My Manifesto - We're going to homeschool our kids!

It's been hard for me to say out loud, but it's true. My kids will be homeschooled! By me. Starting soon. And yes, I really am going to do it. (That one was to convince me.) It will not be easy, but at least I will have tried! I'll try kindergarten and see how it goes.

And let me just say that I honestly believe this is not God's will for everyone, and I don't believe I have more jewels in my crown for doing this. Every family has to pray about it and evaluate their particular situation. I trust Christian adults to do what God is leading them to do. Who am I to question them?


Why I Have Chosen to Homeschool:

1. My husband wants us to homeschool our kids.

2. Every time I pray about this (and I have been asking God for wisdom about this every day for the past few months), I hear God saying, "Be set apart", "submit to your husband", and "I will give you your heart's desire." I've been praying James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

3. My son wants to go to school at home. The time will come soon enough when he won't want anything to do with his parents, and won't want to be at home. I'm taking advantage of his tender heart while I can.

4. I am excited and passionate about being my kids' primary teacher! After agonizing over this decision for so long, I finally had a heart-to-heart with myself. :) Sending kids to public school is the norm. Not doing so is out of the ordinary and brings (unwanted) attention, and sometimes criticism. I realized that my heart was longing to keep my kids at home, discover new things right along with them, and watch their lights come on when they learn something new. But I thought surely I was crazy for not wanting to send them to public school. Then I realized the facts of #1, 2, & 3 (above), and it was all clear!

5. Because this is what God wants, I can trust Him to help me accomplish it. BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) has taught me that this year. The Israelites defeated the armies that God wanted them to defeat, but not the ones He didn't, no matter their size or resources. Also, God provided the manna everyday for His people. The help and support came when they needed it. God supplies our needs in the same way, and we can trust Him.

6. It is difficult to explain my reasons for choosing to homeschool, without shedding light on negative aspects of other schooling options. However, most of my recent experiences with public schools lately haven't been that great. I've been substituting in BA schools for a little over a year, in all grades, in many different subjects, and at various locations. The BA schools are huge. Although they are probably appropriately staffed, how can any teacher help a student learn in the way they learn best, when there are 20, 60 or 100 other students under their watch? I have great respect for public school teachers. They are the hardest working people on the planet! Many of them make an incredible difference in the lives of children. By homeschooling my kids, I am doing my part to lessen their load.

7. The research supports it. Homeschooled kids do as well or better than their counterparts. Colleges are recruiting them. The coolest part of the research I've found so far, is that homeschooled kids whose parents were certified teachers had similar scores (on standardized tests) to kids whose parents were NOT certified teachers. The concept is similar to how Christian/private schools staff their positions. They do not require their teachers to have a teaching degree, possibly because it's cheaper, but also because of the level of passion that person has about their subject area. If someone majored in history, they are going to be more passionate about history than someone who has a teaching degree and prefers to coach wrestling, but is stuck with teaching history. This is where the saying about education being more "caught than taught" comes into play.

I have a passion to see my kids learn, and to love learning (see #4), and to keep "learning" involved with "living". What more does traditional schooling have to offer?

8. Bekah's birthday is Oct. 12; she misses the Sept. 1 cutoff for starting Kindergarten next year. I can work with her now instead of waiting two years, and not risk her missing some learning opportunities & windows.

9. I can create my own subject areas while homeschooling. Things like missions, service, giving, "socializing", grocery shopping, buying a car, taking care of animals, etc., are all part of the education I want our kids to have, and we can focus on any one subject for as long as we need to. It seems like a lot of occupations these days are stepping out of the box--working from home, working on the road, consulting, web-based companies, etc. It makes sense that a student would do well to experience all kinds of learning activities, and meet the people who actually do those kinds of jobs. Working 8-5 Mon.-Fri., isn't the trend I see the world heading towards.

10. My husband's schedule sometimes involves services and meetings that run late into the evening. Plus he is off on Fridays and works all day on Sundays. The kids will get to spend more time with him if they are not at school all day. This is one of the reasons that this decision is right for us, but not for everyone.

11. My husband has a lot of knowledge to share with our kids, and other people's kids for that matter. He is a 3rd degree brown belt in Bushido Kai Karate, he can play many instruments and knows all there is to know about music, he can fix--or learn how to fix--just about anything, plus he has the organizational brains for the family. He knows how to choose paint colors, even clothing colors, make videos, edit photos, use an amortization calculator, garden, memorize & use vocabulary words, and most importantly, iron his own shirts. :)

12. The resources and options for homeschoolers has exploded in the last few years. Not only are there the usual co-ops--parents teaching others' children in their favorite subject area--but there are tutorial schools, where you can send your child for 3 days a week for a given subject. There are very professional support organizations, with workshop topics just as challenging as public school teachers' workshops. There is video curriculum, musical curriculum, classical textbook curriculum, Christian curriculum, etc., and I haven't even gone to the conference & curriculum fair yet! There are many ways to homeschool, and it excites me very much to explore them with my family! Brad wasn't too excited about selling everything and buying an RV to travel the country, but we'll see...

13. I'm going to be 35 this year. Seems like in the last 5 years, my only goal in life was to make it to my next nap. Time is slipping away, and I don't want to lose any more of it. There are things I always wanted to do with my kids while they were preschoolers, but I never got around to most of them. It is time I start doing the important things, and not waste any more time. I've only got them for a little while! The time is now!

There are a lot more reasons, but it's late & I'm tired. Oh, there is one more thing:

Myths or misconceptions about homeschooling:
Myth: Homeschooled kids are freaks.
Fact: My kids are already freaks. Homeschooling them won't make them any worse.

More to come!