Abundant Life Homeschooling: Part 2 - Conquering Your Fears

Now that we've talked about some spiritual reasons why you may consider homeschooling, it is important to get over the big hurdle, your fears.  When God calls you to do something, he also promises to equip you to do it!  "But you don't know MY kids,"  you say.  What if I told you that your kids would change.  When we send our kids to school they are absorbing information for eight to nine hours a day from sources other than their family and their God.  In that time, they are not just learning academics, they are learning behavioral patterns.  No, I do not know YOUR kids, but I do know these things about kids:

• Kids are tired after a long day of traditional school, and they have had very little free time while they are there.  
• Tired minds don't retain the information that would be better presented and completed while they have plenty of mental energy.
• They value of homework is minimal in real learning.
• That they now do or will soon love to learn.
• Freedom and love change the personality of a child.  
• Socialization in a same grade school environment is not as beneficial as socialization between students of mixed ages and adults.
• Your kids will like you, respect you, obey you, and admire you as they see you sacrifice and live together.  
• You will win back your authority as you teach Biblical wisdom throughout your day. If they can't learn to submit to you, how will they learn to submit to God as their master?
• They won't miss being evaluated by their peers, peer pressure, being bullied or criticized by other kids,  and a lack of recess.  
• Their vocabulary, integrity and logical reasoning will improve as they spend more time with adults than kids their own age. 
• God made all kids uniquely perfect and intentionally, they don't all learn alike, and they definitely aren't motivated by the same things.  They just endure and do their best to fit into a pattern that is created to the mass, not the individual.  Labels are applied too young and are dangerous to a child's self-image.
• The labels schools apply are almost always artificial.  Bring them home and see what happens. Many kids who are learning disabled in school suddenly "become" gifted when they are home schooled.
• Kids learn differently and mature at different ages.  Reading readiness is not always there when the schools want to teach it.   
• Boys don't sit still well. This is not a defect. 
• Pressuring kids to learn does not increase their real intelligence.  More is not better.
• They will be free to answer every question or pose questions at home that may intimidate them in school.  
• Mastery is better than moving on.  Classrooms cannot cater to individual readiness easily.
• Their siblings become their best friends and accountability partners when you homeschool.
• Homeschooled kids avoid many of the behavioral problems found in traditionally schooled children.  They make great friends because they are accepting of others' differences and find it easier to see people as God would see them, as special and unique.  There is little or no peer pressure to ridicule others.
• Kids are confused by an environment that teaches different truths and values than you teach them at home.  For example, at home God created them; in school they evolved from a monkey. At home our behavior is motivated by Godly wisdom.  In our PS system, humanist values are taught with no truth behind it. This makes good behavior a matter of personal opinion. 
• The teenage years are seldom a problem in a homeschooling family.  Young adults can take on young adult responsibilities at an earlier age and they no longer rebel out of a lack of purpose or to assert their individuality.

I know that's a lot to digest, but I hope it gives you encouragement and hope.  Homeschooling is not torture, it's improved family living in an environment of freedom.   There is a lot of support available from other families, groups and the internet.  Socialization becomes positive socialization when the kids are with you and in the real world, so you really lose a lot of the struggles you now face simply by removing your kids from an environment with out of balance, age segregated, peer interaction. 

Now, about you.  You will have to give up some freedoms, but you will GAIN many more!  Yes, it is a commitment.  There may be hard days as you figure out what is best for your child, but your perseverance when they are young means that when you have teenagers they will be a joy, not a nightmare. As your children grow in responsibility and training, you will regain more freedom and have more freedom than you would helping in the school and re-learning their homework in order to help them after school. You will be there to guide and God will guide you all.  A Godly mom grows Godly children.  Your husband, who may begin with the same fear, will enjoy having respectful, bright, joyful kids and after watching them grow and thrive, will soon be an advocate of homeschooling if he isn't now.

Where would you start? You may begin with what is called de-schooling; we give kids back their lives, their minds and their love of learning.  Don't jump into re-creating a school environment at home.  Work on the basics, math, handwriting, and maybe grammar with a lot of Bible mixed in.   Your main job outside of that is to inspire and watch how their own interests lead their learning.   Much of what schools do is busywork to keep kids occupied and manageable in a group setting.  Reading aloud is a great way to build discussion, shape values, and build vocabulary skills. Best of all, you do it together; you pick the books. They don't have to be grade "appropriate" material, and they can be read in the park, on the patio, on a blanket, or in front of a fire in the afternoon on a rainy day.  God will shape you through this process and you'll learn about yourself, your kids, and your Creator. 

School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.
~ Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society

Here is a sampling of helpful resources available to get you started: