MyThreeDaisies

I’ve been researching laws and requirements for homeschooling in Alabama the past few days, and I’ve found out that the law really doesn’t make room for just keeping your kids at home. Instead, it makes an allowance, not to place them in public school. You have to either have a state certified tutor, or be enrolled in a “church school”. I’ve found a couple of options in my area, and even found a school right in my backyard. What they do offer is flexibility, low fees, and lots of optional outings and activities. What they don’t offer, is spiritual council and support.

I’ve been emailing someone from a school in Birmingham, that isn’t just operating as a legal means to an end, but they are a real church. They aren’t as close, but I’m thinking I would much rather take a further drive to activities and book-swaps, and have a Christian fellowship, than be real close, and feel like I’m alone in my faith.

Homeschooling my children is something I take very seriously. I have doubts in myself and my patience, but, as I keep reminding my husband and family, it’s too important not to do. Public school is a breeding ground for worldliness, and Godlessness. Satisfying the need for social interaction can be accomplished without putting my children under the care of atheists and other such anti-God personnel. Some people might think that having absolute caution over who their friends are is stifling, and un-fair. But I am the protector of their souls, each and every influence on their lives has an effect on who they will become. And thus, I cannot, in good conscience, deliver them to the hands of sinners, and still expect them at the end of the day, and on Sunday mornings, to desire holiness, to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

I’ve forbidden them as toddlers to watch cartoon channels with commercials, because I don’t want them to have a lust for bring a “teen top model”, or a magical princess. I want them to want to be a virtous woman, a Proverbs 31 woman. The examples that the world gives them to aspire to is all about boyfriends, careers, shopping.. superficiality. Life as a Christian woman is to become better equipped to do the job that God created woman to do, a help for her husband, meet for his needs. This is the same model for any Christian’s life. A help to the work of God, meet for His needs.

This paragraph from an article on NoGreaterJoy.org, sums up my academic reasons for wanting to school the girls at home:

As homeschooling parents, you have taken charge of your life to give God his rightful place in training your children. To teach biology in an environment that denies the Author of life is like eating an egg and denying the chicken. Such a process is stupefying—degrading to the intellect. To teach history apart from God is to praise the sculpture and deny the sculptor. To learn science and mathematics apart from the omnipotent God is to throw out the computer and do your computations with a roulette wheel. To teach children to read and then outlaw the reading of the only book written by God called the Word is like giving a blind man sight and then outlawing seeing.

Choosing and buying curriculum yourself gives you the chance to make sure that when they study their world, they are realizing it’s origin, our Creator. We can empower them, not with just the importance of education, but with an active study of God’s world. I want to give my children the gift of knowledge, and I want it to begin at the beginning. I’ll never forget the exceitement I felt when I opened up my world history book for the first time, and it started with Genesis 1:1! No cavemen, or iceage, or evolutionary garbage. My math book encourged tithing and the word problems were adding up fund raiser dollars. I felt like I was learning how to live and love my world from a Chrsitian perspective.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there were aspects of being home schooled that I hated very minute of. One of the reasons home schooling was such a good solution for our family, is because we moved so much, being in the ministry. This resulted in hardly an social involvement. I lived in a fantasy world of books and the internet. I resented my parents, not having the understanding of it all as I do now. So, it is definitely important to me that I find some kind of outlet for my children. This is partially provided by being enrolled in a church school.

I’m also considering putting the girls in the local soccer league that starts from age 3. This will give them excercise, and an introduction to the world of sports, something that when given good guidance, can greatly feed many aspects of a child’s growth. It will also give me the opportunity to meet other parents, and perhaps open a door up for ministry. After all, this life is only temporal, and we are really on a mission to receive that eternal blessing, walking in the bodily presence of the Lord.

So here are my thoughts on homeschooling. You see, it really is with my children’s well-being at the center of my concern. It’s going to take discipline on my part, but that is something I need anyways. Aren’t they worth it?

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 6:10 pm and is filed under School, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.