I am in my 13th year of homeschooling, and as my oldest graduates this year, I’ve been reflecting on our educational journey together and the reasons why we chose this path. I know that homeschooling is not for every family. But I have found through the years that, whenever I mention to any new acquaintance that we homeschool, the most common response I get are the reasons why they don’t homeschool. I don’t expect any such explanation and have never felt that one was necessary. Just as I appreciate the freedom we have to choose our way of education, I equally appreciate that every family has their own unique personality, goals, and dynamics. Nevertheless, I’d like to write a series of articles about why we do homeschool.
First, a word about the goals we’ve established for our homeschool experience:
1) Introduce them to all areas of learning so they get the opportunity to see what they are naturally good at and/or enjoy. I don’t require my children to make good grades in everything. As long as they are introduced to the knowledge and try their best, we have met the goal.
2) Although I want my children to remember plain, basic knowledge, I don’t require them to memorize loads of things which are useless and which I know they’ll soon forget. What’s more important is that they learn how to find information when they need it or want it, a far more crucial skill for life.
As for our reasons, there are probably about as many reasons to homeschool as there are homeschoolers. In this series, I will address those that are particular to our family.
The first is the one we list on the official homeschool affidavit filed with the school district every year, “religious reasons.”
When my oldest son was eight, we were doing his language arts one day and it had to do with a story about Jesus. I stopped mid-lesson and said, “You know, if you were in public school, you couldn’t have this lesson about Jesus.” He looked dumbfounded and asked why. I fumbled for words to try to explain it but realized I didn’t have a good answer that would make much sense to an eight-year-old. But it got me to thinking, how could we, as Christians, teach consumer math without teaching about tithing? How could we teach science without teaching about the creation, or health without talking about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Ghost, or history without teaching about the divine inspiration of the Founding Fathers of our country or God’s hand in all of history? How could we teach literature, music, or art without addressing the God-given talents of so many writers, composers, and artists throughout history? Having attended a Christian school from fourth through twelfth grade myself, I had never actually seen those subjects taught without a gospel influence and, frankly, don’t know how it’s done. In our family, the gospel and education just naturally go together, and we would rather not have to set aside our beliefs during six of the most important hours of the children’s days.
~to be continued~
