Homeschool Happenings: Why Homeschool? Alternately Titled: Are You A Crazy Religious Nut Job?

Without a doubt the thing I get the most questions about on this blog is homeschooling, mostly from people who are considering it for themselves and wondering if I have any advice/suggestions/thoughts.

And, listen: I am about the furthest thing from an expert that you will find. There are so many other homeschooling mamas out there who have done it longer and better. But because there seems to be so much interest in my thoughts on the topic...I'm going to give them to you. I'm going to call this new series "Homeschool Happenings" until I can think of a title that isn't so nauseatingly cutesy ;) 

If you have absolutely no interest in homeschooling and could not care less what I think about it, feel free to ignore this!

The first and most obvious question I'm going to tackle is simple: WHY?

What made me want to homeschool?

This is a question I get most often from people who don't homeschool. The implied question within that question is: Are you crazy?!? Or, alternately, a religious nut job?

And I guess the answer to that question might be....depends on who you're asking ;)

Let me give you a little background to start. From the time I was in Kindergarten until 4th grade I attended a small private Christian school in Pennsylvania. My dad was a pastor, and in March of my 4th grade year he accepted a job at a church in Kansas. Because we were so near the end of the year, the teachers in our old school worked out a deal with my mom, where they sent her with all the materials to finish out the last two months of our school year at home. This was my first and only experience as a "homeschooled" kid. My mom knew that homeschooling all four of her children just wasn't in the cards for her long term. There weren't any private Christian schools that were a) close enough and b) affordable enough, so I began 5th grade in our public school and graduated from that same school 7 years later.

And, listen. I have no regrets about the time I spent attending traditional school, both private and public. Seriously. Zero. I don't hate traditional schools, I am not "against" the public schools. I look back at my experience there and see how God clearly used it to test and strengthen my faith in Him. 

My parents weren't really all that thrilled about the prospect of sending us to the public school initially, but they believed this was the best option for our family, and you know what? God used it. He isn't limited in His work in our lives or our children's lives by the educational choices we make. HE'S A BIG GOD. 

So I guess that's the first thing you need to know. We are NOT choosing to homeschool our kids because we think God is a cosmic vending machine who will drop out spiritually mature, well adjusted children if we just push the right buttons. That's not how it works. We know that.

Which brings us back to our original question: why?

And to be honest with you, I don't know that I can give you a completely concise answer, but I'll try to sum it up as best I can.

1) Freedom. We have the freedom to choose our own curriculum and to tailor our methods to best fit each and every different style of learning that our children bring to the table. They are unique and we don't have to give them a one size fits all education. Traditional school teachers can't do this, or at least, can't do it as well. That isn't a criticism - they are just up against a lot more odds than we are. If you have a class of 20 kids, there just isn't time to spend one on one with each child the way you can when you are only teaching 2 or 3 or even 4 or 5. They also have to spend time each day doing administrative stuff that we don't: taking attendance, lining up to go to recess or lunch or PE or Music, etc., etc.

2) Worldview. Yes, we have a specific worldview that we hope to impart to our children. EVERYONE does. If they say they don't, they are kidding themselves. People who are "religious" often get painted as people who want to brainwash their children, but there is a world of difference between brainwashing and teaching what you believe to be true. Don't people who believe in evolution want their children to learn evolution too? Won't people who don't believe in God present a heavy bias against God when presenting the case to their children? Of course! We recognize that our children might choose to disagree with our worldview, but they are our children, which means we have the privilege of giving them what we believe to be the truth.

Do I think teachers in public schools are evil, manipulative people whose goal is to get their tentacles into my precious children and undermine my authority? Uh, no. I worked in a public school for a few years before Lily was born. I know lots of really great teachers. I have friends who are teachers. I'm sure there are bad teachers out there just like there are bad doctors and bad lawyers and bad bankers and so on and so forth. That doesn't mean the establishment as a whole is bad. But you are kidding yourself if you think that a teacher's worldview won't affect what they teach. I had a history teacher in high school who told us it was her goal to turn all of us into "good little Democrats". She said it tongue in cheek, of course, but did her political views have an impact on the way she viewed history? Yes! What we believe, we live. What we believe, we teach. The idea that an education at home will be presented with a bias but an education at school won't is ludicrous. You could probably find a teacher that is completely neutral if you looked hard enough, but they would be the exception, not the rule.

A sidenote on this: I actually plan on teaching evolution to our children, but it will be in a different context. They need to know about it because it is widely accepted and I think they should have an understanding of it. The difference is, we will offer alternative answers. We aren't afraid of differing world views being presented, but we will present them to our children along with what we feel is the correct worldview. 

Will our children ever question our worldview? I hope so! I want them to think through these things themselves. Grappling with questions is healthy, and I'm confident enough in what I believe to know that it can stand up to questioning. I don't want them to blindly accept what I say like little robots, and neither does God - that's why He gave us free will!

Sidenote number 2: Do I believe that homeschooling is the only way to impart your worldview to your children? Of course not! GOD IS A BIG GOD (see above) My parents did it. Other parents are have done/are doing it. But homeschooling does have an advantage in that you have a lot more time with your children to work through these things, which brings me to my third reason:

3) Time. This is one of the most beautiful and at times maddening things about homeschooling: you are with your kids 24/7. 

You are WITH YOUR KIDS. 24/7.

Which creates awesome potential for conversations and experiences with them, and, also, nervous breakdowns.

This is why we have mandatory Quiet Time every day.

It is a blessing that can sometimes feel like a curse. But the big benefit is you have, not just time, but unhurried time. Time that isn't squeezed in between homework and dinner and sports practice and bedtime. 

You can spend an afternoon reading classical literature or take a nature walk in the fall or stop your phonics lesson for a discussion on why Jesus came to die or take a rabbit trail to explore the process of osmosis during a science lesson. 

You can make a recipe with them to help them learn fractions, or teach a lesson on pulleys and then send them out to ride their bikes and see one in action. You get to connect the facts on a piece of paper to the real life they are living. You get to show your kids that school is so much more than rote memorization (although that can be a part of it). It is about the endless possibilities for knowledge. God created this huge, complex world and you get to explore it with them! 

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

William Butler Yeats

And ultimately, I think that's what it's about for us. Homeschooling is this big, huge, awesome opportunity to light a fire in our kids. To give them a thirst for knowledge and then provide them with the tools to quench it. I could never teach them everything there is to know about the world, but my goal is to create a hunger within them to know and let that hunger drive them towards lifelong learning. I want them to know that education does not begin or end with "school time", but that it encompasses their whole life. This is what I think drives many teachers, and I just have the privilege of taking that mission and applying it to my own children instead of someone else's. Homeschooling is a privilege.

It's also kind of crazy, and maybe a little weird. It's definitely not conventional. It's definitely not for everyone. If you aren't homeschooling your kids, please know, no judgement here. Shoot, we are only at the beginning, there may very well be a time when we change course and enroll our kids in traditional school. But for right now, this is what we are doing and this is at least part of the reason why.

Whew. That was a lot of words. If you've made it this far, get yourself a cookie, you deserve it.

Believe it or not I still have thoughts on this topic and I'm willing to bet some of you still have questions, so now it's your turn to talk. What are your thoughts? Do you have questions I didn't address? Objections? Concerns? Words of encouragement? Feel free to let me know. My only requirement is kindness and thoughtfulness. It's fine if you disagree, just use your manners, please :)