If you talk to various Homeschooling parents and ask them what prompted them to taking charge of their children education I am sure you would get thousands of different responses. I can say for us the reason we started with grew into something far greater than we could have ever expected.
Initially I think it was more of a conviction of I know I can do a better job than the public school system. My oldest had been enrolled in a public PreK for all of 4 months before I realize just how little she was learning and just how many negative effects it was having on my sweet loving child.
Needless to say everyone around me had something to say about it. My mother in law said she did not worry weather or not my husband and I would be able to provide the academics but she felt like she should be in a "regular" school for the social reasons. When we pointed out all the negative effects of Public School and all the positive socialization we could gain from Homeschool she didn't know what to say. She basically just watched as we went along. My mother came right out and said what was on her mind. She told me that we are going to ruin our children's lives and they would not be able to get into to college. Now I know none of this is true so I just politely told her these are our children and the final discussion is up to my husband and I. We are now in the middle of our 3rd year and I haven't gotten much static from her recently. She has asked me if I was going to continue next year. I anticipate that she will continue to ask me every year we homeschool if we are going to now put the children in a public school. She will more than likely do this until she sees them get into college. Got to love our Parents right.
My husband was unsure at first of taking on homeschooling long term. So he basically gave his go ahead to give a year trial. By the time we finished our Preschool year I was all geared to start Kindergarten and I had been doing all my research so I knew what I wanted the next step to be. After witnessing the tremendously positive results of our 1st year my husband didn't even say anything about continuing on. He just assumed we would keep going. He kind of gave me that why stop now type of response when I talked to him about it.
It wasn't till this year through both my husband and I reaffirming our faith that we began to see God's plan for the education of our children in the Scriptures. So this gave us a stronger conviction to continue on the path that we started on. Here are some of the scriptures that I feel give better insight as to what God had in mind for the education of our children.
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt talk to them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
Deuteronomy 6: 6- 7
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22: 6
" Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor siteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law if the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."
Psalm 1:1- 2
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Proverbs 1:7
"A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher."
Luke 6:40
"And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
Romans 12:22
Of course there are plenty other verses and examples but these are just some that I find highly motivating. I think fundamentally our reasons for homeschooling have remained the same and that is a high quality education for our children. But as time goes on I find myself deepening my understanding of just how much something as simple as where are my kids going to go to school can affect every aspect of life from spiritual, social, economical, and so on.
