My wife and I have been homeschooling our children, since our oldest child was 5 years old (about 7 years, at this point).  We think that homeschooling is a necessity for Christian families, not optional.  Below are 10 of the most important reasons (in my eyes) for Christians to homeschool their children.  These aren’t necessarily in any kind of order.

1) The Bible puts a child’s learning at the responsibility of the parents, not someone else (whether private or public schools) – Deuteronomy 6:4-6 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  

Regardless of your “qualifications”, YOU are responsible for the education of your children.  I understand that homeschooling seems intimidating to some people.  It really isn’t that hard!  It is a lot of fun and there are plenty of people, programs, groups and curriculum out there, to help you homeschool your children.  You may have to learn some things all over again, but that’s a good thing!  Besides, if you start early, you will only be teaching them things like ABC’s, 123’s, shapes, colors, etc.

2) The public school system is pro evolution in their teaching – The Bible does NOT teach millions and billions of years.  It teaches a literal 6 day creation and that the world is less than 6,000 years old.  Sending your child to school, to learn this, will undermine the teachings of Scripture.  Is that really what you want to happen, as a Christian?  The Bible is THE objective source for all knowledge and wisdom.  Allowing your child to be taught something that completely contradicts what the Scripture teaches is not only a bad idea, it’s downright foolish.

3) The public school system is pro homosexual in their agenda (for the most part) – Homosexuality is something that is obviously condemned by Scripture (1 Corinthians 6:9-19, Romans 1:18-32).  Yet, the public school system bombards children with “tolerance” and “acceptance”, concerning this perversion.  It is a ploy of the Devil to undermine what TRUE love is, according to the Bible.  It is also a ploy to undermine the Biblical Family Model and to destroy any hope for a homosexual to be saved/delivered.  I mean, if you were a homosexual and you were constantly being told that there’s nothing wrong with your perverted choices, you would see nothing to be “saved from”, right?

4) The public school system is anti-Bible and anti-Christ in their policy (for the most part) – From not allowing student Bible groups, to not allowing students to pray, to not allowing students to evangelize, to not allowing students to wear clothing with Christians messages on them, etc.  This problem has been well documented and continues to this day.  The ramifications? – Schools have to have metal detectors, locker searches, etc.  Instead of the worst problem in school being cutting in line, sticking your chewing gum under the desk or passing notes during class, we now have violence, teen pregnancy and drugs.

At home, my children get to read their Bibles and pray all they want.  We have “Bible time” each day, as a family.  We teach them the Bible all throughout the day, as we have “teachable moments” in life.  They ask questions about the Bible and we are able to answer the questions for them.  They are also disciplined when they do wrong and rewarded when they do right.  When we take trips to the store, they wear Gospel shirts and hats (we make them, check them out at SHIRTS & HATS) and pass out Gospel Tracts.

Some people say that we should send our Christian children to school, in order to be “missionaries” or sort.  First, all of our “school age” children are not Christians yet.  Secondly, I would see that more as sending sheep into a pack of wolves, then sending missionaries to a mission field.  If we sent them to school, they would be constantly bombarded with lies about the Bible and Christianity. I want them to learn about the Bible and our faith from a proper source and proper understanding.  At home, they have a good environment in which to learn the truths of the Scripture.

5) Many schools (whether public or private) are heavily immersed in sports idolatry – To many schools and students, sports are EVERYTHING.  Practice, weight-lifting, games, etc, take away from family time that could be used for more important things – prayer, Bible study, talking or just spending time together as a family.  Sports can often times takeover your child’s life and your family’s life.

Often times, this also leads to your child having athletes as their “heroes” and “idols”.   Typically, athletes aren’t very good “role models” and are involved in all kinds of wickedness – alcohol, drugs, sexual promiscuity, greed, gambling, lying, pride, violence, rape, etc. Then many children begin to dream of being a “professional sports star” which can lead to all kinds of compromise.  Obviously, there is nothing wrong with exercise and there is some value to it.  It shouldn’t be our main focus in life, though – 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”  Our MAIN FOCUS should be Godliness!  We are committed to not allowing our children to be “sports fanatics”.

6) The peers of your children will end up being their greatest influence – This is not a good idea.  It is the parents’ responsibility to be the main and greatest influence in the lives of their children.  Having them hang out with other children that are the same age as them all day, is not a good idea.  When you spend a couple of hours a day with them (after all of the home work, sports, after school activities, etc.) and their peers spend 8 hours a day with them, who do you think will be there greatest influence?

Don’t you want to spend more time with your children?  Don’t you want to be the greatest influence on their life?  Don’t you want to be able to choose what peers they spend time with?  We love our children and love spending as much time with them, as we can.  Homeschooling allows us to spend the biggest parts of the day with them, instead of just at the very beginning and very end of the day.

7) A better learning environment for my children – Let’s face it, each child is different and learns in different ways and at different speeds.  In the school system (whether public or private), the average student-teacher ratio in public schools in America is about 16-1.  If one of your children is a “slow learner”, a “day dreamer” or someone who needs “special attention”, they may get left behind in a regular school.  At home, the ratio is much better.  My wife and I homeschool our children together (I work from home).  That means that the ratio at this time is 6-2.

We have the privilege of specializing each child’s learning experience to maximize their personalities.  Each of our children is unique, even if they all have some similarities.  They each have strengths and weaknesses.  They each have specific things that they are interested in.  We don’t want to give them a “cookie cutter” education.  Homeschooling is a BETTER way to educate your children.

8) My children’s closest friends are their siblings – Unless your children are very close in age, they will usually see their siblings even less then they see you, if they go to school.  They usually won’t have a close relationship, because they will be in different grades and will have different friends they spend time with. They will also be involved in different school activities.

Our children are like best friends.  Even though each of them is about 2 years apart, they really do love AND like each other.  They play together, do chores together, learn together and spend lots of time together.  They are building relationships with each other, that will last a lifetime.  They encourage each other to do what is right, keep each other accountable and have lots of fun together!

9) We decide the school schedule – Personally, I think that typical plan of being off from school for 3 months  in the Summer is not very smart.  We school our children all year round.  We just don’t do school ALL DAY and are able to take family “vacations” whenever we choose.  We don’t have to wait for the normal “holidays”, in order to go somewhere or do something special as a family.

If something comes up, we are able to adjust our schedule to what is happening.  Children don’t “get behind” on work, because our schedule isn’t “written in stone” and we can always “catch up” later on.  If we want to take a “day off” and take a “field trip” we can do that.  Sometimes learning requires special trips.  Sometimes children get tired and weary of “book learning” and needs something different to stimulate their minds.

10) We decide exactly what our children are learning – No evolution, no “sex education” (until we determine the time is right), no pro-homosexual agenda, no anti-Bible policies & anti-Christ policies.  We decide what kind of Math, English, Reading, Science and Social Studies/History our children are learning.  We personally look into each book before we buy it for our children.  We observe how they are doing with the curriculum we have chosen and how much they like it (or dislike it).  This is the way it should be!

There is a plethora of curriculum to choose from.  Some are more “intense” and some are more “laid back”.  You just need to look into your options and make your choices, depending upon each child.  You may decide that you don’t like a certain curriculum, after trying it for a year.  That’s fine!  Just use a different one next year.

We also enjoy teaching our children more “life skills”.  Homeschooling is not just about “book learning”.   It’s also about real life skills.  Anytime I do a job around the house, I have my oldest son with me.  Sometimes I even have my youngest son with me.

They really like getting involved in the things I do – whether it is building a chicken coop, putting up a fence, fixing a plumbing leak, changing a light switch, etc.  My oldest son enjoys reading books on mechanical things.  He may not turn out to be a “mechanic”, but at least he will save some money fixing his own cars! My sons also like taking care of our chickens and our dog.

My daughters love cooking with my wife and doing crafts.  They like sewing and knitting.  They love helping take care of the smaller children.  These are all REAL LIFE SKILLS that they will use later on, to go along with their “book knowledge”.

If you are a Christian, I hope that this list was beneficial and edifying to you.  If you are a homeschooling Christian family, then I know that you can attest to at least some of these points.  If you are a Christian family that is not currently homeschooling, I plead with you to consider doing so.  Please don’t get defensive.  Rather read these points and think about them.