that they neglect the proper discipline of their children, the work of the teacher is not only made very hard and trying, but often rendered wholly fruitless. (CG 319.3) MC VC

The Teacher’s Work Is Supplemental—In the formation of character no other influences count so much as the influence of the home. The teacher’s work should supplement that of the parents, but is not to take its place. In all that concerns the well-being of the child, it should be the effort of parents and teachers to co-operate. (CG 319.4) MC VC

The instruction given the child in the home is to be such as will help the teacher. In the home the child is to be taught the importance of neatness, order, and thoroughness; and these lessons are to be repeated in the school. (CG 319.5) MC VC