Why do I homeschool?

Why am I homeschooling?

There are a couple of reasons. First, I was commissioned by God to do so. Ok, how can you argue with that one, right? Nevertheless, it was an aha moment, when my first daughter was in preschool. I told my husband and he said ‘absolutely not!’

Well, ok then.

So I prayed. Did I hear God incorrectly? Or was I supposed to just wait on Him?

So heated was my husband’s attitude about homeschooling that I seriously thought that he might never speak to me again if I broached the subject one more time. (I didn’t nag him, you understand, I only brought it up twice, once to open the subject and another time to ask, ‘are you sure?’)

Then a Homeschool conference came to town. Gregg Harris. So I prayed and ventured to open the subject one last time. I told my husband about the conference, suggested that he go hear Gregg Harris. Then, I told him that if Mr. Harris’ spiel didn’t convince him that homeschooling was a good idea, I would never bring up the subject again.

Half way through Harris’ lecture, my husband turned to me and asked what curriculum I was going to use.

For me, this was an issue of obedience to God, Liberty of Conscience, and submission to my husband. It was quite a balancing act!

The second reason I homeschool is because the Bible states that it is the parents’ responsibility to teach, to raise up, to train their children. If this is the case, then I must seriously consider what that looks like for my family. I do not ever point at others and say that they ought to homeschool. This is a matter of conscience before the Lord.

It is not ‘fashionable’ or even favorable at times, from a personal standpoint. Children are hard work. I’m on, 24/7. Sometimes I get tired. Sometimes I get sick. Sometimes my children don’t like me. There is much labor and often little immediate reward. So don’t think I have done this for my own personal gain.

That said, there is a third reason. And that is to watch those ‘aha’ moments happen in my children’s faces. If they went to the public school, I would miss those. Years of labor and dedication may yield only a few of those, depending on the child. I could not bear to miss those few. Some children have them daily, and this is, indeed, a blessing of great magnitude.

The fourth reason I homeschool is because I want my children to have the influence of a biblical education. There is no question that this would not occur in the public school. My time with them would be so limited and so dominated by the education process offered by the school system, that I would have to take a back seat with any instruction I wished to give them. In my humble opinion, it is much harder to train up a child in the admonition of the Lord, if they are only with me a few hours a day. It would take a better person than I to accomplish that.