I want to start at the beginning and tell you how our family fell into the desire to homeschool our 4-year-old son. We are NOT a family with university degrees between us, a double salary, or the wealthiest either. But we are a family living in the suburbs, dreaming of owning a property with acreage one day; living week-to-week on only one wage, waiting for my on-purpose part-time led qualification in Education to be completed within the next 6 years; all the while, considering all the schooling options for our son.

Jesus and Education

Since I follow Jesus and am constantly in search of good, clean content and advice that helps strengthen mine and my family’s faith, I came across a few videos on YouTube from Now That We’re a Family and Our Life Homeschooling. These individuals have served as the cornerstone of my decision to homeschool. For starters, they demonstrate an aspect of education I never considered before: one that is not governed by the national curriculum or the government but, on the contrary, is governed by Jesus’ teachings, all-important life skills, their desire to have an impactful family culture, and the child’s interests. Most importantly, these families are teaching their children to have a biblical worldview and, in essence, are using all of the freedoms that come with homeschooling to gently guide their children towards Jesus. I love how they don’t separate Jesus and education, but their education revolves around Him instead!

Proverbs 22:6 tells us to, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” And so, began my question: if I send my son to a public or private school seven days a week, six hours a day for a total of twelve years, will I find time to teach him to follow the Lord Jesus? Will the all-important gospel message reach his heart?

Given how defenceless and vulnerable they are at such young ages, it seems like it would become difficult to resist the world they are exposed to daily. Putting in that extra time to teach your child, to instill confidence in God’s Word being the absolute truth, may contribute to a stronger foundation in Jesus later in life, one that is more difficult to shake. Psalms 62:6 says, “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken.”

However, the reality is that there are several families who have successfully taught their children a biblical worldview and have their children attending public or private schools. If the circumstances demand it and if it is best for our family, we might even choose to send our son to school. If so, and if this is your situation, the aim would be to make Jesus the focal point of your family’s culture and maintain consistency with teaching this way of life to your child/children. 

Our Decision

My husband and I come from both public and private school backgrounds, and so, as you can imagine, we were quite the newbies when it came to the idea that we were going to homeschool. However, after not-so-much convincing, my husband James agreed to try homeschooling, starting with our son’s kindergarten year. This was ideal because it didn’t seem too difficult, and it wouldn’t be a crucial year if something went wrong or if we discovered it wasn’t working for our family.

A big turning point for us was the fact that we got to tailor the curriculum to the interests of our child and the family culture we want to cultivate, not the opposite, in which you mould your child to a curriculum that is set in stone for that year level. As I’m writing this, I am so excited to be planning an Animal Science Unit for my son’s Grade 1 year, purely because we, as a family, love animals. I didn’t have to choose animal science at all; I could have picked anything I wanted! Ancient Egypt, botany, space, the human body, and the list goes on!

Our Beliefs

We believe the Lord has given us children to be able to teach full-time, if your circumstances allow you to, because as Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says, “you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And these words I command you today shall be in your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

These children, these specific children were given to YOU! Not a schoolteacher, but You! And they were given to you by GOD! How incredible! A quote comes to mind from Sheri at Our Life Homeschooling, “We are influencing their souls for eternity. It is kingdom work.” (Sheri, 2024)
Another quote I loved when making this big decision was the fact that, “…keeping our children at home gives us the opportunity to not miss any moment we are granted to teach our children about God who created them and loves them, to give our children instruction at the moment they need it, to teach them by example as we live everyday life.” (West, n.d.)

I hope this gave insight into some of our reasons into our decision to homeschool our son. I also wanted to add that no matter how you’re child/children are taught, you can most definitely make an impact in their lives and ultimately lead them to Jesus- the hope of our salvation.

Keep Smiling,

Aria xx

Ps. If you would like more homeschool content, I created a 4-step start-up “curriculum” that introduced my son to homeschooling back in April 2024! Not only did it take 2 months, but it also taught my son the basics, from the sounds to the names of the alphabet, giving him the confidence he needed to start a fully credited curriculum! Let me know down in the comments if this is what you’d like to see!

Bibliography

Sheri (Director). (2024). Our Life Homeschooling [Motion Picture].

West, C. (n.d.). Our Homeschool Mission Statement, Vision, & Prayer. Retrieved from Clarissa R West: https://www.clarissarwest.com/homeschool-mission-statement-vision-prayer