Our Journey to Homeschooling Part Two
If you missed part one of our journey to homeschooling, click here!
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When Michael and I were thinking about marriage, of course the topic of children came up numerous times. After my experience homeschooling, I was excited to give that same opportunity to my own children. Michael wasn’t very familiar with homeschooling, but he agreed that there was something sweet about the idea of being the ones spending the majority of time with our kids and shaping the way they think about the world. But, we decided to cross that bridge when we got there.
Well, we got there pretty quickly since we got pregnant with our first son just weeks after our wedding. A few short years later and we found ourselves needing to make a decision about school. But, in all honesty it was not a hard decision to make. Below are the five biggest reasons we have decided to homeschool our children:
We want to take seriously God’s call for us to disciple our children and raise them to know Him.
Now, what I am not saying here is that homeschooling is the only way to disciple our kids. I’ll talk more about that below. What I am saying is that little ones are so impressionable. They mimic those they spend the most time with. A child spends approximately 7 hours in school each day. Sure it’s not all of their time, but it is a good chunk of it. By keeping them home, especially during the little years when their hearts are so very tender, I get to be the one they spend the most time with. I get to have all those little conversations that are shaping their worldview. I get to break up every squabble between siblings and use those moments to point them to Jesus. I get to sit on the couch and snuggle when they get their feelings hurt. I overheard my husband (who is a school teacher) talking to one of his coworkers about why we are choosing to homeschool right now. He said, “Of course, I think all of the kindergarten teachers are great ladies! But I don’t like any of them as much as I like my wife.” Who our kids spend time with is important.
Education encompasses so much more than a classroom.
Household chores, cooking meals, running errands, babysitting a friend’s child, taking a meal to a family, praying with a friend over the phone–these are all moments of great learning and they happen outside of the classroom–yet they can shape our children profoundly. One reason we are homeschooling is to have them around while real life is happening. The classroom is a simulated environment that isn’t really replicated in real life. It’s not the environment that they will spend the majority of their lives in. In being home, they are not only watching life happen around our house, but they are also learning how God’s people live daily in community together.
Freedom to choose their curriculum and modify things as we want.
This is one aspect I’ve really enjoyed. As we spend more time with our kids, we get to know them. And we can customize their education to what is most helpful for them. Even the best teachers are limited in how much they can cater to each child simply because of the number of children in a classroom. As a mother, I know my children in a very unique way and can customize their education to encompass their interests and talents. And I can change it as needed!
Flexibility of the day
This is another one of my favorite aspects of homeschooling. Of course, we have a pretty consistent routine each day and my kids know what to expect. But, we also have a lot of flexibility. I don’t have to be up and out the door by a certain time (thank goodness). Our kids can spend hours outside depending on the weather. They build forts and make sidewalk chalk worlds and dissect chipmunks that our cat kills (maybe TMI). (They also have rest time so Mama can sit in pseudo-quiet for an hour, whew!). It’s really nice to be able to go to the zoo on a Monday morning or take a last-minute trip to Grandma’s house. Those are the things our kids will remember.
The ability to train them and focus in on habits and character
Because I am the one spending the most time with my children, I am painfully aware of the areas where they need improvement (as they are painfully aware of the areas where I need improvement, hah!). But this is helpful as a parent because I can train and direct all day long. I can nip it in the bud when I find them slipping into bad habits. I can re-evaluate often and figure out which areas each child needs to improve and I can stick to it. If they were out of my care for the majority of the day, I would have a much harder time knowing their areas of struggle and would need to rely heavily on their teacher to clue me in on their behavior patterns at school.
There are probably more reasons we are choosing to homeschool our kids, but those are the five biggest reasons in a nutshell. Now, I want to address those of you out there who might be thinking, “Woah woah woah, my kids are in public school and I take my call to disciple them very seriously!” or you might be thinking, “I still spend a lot of time with my kids even though they are in school, and actually, our quality of time is even better because we’re not together all the time!”
To both of those points, I would say yes. Yes. You can absolutely disciple your children and raise them to know the Lord AND have them in school (it turns out, Jesus goes with them to school 🙂 ). Yes, you can absolutely be intentional with the time you spend with your kids and train them well even if they are out of your watchful eye for several hours every day. What it all boils down to is this: God calls each family to be faithful to Him. What you and I have to do is discern what faithfulness looks like for our family. It takes a lot of prayer. It takes a lot of pros and cons lists. It takes a lot of discernment into each child’s needs and the family’s needs as a whole.
My husband is a public school teacher, so please don’t hear me saying that we are anti-school! We love teachers and we both had positive experiences in public schools growing up. And honestly, homeschooling is something we plan to re-evaluate every year–taking a “year by year, kid by kid” approach. There may come a time when homeschooling doesn’t make sense for our family. Or perhaps one child needs to be in school while another needs to be home. Our responsibility as parents is the same whether our kids are homeschooled or not–to faithfully raise them in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. And to pray fervently that the seeds we plant in faith will reap a beautiful harvest of Christ followers.
I would love to hear from you! How does your family do school?
