The Beauty of Homeschooling in our Family

I will be dealing with a public school once again for the first time in two years.  It was with trepidation that I watched my husband register Jasmine for school yesterday.  He brought home her schedule, the total for the book rental, and loads of paperwork.  I told myself that, if God was willing, we would be homeschooling her in the future.

It is easy to compare homeschooling to public schooling when I have done both.  I have nothing against most teachers and workers at public school.  I just don't like the system much.  After reading "Dumbing Us Down" and "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto, I realized that all my frustrations at "school", both from my experiences in childhood and with my own children, were not all unfounded.

There is a beauty in homeschooling my children, a freedom, that cannot be compared.  While many parents like sending their children to school to get freedom, I feel the opposite.  I send them to school, and I don't feel free but encumbered.  I am then at the whim of everyone else.  I have to live my life by their schedule.  I have center our family around what the school deems as important.  I have to help my child learn what they have scheduled to learn and when they schedule it to be learned... even if I don't agree with it.  It feels like a prison!

With homeschooling, I am free to teach my children what I feel God has led me to teach, not what the state had decided was to be the curriculum for that grade.  I can teach my children during the day, and have my evenings free to just be a family.  I don't have to worry about a child with hours of homework.  We've already spent our hours learning... and were much more productive than my children ever were in the classroom environment.

With homeschooling, I don't have to be afraid of teaching my faith.  In school, even mentioning "God" or "Jesus" draws fire from teachers, administrators, and other students.  I am not stating this as opinion.  My older children have lived it.  It is fact.  While we hope that our Christian children are lights for Christ in the public schools, I have seen my children and their Christians friends fight incredible battles to maintain their faith.

A friend gave this visual that I think applies.  Stand on a chair.  Now have several people trying to pull you down while you attempt to pull even one of them up.  It is much easier for them to pull you down than for you to be able to pull even one up.  It is the same for Christian children in the public schools, trying to be lights for Christ.  It isn't impossible... because Christ can do anything, but it is difficult.  Many Christian children walk away from their faith because the pressure is so intense.

With homeschooling, I get to spend time with my children.  I "get" to means I am privileged to spend lots of time with them, teaching them, learning with them, and mothering them.  I used to hold the opinion that I have seen in many of the mothers I know.  It was a relief to send them off.  When I worked, it was nice to not have to pay for child care.  When I stayed home, I finally felt like I got my house cleaned while they were gone.  When they were at school, I had some time for myself.   It never even entered my mind to teach my own children because I never thought I was qualified for something like that.  After all, didn't that require a teaching degree?

Now, sometimes I want time for myself and a clean, organized home.  There is a lot less time for those things when homeschooling.  My children pitch in on the house cleaning more than they used to.  However, those benefits of sending my children away for hours every day are far outweighed by having them home.  I never knew the thrill that could come from watching your own child learn.  When Laura suddenly has a light bulb moment and "gets" a math problem, or when Megan tells me her phonics sounds with the letters we have learned, I feel joy.  I know that I didn't have to have some fancy degree to teach my children.  Even better is when I see my children growing spiritually from the lessons we have about our King, Jesus Christ!

The freedom and beauty of homeschooling is multi-faceted.  Watching my beautiful girls bond together in ways that would never happen if they were separated all day is a large benefit.  Seeing purpose in our lives as we all strive to learn and grow and serve Christ, instead of everyone going their separate ways.   Having older children that are on the cusp of leaving home brings a perspective to the younger years.  You realize how fast time flies, and wasting it is no longer an option.  Giving that time away to others doesn't even sound tasteful any longer.