Why do I homeschool? More importantly, why do YOU homeschool? If you haven’t had to stand up for your decision yet, you are in the minority. Maybe the nay-sayers haven’t said anything to you about it. Maybe they are talking to your child about it, though, away from mama’s ears and protection.
Can your child defend your family’s decision to homeschool? Does your child even agree with the decision to be homeschooled? Do you give him/her a choice?
Don’t click away just yet. I didn’t say that you HAVE to give them a choice. I just asked if you do or not.
In our home, our primary goal is raising our children to follow God’s will for their lives. Not my will. Not even his/her own will. But to surrender their will for God’s will.
We want them to
- be able to make sound decisions
- know when to obey
- know when to question
- know how to ask questions and which questions to ask
- know how to listen
- know how to properly express themselves, how to analyze those emotions, organize them, and relay them in words without losing their passion but also while controlling their emotion.
God’s will goes against the grain of the world. Can your child handle being questioned? Does your child know how to stand up for their beliefs? Does your child even have the same beliefs that you do? Do you even know? (How are you doing being questioned?)
Would your child say, “My parents make me homeschool. I wish I could go to public school.”
Or would your child say, “We enjoy homeschooling. My parents have given me the opportunity to go to public school, but I chose to stay home.”
How does this tie in with “Homeschooling is About Choices”? Because your child is going to be faced with choices every day. And most of those days are going to be lived outside of your home, outside of your protective arms. Are you using this time at home to prepare him/her for life outside of the home? Will he/she choose God’s will or blindly follow someone else’s will for his/her life when the coop has been flown, its screen door slapping closed behind them.
Of course, 5-year-olds’ choices should be limited to “peanut butter and jelly or a hot dog?” But as your child starts to shed the temporary skin of her primary years, make sure that you grow with them. Allow them a say so in the things that affect their lives. No, not every decision they make is going to be the right one. It’s your job to allow them to fail and then to help them get back up. Make sure you don’t kick them when they’re down. Don’t damage them. Life does a good enough job of that all on its own.
You don’t make the right decisions all the time, either. Well, I surely don’t, anyway.
Make sure that you are doing what is necessary to transition your child into an adult. Teach them how to make choices. Teach them how to deal with failure. Teach them to get back up. Teach them to surrender to God’s will. Teach them by setting the example.
This is the primary reason that we homeschool. It’s not because I am a better math teacher. It’s because we want to help our child be successful in life. Before I am my child’s teacher, his father and I are his mentors. We are his very own life coaches.
In closing, I am going to share some wise words I heard on one of Dr. Dobson’s programs:
Insulate. Don’t isolate.
About the Author:
Melinda Martin is a homeschooling mother of two and wife to one prison chaplain. She used to live hard for the devil, and now she lives hard for God. Her passions include music, drinking good coffee, sewing, and writing in third person. Her personality page is Musings of a Minister’s Wife, and her business page is Helpy Helper VA Services.
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