Part 3 -Home Schooling High Schoolers

Why I'm Glad I Home-schooled through High School

Reasons #8-#10

#8 Developing of strong social skills and opportunity to implement them

Self-confidence and strong social skills flourish without the distraction of peer dependency. Actually, without dependency upon a peer group, kids tend to grow into strong leaders.

The family provides the most healthy social group. Children who are home schooled tend to be comfortable with people of all ages.

Pastor Brodie, our assistent pastor, once remarked that our son, Tim, who works at our church, is unique (although for home schooled kids it's not unique) in that he can so easily relate well to older folks, little ones and everyone in between.

Even shy children can grow up confident if they are not pressured to conform to artificial social pressure as children. We never forced our little ones to perform in front of others if they were not inclined to do so. Some of our children who were the most shy as little ones became very comfortable and outgoing as adults when allowed to grow up in a friendly environment and be allowed to let their self confidence grow with maturity.

Recently, we recorded a three hour DVD interviewing our adult children as to the way they were raised and what things they intend to pass on to their children. This presentation is available on our site. It is called Homeschooling- Educating for Eternity.

In it, our daughter, Kate, commented that children should be nurtured in the context of the family as young, tender plants are nurtured in a greenhouse until ready to adapt to the conditions of the outside world. So it is with children. We don't shelter them, but prepare them and then walk through life with them as they grow to guide them into proper responses, instead of just turning them loose as little ones to "fend for themselves."

Our son, Tim, comments that our job is to prepare our children to change the world, not fit in with it.

Rick commented that Jesus chose 12 disciples to be with him. He invested quality time in training them how to live by the example he set for them. When we set out to homeschool our children, we need to plan to spend time with them. In order to effectively homeschool our children, we need to be home with them for large portions of time, not running around like some bumper stickers say as "Mom's taxi".

Our daughter, Kate, by the way, was and is very much a social butterfly and would probably have chosen to try "school" if given the chance as a young teen, comments that home schooling done wisely provides much better socialization than other options. She definitely plans to homeschool her children, as do all our kids.

Rick, our eldest son explains that as he was growing up with his brothers, they were apprencticed on the drywall job as teens. They were hardly sheltered on the job, but the difference was that dad was with them, guiding them in how to respond to what was going on around them. That is so much more effective than just turning them out on their own.

When your kids are secure in who they are and in God’s direction for their life, they don’t succumb as easily to worldly pressures, but instead develop sensitivity to wrong by being exposed to the truth.

Kids who interact on a regular basis with all age groups are more balanced socially. It’s the kids in government schools, not the home educated kids that are hampered by being separated from everybody but kids their own age. Home schooled kids have the opportunity to be leaders in church, community, etc at early ages. They, in fact, live in the real world, not the artificial environment of being only with "kids their own age".

9. Opportunity to pass on a Biblical worldview and a passion to engage our culture.

Home schooling empowers kids to develop a Biblical worldview that grounds them in making wise life decisions.

Having your kids at home enables you can shape their thinking so the way they evaluate the world is on a Biblical basis. The Bible has the answers to every problem in life. By ignoring the Bible in government schools, it infers that it is just not important or valid to everyday life, instead of being the very guidebook by which we must govern our lives.

Rom 12:13 tells us to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil

Homeschooling for high school insures that you won't have to spend time undoing the value system of humanism that the government schools are teaching.

Many books in public school contain bad stuff. Sex ed is taught from kindergarten on.

Many schools won’t allow kids to bring home books, tolerance training is taught, there is no right, wrong no standards, and even situational ethics are taught.

Home schooling done properly equips your kids to function as productive servants of God looking to the Bible as the only standard for right living.

Rick Jr. says " We grew up with a willingness to think for ourselves and challenge the culture around us. Mom and Dad taught us to be discerning adults. We are not here to walk this earth to put in our time, but like the Bereans, to search out the Scriptures daily.

We grew up with a more mature perspective in life."

10. The opportunity to be able to teach the truth about American history.

Our godly heritage is in danger of being lost. It is crucial that we uncover the truth and teach it to our kids. I recently wrote the book, For You They Signed. I was inspired by hearing Dave Barton , while showing a picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, ask who could name more than two or three of the 56 signers. I only knew three. I felt compelled to learn of their sacrifice for our freedoms as well as their belief in Jesus Christ. I found that many wrote doctrinal statements in their last will and testaments so their posterity would not have to wonder about their faith. As I completed my study, I was struck with the incredible character these men strove to achieve in their lives. They were driven to be useful, productive servants of God. It is my hope that students reading it will answer the call to duty in our day, as these men did and be used of God to lead this country back to it's godly roots.

David Barton of Wallbuilders reminds us that in the past, revival occurred when people would uncover their forgotten history and learned what God was about in their lives .

An understanding of the founding era is crucial to understanding freedom and the Biblical basis this country was founded upon. We need to equip our children to be able to send them out armed with the truth. They need to have the truth documented so they can defend it and be used as catalysts to lead our country back to godly principles of civil government.

The Godless Constitution, a book used in college across this country has no proof of the claims they make. If you go to Barnes and Noble and look at a copy, turn to the back and where footnotes usually are is a statement that "we have dispensed with the usual practice of footnotes, as we all know the founders were deists." We don’t have to be ignorant. Our founding fathers were prolific writers. They wrote volumes. Actually, all the records of Congress are recorded and available online from 1774 (Journals of Congress)

Rick and I are excited to be finding old books written in the 1800's and recording them on CD for our kids and grandkids and your kids. In this country we do have Godly heroes to emulate. It is so crucial for kids to have REAL heroes and we do!!

For instance, in The True Story of George Washington, it tells how he was a real hero, because he would rather have been home at Mt. Vernon with his family, but instead he answered the call of duty to his country as opposed to Napoleon, a contemporary, who was a great man, but not a hero. He accomplished what he did for his own glory.

Note: *Beware of the classics. There are many of the authors who were transcendentalists and it is reflected in their writings, like Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I don't have my kids read junk literature or poetry even if it's considered to be the classics.

History is HIS-story, learning of God's providential hand in history. Our country's future rests in the proper training of today's homeschooled kids. I believe that with all my heart. If we don't know where we have come from, how can we know where we are going? I am encouraged about our future because of your kids and my kids! God has mighty plans for them. Let's do our part by arming them with truth so they can learn to effectively dispel the lies propagated in our culture today.

Next week will be the final posting in this series. Feel free to submit any questions and we'll try to address them.

~Marilyn