I’ve never been known to keep quiet about our love for homeschooling. In fact, I welcome opportunities to share our experiences, why we love it, and why you’ll never regret homeschooling if you’re considering it for your family.
That said, there are lots of reasons I feel it’s the best educational choice for our family. I’ve been homeschooling since 2009 and have been counting the fruit that comes with this labor of love ever since. There’s personalized education, there’s space in the schedule for kids to develop their interests and talents, and there’s simply room for kids to be kids without the pressures to grow up as quickly as today’s culture suggests.
We love all of those things and we’re grateful for the time spent around our table working on math, grammar, science, and art. We treasure our time piled up on the sofa reading great literature and discussing history lessons, but there’s more to homeschooling than academics. Homeschooling is best for our family is because it allows us to fully live our faith.
Homeschooling and Fully Living Our Faith
By default, homeschooling allows us to make the most of the natural rhythms of life. We can point our children to God by taking advantage of the coming and going, the questions and conversations, and the moments of celebration and frustration. We can point to God in all of this, but it requires time, influence, and direction.
1. Time Is on Our Side
I’ve always said that the time we have together is the greatest gift of the homeschool life. As parents, this time together matters because of the charge in Deuteronomy 6:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Homeschooling makes this command possible for us. All of that teaching them diligently, talking at home, and walking by the way requires time. We have to be together to live our faith in this way. It has to happen while we’re together and more specifically while we’re doing life together. That’s why homeschooling is best for us.
We take the charge in Deuteronomy 6 seriously and it’s nearly impossible to live with intention and to teach our children diligently if our family amounts to four people being apart day in and day out, but merely sleeping under the same roof.
Homeschooling gives us the gift of time and togetherness and through it we’re able to lead by example and model to our children what it looks like to love God with all of our heart, soul, and strength.
2. We Have the First Voice
All of the time we gain through homeschooling provides an opportunity for us to be the first voice in our children’s lives. That allows us to live our faith by speaking truth, introducing them to positive examples of character, a making sure they’re growing in their relationship with God.
This matters because society and media are flooded today with political and cultural agendas. There’s an abundance of false teaching and great misunderstanding and distrust of The Church and the God we serve.
Homeschooling is best because we have the opportunity to ground our children in truth: truth about our God who is for us, truth about creation, science, and history, and truth about families, identities, and purpose. We can fully live our faith by having the first voice in these often hard places, rather than reacting to what our children were told to be true by others in roles of authority.
The first voice matters, friend. Homeschooling allows us to be there, to talk it out, and point our kids to God for the answers when the topic of discussion isn’t black and white. Having the first voice matters because we don’t have to submit to someone else’s agenda and compromise our convictions and the truth we hold so dear.
3. We’re Establishing Connections
We can fully live our faith through homeschooling because learning alongside our kids allows us to make connections they’d likely miss without our example. By being there, leading and guiding, we can teach our children to look for God’s fingerprints all throughout our days.
It’s easy to see evidence of God’s fingerprints in the world on a nature walk when we’re taking in the sights, smells, and sounds around us, but other areas don’t always come as naturally. We fully live our faith through homeschooling by pointing out the parallels in science and the Bible. The same is true when we view history as a series of connected events, people, and places that are all playing a part in God’s story of redemption. We even live our faith by being there to help our children see God at work in the language and logic of mathematics.
Homeschooling is best because we can appreciate the gifts shared with us through art, music, and literature. There’s plenty of beauty to behold in all of these, but we can point our children back to God with each beautiful thing by reminding them that the creation itself will always pale in comparison to the Creator.
These connections don’t happen on their own. It takes time to train your eyes and heart for God sightings, but it makes all the difference because it shows our kids that He’s here in our day-to-day lives. The connections will be there when our kids face challenges and setbacks and recognizing God at work will carry them through to the other side. Training our children to see those connections is yet another example of how we fully live our faith through homeschooling.
In closing, I enjoy homeschooling and I love learning with my kids, but homeschooling is more than all of that for us. It’s truly best because we can fully live our faith through leading by example, making the most of our moments together, and helping our kids become who God has called them to be. I don’t know how we would manage all of this without the homeschool lifestyle, but I’m grateful I don’t have to figure it out.
Emily Copeland is a homeschooling mom of two and church planting wife living in coastal North Carolina. She offers practical ideas for home education and encouragement at tablelifeblog.com to help you make the most of the moments around the table. You can also find her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.
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