vision

We were home schooling when nobody was homeschooling. We started with our firstborn son in his kindergarten year, 1980--81. It started out as a matter of convenience (we didn't like public school but lived a half-hour commute from our church's Christian school) but soon grew into a conviction.

Over three decades later, we have never experienced a moment of doubt as to our choice. That little boy in kindergarten is now a college graduate, a lawyer and a married man with three children, all of whom he and his wife plan on teaching at home. He is also the eldest of our fourteen sons and daughters. His younger siblings, some of whom are also the parents of our 11 grandchildren, are homeschooling as well. Obviously, our children are as pleased as their parents are with the method of education we chose.

Over the years, of course curious people have asked us why we made the decision to begin and continue homeschooling our children. There are many reasons we love it, but for the sake of brevity I'll share a few here.

First, we love having so much time with our children. It hurts us to hear parents talk about how glad they will be when the kids go back...

HOMESCHOOLING: NOT JUST AN EDUCATIONAL OPTION...  

When we begin home-schooling, most of us view homeschooling as one of three options for educating our children – we can choose public school, private school or home school. And we choose homeschooling for a multitude of reasons as the best alternative for our family. It may be that our child needs more one-on-one attention, or that he is being bullied, or that we want to teach academics from a biblical perspective.

Whatever the reason we begin homeschooling, we spend a lot of time focusing on the “schoolish” aspects of education. I even went so far as to pack my children’s lunch and send them out the back door to return via the front door to be welcomed and taught by “Mrs. Karman.” When the bell rang, my children filed into their desks in the schoolroom.

That didn’t last long.

In homeschool support group meetings, we talked about the difference between home school and home education. We realized that, after all, a real education wasn’t dependent on bringing all the trappings of school into the home. Education was:

The...

On April 28th, 2004, the police uncovered a family (father and daughter) deep in the forest in northwest Oregon. Homeless and destitute, the father had opted not to leave his daughter to grow up on the streets. Instead, he took her into the woods, and for four years they lived in a lean-to in the forest. Police were amazed to find the girl clean, healthy, and. . . educated! There in the forest, the father had homeschooled his daughter with nothing but a Bible and a decrepit set of encyclopedias. Officials tested the twelve-year-old and found that she had already achieved a 12th-grade equivalency. Now,ask yourself, how could this be? There was no department of education. No certified teacher. No expensive curriculum. No notice-of-intent to homeschool and no standardized tests. So what was the secret? Police Sgt, Michael Barkley, told reporters, “What was so clear was that their living conditions were unacceptable, but their relationship was a real deep love and caring for each other” (Source www.katu.com).

There are some factors in the education of a child that transcend all others. Because they are so basic and powerful, they eliminate the need for...