This is our 4th year of homeschooling. The one question that I have been asked more than anything is,”Why did I choose to homeschool my children?”
The answer is two fold. To be able to build a relationship with my children so that I can do the task that God has given me: To teach and train them in the ways of the Lord.
Our Story
We have not been always homeschooling our children. My first went to regular school till grade one and my younger one has been homeschooled from the start.
When my older one went to regular school, we had a very rigorous routine. All of the time that she had was spent in preparing for school, traveling to and from school, after school activities and homework. The waking hours were spent in the rat race of school.
Every parent and child need to bond. Bonding requires time. But we hardly had any time for bonding or for building a strong relationship.
One may ask, what about weekends? Is there not enough time for bonding?
Yes and No. Yes for people who have nothing else to do on weekends and No for people like us who were involved with people. When people are free is when we are the most busiest. So, all the free hours were spent in and around the activities of the church and mentoring people. This left us with practically no time with my first born.
The mommy guilt
Every story has a point where the story takes a turn!
I have always wanted to give more to my child. For a while. I was convicted in my heart that I am not spending much time with my daughter and I need to do something about it so that I can build a relationship with her.
You cannot run a 2 ton truck on a 2 ply bridge.
-Barney Coombs
This quote has been stuck in my head ever since I heard it.
I really wanted to do something about the relationship that I shared with my dear daughter. She was more comfortable outside of home. Well, she cannot be blamed for any of this, for, our life was so. We were involved in serving others. This is a topic for another time!
With the passage of time, I saw her more comfortable with friends and teacher and not me. Like any other child of her age, she loved to spend time with her friends. But the sad part was there was nothing in our home that she looked forward to!
The tipping point
The tipping point for me was one day when she got down from the school bus and immediately wanted to go with her friend. Her eyes gleamed at the sight of her friend. I did not see her eager to have come home but to go again just after having come home from a long day of school. On the other hand, I saw the other girl, who looked at her mom and was happy to be home to be with her. I knew in my mommy heart that that girl had comfort in her mom, in her home!
For sometime, I had been lamenting about this to my husband and also telling him that we are missing something here if we have given our life to preach the gospel to our friends and church but not to our child. The verses in the Bible that talked about training the child stood right in front of me demanding a verdict.
As we discussed, we realized that it is high time we take the leap. The leap of faith into an unknown world of homeschooling to
- Build a relationship with our child
- So that we can preach the gospel message to our children.
The verses that convicted me
6 Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—
Deuteronomy 4:9
Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
Joel 1:3
2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Exodus 10:2
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
Psalm 78:4
What else?
Running errands for school from 6:00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. , I found no time to train the soul of my child.
I will be questioned by God and I do not have an answer for it. The only solution I found is to homeschool. This is a platform where I can teach and train my child in the ways of the Lord and also enjoy my children: the gifts that God has lavished upon me.
This is my choice; it needn’t be yours
I am not here to write about this to coax you to homeschool your children. This is my personal journey. I am recording this for the benefit of my children and as a record of how and where we began.
COVID-19 has changed education, homeschooling might be a choice that you would want to make, but that choice is yours.
In the coming days, I will write more on this journey, stay tuned!
