Why do you homeschool?

I get asked that nearly every week… and I tend to ask myself that just as often.  Why do we homeschool?  It is definitely NOT the easiest way to give our children an education… sending them to school for 7 hours per day to have the paid professionals do it is WAY easier.  So, why did we choose to homeschool with the good school system that we have here and the great Christian schools all around town?

There are many reasons that we have chosen this for our family, but here is the biggest one…  We were convicted by the Holy Spirit through Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them with you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

As believers and parents, we are all mandated by God to be the primary teachers of His Word to our children. WE are to be the teachers and we are to teach them DILIGENTLY, EVERYDAY, and in EVERY SITUATION.   We must first love the Lord and know His commands and then we are to pass them on to our children. We are the ones who will be ultimately responsible to the Lord for the raising of our children.  And that reality hit us HARD!  As we were studying that passage, we just kept coming back to the fact that we wouldn’t be the primary teachers of our children if we were handing them over to someone else for the majority of their waking hours in the day…. their good hours…. their impressionable hours.  We KNEW that we had to homeschool… for the hearts and minds of our kids.   We KNEW that being in school meant that our children were going to be “impressed” by many things and many worldviews… many which we wouldn’t want them to be “impressed” by.  It was easier to make a lasting “impression” on our children by choosing what they would and wouldn’t have access to.

The decision was made.  Even though we never thought we would, we entered the intimidating world of homeschooling.  We knew that this was the right decision for us…each of our friends and family have to make the decision for themselves, but the more we have studied, read and received counsel, we are convinced that this is the right thing for our family.  It isn’t easy, though.  There are some days that I am ready to pull my hair out before the kids pull it out – or turn it ALL GRAY!  There are good days too.  Lots of them… memories that are not soon forgotten….like making Viking Ships from cardboard boxes, singing Bible songs on the floor of the Living Room EVERY day, giggles when we make lunch together, listening to our three Bigs recite their Bible verses that they memorized this week – with the motions,  the two girls accepting Christ as their Savior, the silly games of memory or BINGO, seeing the bond that these four have..a true love, the maze of words that Hannah gets to review reading, or the sprouting popcorn kernel experiment.  All these plus MANY MANY more make it so rewarding. 

Our schooling isn’t exactly like the education that our kids would receive in “real school”.  We start our day with a study of Christian character and Bible lessons.  This is incorporated into the whole day… we are looking for ways to build their character and train them in the Word of God.  The goal of each week is to develop character in them… to get them further along in their spiritual journey.  That doesn’t mean that reading, math, science, history, handwriting and the like are not important.  But it does mean that they are not the most important thing.   Without the transforming work of the Spirit through the  Word of God, our efforts are in vain.  We are not trying to make brain surgeons, rocket scientists, or the first female president.   We just want to have children who love God, His Word and His world and desire to serve Him whole heartedly in everything!

Here are some pictures from a typical day at Lightner Christian Academy (yes, the girls didn’t brush their hair and they dressed themselves so the girls don’t match! Oh, well!  This is what life is REALLY like here!)

Caleb – 20 months old, showing you his snack!

They all stop their work to take a few pics… ADORABLE!

Why do we homeschool?  In short…We believe that the Lord has given us these four gifts to prepare them to be used for His kingdom.  That is a FULL TIME JOB.  We have decided that we MUST have them home with us so they can be fully trained… a job we believe that moms and dads are the most suitable for! It isn’t easy, but these four bundles are SO WORTH IT!

And as a final note, schools are MUCH scarier these days that when we were kids – school safety issues and common core are REAL issues that each family needs to consider.  They didn’t play a primary role in our decision to home school, but I know that they do for some.