How Do I Start Homeschooling?

How Do I Start Homeschooling?

I am a second generation homeschooling mom.  I was homeschooled and my husband was homeschooled.  You would think that we would have an advantage starting out because of our experiences.  We could just put our heads together and pick the curriculum that was our favorite and hit the ground running.  But due to our homeschooling backgrounds, and the way we were raised, it actually wasn’t that easy.  We weren’t complete opposites; we both have a great desire to learn and grow as adults; we both have been raised to question the world and look at the Bible as our source of instruction. 

On The Same Page.

We started thinking about the kind of parents we wanted to be on day one of being married.  We talked about every aspect of being a parent.  The responsibility, the joys, the sorrows, the ideas, the goals.  We watched everyone who had kids of their own and learned from them.  How did they handle the baby years?  What did they do as their kids moved into adulthood?  We asked questions from people in the seasons ahead of us.  Due to health issues, and circumstances that God placed in our lives, we did not have our first child until we had been married for six and a half years.  A repeated theme in all of our parenting conversations, was the idea that we wanted to include our kids in as much of our life as possible.  We kept coming back to the instructions in Deut. 6:6-7 (LSB)  “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”. 

What Does This Look Like?

We take them along to as much as we can and make them feel like they are a welcomed part of our lives, not an accessory or inconvenience.   Funerals, weddings, parties, trips, restaurants visits, coffee shops, long drives, visits to nursing homes, museums, art galleries.  You name it, we probably take our kids along.  Dates and adults only things do still happen but that is not the theme of our lives.  It is not the largest portion of our time spent.  We spend the majority of our time together.  We also talk to them about everything as we are going.  When something comes up in conversation, we take the time to help them along to understand the big truths of life in bite sized pieces.  All of this is hopefully pointing to Christ and establishing our authority based on the Bible, not just some made up rules. Everything is on purpose even when it seems silly. 

Training in The Mundane.

How could everything in life be that purposeful? For example, when we sit at the table to eat together as a family at home, we don’t get up until everyone is ready to get up.  Just because you finished your meal, doesn’t mean you leave the table.  It seems simple but it is a way that we can teach them something spiritual that feeds the practical as well. Phil. 2:4 (LSB) “not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” This prepared them for the inevitable situation of them being finished with their food before everyone else while we are still visiting at a restaurant.  They had no expectations of leaving or being allowed to get up and run around or throw a fit because we had the same expectations at home as we did in public. We would explain to them that they had to think of others.  Simple, but purposeful. 

How to Set Parenting Goals.

We always start with praying and studying God’s Word.  We ask for wisdom in raising wise children.  We ask for help.  And we study as much as we can about what the Bible says to do for our children.  What to teach them.  Then we move on to godly resources to fill in some of the details and ideas that will inevitably tumble around.  We talk to parents who are raising the kind of kids we admire.  We talk about our ideas with each other and work things out together.  I had to get on the same page with my husband.  We are responsible for an eternal soul and we are gifted with this task of raising them in the fear and admonition of Yahweh.  What an amazing job. 

Asking Good Questions.

After we get a foundation of the clear instructions in the Bible, we start to ask questions that will stretch us out of the “status quo”.  Questions like:  Who do I want my child to emulate?  What kind of a person do I want my child to be?  What do I want my child to know when they leave my home?  What are the non-negotiable things that I must teach them to be obedient to God?  If I could pick the type of character qualities that are strong in my child, what would they be?

Write It Down.

After you have discussed and hashed out and re-discussed, start writing some of these answers down.  You will change your mind or forget what you talked about as you go, but start somewhere.  Something about writing it down makes it memorable and clarifies your thoughts.  You can refer back to it as they grow and keep yourself on track when life gets hectic or the peer pressure to do parenting a certain way is creating confusion.  Studying the Word, praying, asking good questions, coming up with practical answers and then writing it down.  I am sure there are fancier ways to set goals, but this is what we did.

How Does This Fit In to Homeschooling?

Throughout this process you will learn to be a Berean.  Just because your mom, or friend, or pastor is telling you something, doesn’t let you off the hook for doing your own research to make sure you are obeying God according to your conscience.  I am convinced that teaching my own kids from start to finish is the best way for me to obey God.  I am also convinced that it is still a gray area in which God gives us freedom to choose what is right for each family.  As our world changes and governments rise and fall, it might become harder and harder to choose the public education that is offered to us, but for now there are still many schools that have not “gone off the deep end”, so to speak.  The principles of God’s Word are universal.  You are responsible for how you raise your children, no matter what country or time in history that you live in. Charles H. Spurgeon said, “Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that Sunday School is intended to ease them of their personal duties.  The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”  We are responsible to decide what it will take to accomplish our biblical parenting mandate.  For our family, homeschooling is required for our goals to be met.  Each family has to prayerfully decide the educational path for their children.  No one else can decide for you.

Final Thoughts.

As the primary educator for my children, I regularly refer back to a list I made of our goals.  I wrote out categories for each area of life that my husband and I wanted to have specific subjects mastered or understood.  It is not going to look the same for each family.  One of my categories is “Literature – Read everything!” because we are a family that loves reading.  We want to cultivate a love of reading in our children.  I will include my list as an example, but it is not meant to be a “copy, paste”.  It is easy to get caught up in “keeping up with the Jones’ kids” by comparing what we are teaching our kids to what the other kids are learning.  It is always a recipe for disaster.  Either it will breed pride because you are doing so much “more” than the other person, or it will breed doubt because you are not doing “enough”.  But if you compare yourself to your goals that you prayerfully wrote out and that you and your husband have agreed upon, you will be motivated and encouraged.  Persevere in growing your own family, and in raising your own children.   God will bless your efforts with sanctification and increased faith.  You might even have the blessing of children who want to take what they have learned from you and excel still more.