When parents consider homeschooling for the first time, their biggest concern is usually academically related.
- How in the world am I going to be able to teach math when I barely survived Grade 9 Algebra?
- I hated chemistry; my child is going to hate it too if I try and teach it.
- I’m a poor speller and I don’t want my kids to turn out the same way.
- How am I going to teach music if I don’t have a musical bone in my body?
Generally speaking, teaching subjects, even the higher grades, are going to be the least of your worries. Statistics show that even children with “unqualified” homeschool parents (those without a diploma) score higher-than-average in every subject.
There is so much help available, it’s overwhelming. Homeschool conventions and curriculum halls are exploding with resources that can equip you to teach more than you’ll ever have time for.
There are online schools, video courses, distance learning programs, tutoring centers, co-ops, and support groups that you can utilize if you so desire.
If you can teach your child to read and how to be a good listener, you’ve given them the tools to learn everything they could ever want to know.
You can’t stop a child’s natural appetite for learning; teaching is the “easy” part of homeschooling.
The hard thing about homeschooling is – are you ready for it? – being a parent.
Not just a parent, but a broken, sin-stained parent parenting broken, sin-stained kids, 24/7.
They see my faults and failures and I see theirs. All-day long there are attitudes to adjust, tongues to control, anger to manage, and repenting to take place. Choosing to turn the other cheek, preferring a sibling above yourself, practicing humility, obedience, and kindness in your own home with your own family – that is hard.
Those times when I feel like our children would be better off in school? It’s not because I feel like they’re getting ripped off on their education; it’s because I’ve grown weary of being their Mom and feel more like a thankless corrections officer.
But you know what? The most difficult part of homeschooling, by God’s grace, promises to be the most rewarding.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
“Her children rise up, and call [their mother] blessed.” Proverbs 31:28
“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.” 2 Corinthians 9: 10, 11
When you feel like giving up, remember these three things:
First, the hard part is the rewarding part.
Second, the hard part doesn’t last forever, but the reward does.
Finally, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5
