Don't forget your purpose

Mother-daughter together

I can't go into a department store without a list—not the kind I keep in my head, but a physical list, on a piece of paper, written with ink that I can hold in my hand.


If I don't have a list, my creative meanderings take over. All of the displays begin to call my name. Imagination takes a hand, and before you know it, I am back at home with bags full of items that I never intended to purchase, and the very things I planned to buy remain standing and forgotten back on the store shelves!


So it is with homeschooling. There are so many choices. There are numerous and varied home-school philosophies. We make a start with one, and then see another that beckons us. After a while the confusion only adds to our own insecurities and the impediments of outsiders expectations. For a brief moment, surrendering our children to the failed public school system seems like a liberating solution to the dread and confusion that swirls in our minds.


This is when we need to take a few paces backwards and re-examine the underlying reasons why we chose to home-school in the first place.


I began homeschooling because I just loved my children too much to release them to a horde of strangers—to an institution which, by definition, would not have any respect for our religious beliefs and values, and therefore, did not see every child as a unique and precious gift. Every time I thought of letting go of my sweet little girl to someone else's instruction for hours every day, and at the tender age of five (we didn't do preschool in those days), this notion struck me to my very heart!

Children are an heritage of the Lord

I could not imagine having my daughter taught facts as though there was no God who created and cared, no Jesus that died to save her. It didn't seem right to me to have her taught 6-8 hours each day that morality should be determined by the interpretation of some stranger, or to watch her languish daily from the mistreatment (with a potential to become an abuser herself) of the other "inmates" of forced, socialized education.


I fail to understand why the "socialization" of public (or even private) schooling at any age before eight is beneficial to children. My parents were divorcing when I was only seven and my mother put my sister and I into daycare, and I can remember pining away for her for some time. As I learned to become "tough", I was able to handle the situation—but my relationship with my mom never recovered.


What is so wrong with increasing and strengthening the familial bonds between parent and child during the early years? What is so horrible about having a child identify more with family than with friends? Since when did friends begin to trump family relationships anyway?


I may be old-fashioned, but all of this "social" craze is a bit too much for me. A person can make numerous acquaintances, but true friends are far and few between. Our children can have a few "playmates", but why condition a small child to fly with a flock before he/she even forms an understanding of themselves and who God has made them to be? Is there in truth a hidden agenda here? How does one make significant societal transformations? It must begin with the innocent and impressionable—the children!

Olivia, Eliana discovering the world

I fail to see the advantages of socialized education. Moreover, I would wager at least 30% of the day is spent on administrative tasks and shuffling people around. A child rises before the sun in the winter, gets ready for school, gathers his things together, rides on the bus (with other callous, bad-tempered and often frightened children), waits for the bell, home-room, attendance, announcements and walks from one classroom to the next, etc.


In our home, learning begins as they awaken. I put on sweet music while they read to themselves God's Word in their rooms. Then we meet for a time of "connecting" and talking about what we have perused. I then read aloud a devotion, and finally we pray together (by the way, Dad instructs them almost every day in the Bible and in practical Christian living). After an hour or so of getting ready and finishing their chores, we begin our formal studies. No roll call, no hall pass to use the bathroom—this is their home, and they can even snack while they learn their times tables.


The whole of the world is open to them. We live close enough to a small nature preserve that my dear lepidopterist son can venture there and capture all sorts of flying creatures, and the other children are always bringing me all sorts of specimens and relating exciting new stories of the wildlife they have observed. They have time for handcrafts with yarn, wood, cloth, watercolors, computer programs, (even blogging for the older ones), etc. Their interests and personalities are respected here, because we just happen to think of each of them as precious and beyond compare.

The Good Shepard knows His sheep

But most of all, it is important to personally oversee the education of our children because God asks us to do just that—I know there are situations in which there is just no other choice, and His wonderful grace will cover and give us creative ideas in those challenging situations—but where we do have the choice, we are obligated to make the right one. These children are not just numbers on some demographic chart—no, indeed, they are precious souls formed in the heart of a loving Heavenly Father. Dare we give them up to those who do not have this understanding? Should we risk jeopardizing our children's welfare to a system which has only the "machine" in mind?


I forgive the relatives and well-meaning friends who have tried to dissuade me and discourage me through the years—I now realize that they haven't thought through the whole process, and they are victims of a bit of "political correctness" and propaganda conditioning themselves.


But I don't care what anyone thinks—I am bound to do my best for my children—even if those children themselves should rebel for a time and choose to go the way of the world. If they agree, then wonderful. If they don't agree, then I will pray for them and be as kind and patient as possible.


But I will never, ever, compromise.