If you are an experienced Christian homeschooler who has a heart to share your hard-earned wisdom with moms just starting out – we need you!
“I’m considering homeschooling,” explains the scared young mom on the phone, “but I don’t know anyone else who homeschools. It seems everyone in my MOPs group and my church is putting their kids in preschool soon.”
This mom says she knows the schools are falling apart morally and academically but admits she’s scared at the prospect of homeschooling. “But I want to try. Do you think I can do it? I don’t have a teaching degree. My mother-in-law said the kids will be damaged socially if they are homeschooled. It that true? Can you help me? What books can I read to learn more about homeschooling? What resources are there in Orange County for those who homeschool?”
So goes the majority of calls I have received over the last year after I started a homeschool exploration and support group called Considering Homeschooling. We are a group of moms with mainly babies, toddlers and preschoolers who are either trying to decide about homeschooling or who have decided to homeschool but want to research it deeply while their kids are still young. We also wanted to meet other conservative Christian ladies in Orange County in our situation.
We desire to reach out to Christian moms who would homeschool but whose kids are headed for public school only because they lack information, support, and have a tidal wave of pressure from society, friends, and relatives. There are countless moms here in the many churches in Orange County like this who are “falling through the cracks” – they have never heard of CHEA or any other homeschool groups. They feel totally alone, yet they love their little ones so much that they are resisting the broad path, and trying to find someone to help learn about Biblical homeschooling. We introduce them to CFE, CHEA, HSLDA and other resources so they know what is out there. We have monthly meetings in which a different experienced homeschool mom shares her heart with us, we exchange homeschooling articles and web sites via email, and we have park days and field trips.
As a former teacher and as a long-time pro-family activist, I am well aware of the despotic state of public schools, and the horrific legislation that has recently passed in California. My husband is also a former teacher, and we decided to homeschool before we ever even had kids But, most families only have vague feeling that something is wrong with the schools. We kept meeting Christian families out there who toyed with the idea of homeschooling, but since they never knew how to research it, never knew there was a CHEA convention, never had any friends who homeschool, just with heavy hearts put their kids in public school The statistic that 90% of Christian kids wind up in public school frightens me. These are precious souls that are being purposely discipled in humanism, day in and day out. And the bad fruit is all around us – as Josh McDowell points out, 87% of Christian high school students don’t even believe in absolute truth. As our Lord Jesus told us, “A good tree...”
As a mom of a preschooler, toddler and baby, I have many of the same concerns as ladies in the group. We feel intimidated by experienced homeschool moms, who seem like supermoms to us – but we so desperately want to meet them in a safe place where we can ask them questions. I’ve read some articles by homeschoolers who complain that the new wave of homeschoolers are just mimicking the public school system in their homes, who do not have their homes in Biblical order, who use worldly curriculum without concern for a Biblical world view, who drop out of homeschooling when it gets tough ... who are running from the public schools but who have no Godly vision for their family.
That is true...
As Titus 2...
How to have the husband the head. Homeschool – even researching homeschooling – changes you and your husband, not just your kids. It’s a wonderful, yet scary journey.
What can you do to help? First, if you meet a mom of a baby (or even one who is pregnant) don’t think her child is too young for her to get involved in the homeschool movement. One of the biggest ... day care. Now the majority of women with young ones are putting them, even newborn babies, in day care. Once a mom gets used to being away from her child all day, it is hard to turn her heart back to home, and to homeschooling. In contrast, when a mom gets serious about homeschooling early on, she does all she can to get her house in Biblical order – for example, discipline becomes a major issue. She knows she just can’t pass an unruly child off to a school as someone else’s problem. She has to seek the Lord earnestly in so many areas, and her staying home suddenly has an eternal purpose.
Email us helpful articles, books you recommend and your favorite homeschool web sites. If you are a conservative Christian homeschooler who has been homeschooling more than five years, consider speaking at our monthly meeting. These ladies are so eager to meet homeschooling families. Consider bringing your husband and kids so that the moms can see a real homeschooling family. If you can mentor one on one, we’d love to have your email and your town so that local ladies considering homeschooling can ask you questions and perhaps visit your home one day to see what a homeschool family is like.