Teaching Myself

You know, I think I am learning more by homeschooling than my kids are. Not just about educational methods and curriculum choices and how old a skunk has to be before it can spray. But about priorities, and faith, and obedience. I have to admit that I came to homeschooling kicking and screaming. Not literally, but I really did not want to homeschool. I am not a teacher, and I'm not even really a "kid" person. It took God to change my mind. I still don't think I'm a teacher, and I still don't like it a lot of the time. I still often wish that I had more time to myself. I still think about sending them all off to school.

But the more I reflect on what I should do, the more I acknowledge that home schooling is best for us. For all of us. Even reading through my daughter's 2nd grade spelling (from Rod & Staff) and math (from Christian Light Education) workbooks tends to convict me, to inspire me, and to show me how wonderful it can be if you are surrounded by Christian material - material that reflects on God all the time. Reading the amazing testimonies of missionaries and others has an even more profound effect on me. Reading the thoughts of other homeschoolers also helps me to clarify my own thoughts. My priorities are changing, and becoming clearer. My obedience to God is becoming stronger. My faith is growing more real.

I attended public schools almost all of my life (except 1 year in a private school), and while I came out of it with a strong Christian faith, I can see how some of my long-standing assumptions are not really very Christian, mostly due to being around so many others who do not put Christ at the center of their lives. I am learning how important and critical one's worldview can be, and how easy it is to substitute a non-Christian belief for a Christian one here and there. How easy it is to substitute an "American" belief for a Christian one. Or a "church" belief for a Christian one. They are mostly subtle, seemingly unimportant beliefs, but they add up. I am seeing how 2 people with different worldviews have an extremely hard time communicating. It's like we live in 2 different worlds. And I guess we do.

I have several reasons for homeschooling - shorter hours, less peer pressure, better academics, safety. I have always had a spiritual reason too, to be able to teach my children more about God, but that reason is becoming more and more important as I progress through this homeschooling journey. I want my children to have God as their focus, as their strength, as their highest priority. And I want that for me too. And I truly believe that homeschooling is the way for us to obtain that goal. So we continue...