Latest / Homeschool Insights - Biblical Home Education Inspiration in Under 10 Minutes! / Are We Forgetting Why We Homeschool? Israel Wayne & Kristi Clover
Transcript
- speaker-0: As we, you know, push Jesus aside in this homeschool movement for all of the the side things, you know, the homeschool sports and the homeschool prom and the homeschool, you know, basically replicating everything that the government school does, and we lose Jesus, I think what's gonna end up happening is we're just gonna end up seeing that we've lost what makes homeschooling special and that we're gonna end up having all the same results. That we tried to get away from i in leaving the government schools. We're just bringing all that here and we're gonna end up replicating the system. speaker-1: Think that speaker-2: I mean, I understand from a parent standpoint, I don't want to do anything that's gonna hurt my children. I want my children to have a wonderful education. And there are days when I, you know, I'm like, ⁓ my goodness, like, am I am I doing the right thing? But that was, I think, more the early days of our homeschooling when I truly was fearful, like what, you know, because you're listening to all the voices, you know, am I equipped? I didn't go to school for this. and I Think that we have both a fear-based mentality, like I'm afraid that I'm not going to give my kids a proper education. But then we also have the fact that people are forgetting that we have this wonderful, this wonderful source to tap into, and that is the Holy Spirit. And it's frustrating to me to think that we cannot, I think as parents, we forget what our calling is biblically. To teach and impress our children about what the Lord is. It comes down to worldview, like you and I have talked about, and that you talk about all the time. And I think it's really important for kids for parents to understand that what they're gonna get in the public school is a secular worldview, an anti-God, you know, worldview. And how confusing is that for our kids? Like, I want you to go spend hours here versus coming home with me. But in within the homeschool community, how can parents Because I mean, goodness, Deuteronomy Six is like, you know, all we ever hear about in the homeschool movement. Right. It is like the motto for all homeschooling. But I think one part that people forget the most, and that's the first part of that, is that we as parents are to impress it upon our own hearts and then pass it on to our kids. So with that, how can we as families speaker-0: Worse, right? speaker-2: Slow down enough to really make sure that we are coming at this homeschooling from like again, Christian families. How can we be coming to homeschooling with the proper heart and motivation ⁓ to make sure that we are not getting lost in all of the offers? Because now there is a lot more curriculum out there, but there's a whole lot of a lot out there. And it gets very confusing. Cause when I first started, like people were confused, like What can I do? And now there's so much they're like, ⁓ they get stuck. So yes, what can we do? speaker-0: Well, I want to recommend a couple of books that I've written that I think will really help parents in terms of the educational philosophy. So the one is Answers for Homeschooling, ⁓ the top twenty-five questions critics ask. And the other is Education, Does God Have an Opinion? ⁓ subtitle is A Biblical Apologetic for Christian Education and Homeschooling. And these two books I think really will help the parent to calibrate their own thinking. So that they truly have a biblical philosophy of education, because you can't pass on to your children what you don't have. Right. Right. And I think what we're passing on to our children in most cases is an experience of having been home educated. What we're not passing on is a biblical theology of education. And I know so many homeschooled graduates that when I ask them, Will you homeschool your own children? They go, ⁓ I don't really know. And when I ask them why they hesitate, they usually go back to something in their experience. And and that really is their entire framework for how they think about education in the next generation is well, they draw from their experience. Did they like it or did they not like it? And to me, that's not the metric. ⁓ the metric for us as Christians shouldn't be what culture is doing, what everybody around us is doing, or even our experience. It should be driven by our theology. What has God said? What has God told us about how we're supposed to educate children? And I think for most people, they just assume God is silent on the issue. He hasn't really spoken. He doesn't really have an opinion on it. He doesn't care how we teach our children. It's just all up to us. It's different strokes for different folks. And they haven't really looked into it enough to learn that scripture is replete and full of God's instruction on who should do the teaching, how they should teach, what they should teach, where and when they should teach. ⁓ God has given very explicit instructions. And so I would encourage people to check those books out. They can get those at our website. So my ministry is family renewal.org. ⁓ and I would encourage you to get grab those books either from me or from my publisher, which is masterbooks.com. ⁓ and the one reason I say that is just that I I had this conversation this last weekend. ⁓ but if you buy from Amazon, ⁓ as authors, we we literally make pennies. Pennies. You know, so if you buy like a twelve dollar book on Amazon, I make like sixty-five cents on that. And Amazon just keeps almost all the profits and that's why they own the world. And so I do encourage people, as easy as it is. ⁓ I would encourage you to buy from a Christian publisher or buy from the authors directly because that actually helps Christian families and Christian publishers to be able to continue to do what they do ⁓ rather than like I'll just put it this way, Amazon's gonna be okay. They will Yeah, they're they're gonna be fine. ⁓ but anyway, I I highly recommend that you ⁓ you check those resources sources out. But then also, I think for those homeschool leaders, ⁓ influencers, speakers, writers, speaker-2: That's right. speaker-0: ⁓ co-op and support group leaders, whatever, whatever ⁓ level of influence, even if it's just that you're the the more veteran family in your church or your neighborhood that homeschools and people look up to you and they ask you questions. I think we have to be mindful ⁓ and stop and ask ourselves, are we continuing to tell people that this is really ultimately about seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? This is ultimately really about our children having A right relationship with Christ. And the academics are important. And I'm not a guy who's like, ⁓ we don't need to do academics, and academics are unimportant. We just need to to love Jesus. Academics are important. And it's one of the ways that we do love Jesus. We love Jesus with all of our mind, right? Yes. And so ⁓ we want to do academics with excellence. but we we just don't want to get the cart in front of the horse. ⁓ we have to keep. The main things, the main things. And the main thing is ⁓ that we love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And we we love our neighbor as ourself, and that we're teaching our children to do that. And that these academic things, which are important for life, are means to that end ⁓ of teaching us how to know the God who created all these subjects and how to be equipped to love and serve our neighbors through the things that we're studying. So whether it's math skills or science skills or whatever, if we're going to be. ⁓ airplane pilots or mechanics or engineers or architects or, you know, whatever it is, that we use those academic skills not just to love and serve ourselves, but to love and serve other people for the glory of Christ, and that we keep those things primary. So I think it's important for us who maybe know the biblical philosophy to make sure that we're passing that on. And not just assuming that the next generation is getting it somehow by osmosis, because I'm gonna say they're not. I don't think they are. And I think it's because people have stopped talking about it. speaker-2: No, absolutely. And it's it's funny how like I always start almost ever at some point in every workshop I do at a homeschool convention, I always tell people, I'm like, your homework is to write down why you are homeschooling. You always start with your why, but I feel like people overcomplicate it. Like, you know, we can get into all these things, but if it comes down to I want my kids to know the Lord, I want them to love the Lord with their heart, soul, mind, and strength. speaker-0: So why? speaker-2: And I do want them to have a love of learning that will last them a lifetime because we are called to use the gifts and talents that God has given us for his glory. We are here for his glory. And so when you start framing things like that, I mean, we can put our kids in any kind of an educational system and hope that we are giving them a Christian worldview at home. But if we're not even at home in our in our homeschooling, giving them a foundation. ⁓ and understanding where that's coming from, because we can get lost in it. Because I again, like when I first started homeschooling, I just wanted my school to look like the public school. Because I was so afraid of you know, failing my children. What if this doesn't work? What if I have to put them back? What if we fall behind? All of those things. Now it is really powerful. And I would encourage our listeners, like, just hang in there because at a certain point you start realizing. Like your why becomes even stronger. Like I at least for me personally, like I would choose nothing else than homeschooling because I don't care what the school down the street is doing. Like I am I am educating my children in the Lord and I want them to have a firm foundation. If they I mean like granted, I want them to be well educated, like you were saying, but if nothing else, if they just have a love of the Lord, then man, I have done my job as a parent. speaker-1: This episode of Homeschool Insights is brought to you by Liberty HealthShare. Choosing to homeschool is about making intentional decisions for your family. Liberty HealthShare is another way families across the country are choosing a different path, one that offers a community-centered approach to health care cost sharing that can help you keep more of your hard-earned dollars while getting the medical care your family needs. Learn more at Liberty HealthShare.org. That's LibertyHealthShare.org.