Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

G. K. Chesterton

In the previous homeschool post, I discussed the #1 reason to go for it if you sense the Lord leading you to educate your own children. Today I want to look at four more solid reasons to homeschool. After this post, I’ll begin diving into more advice, hoping you can learn from my mistakes as well as glean wisdom from those things that, by God’s grace, I did well. 🙂 So without further ado, here are four more reasons to homeschool:

TO Equip the Next Generation of Christians

One key reason to homeschool is to truly equip the next generation for service to the Lord. Homeschooling puts one in a unique position to model a walk with God because your children will see you both at your best and at your worst. Thus, you will get plenty of opportunities to model not only diligent service to others, self-sacrifice, and humility; you will also have the chance to model repentance.

Trust me on this.

Also, the 24/7 nature of homeschooling means you get to walk out your faith in front of your children. They will see you prioritize your own time in the Word (which also gives you built-in accountability). You can point out to them the ways you see God at work in and around you, helping them to see Him as living and active and real.

Additionally, when your kids ask difficult questions from the Bible (and they will), you have the distinct privilege of clarifying your belief system in tandem with passing it on. It’s good for them to understand it’s OK not to know all the answers; it’s equally good to dig in together – researching and wrestling out those tough theological points with the Lord. Not only will your kids learn and grow, you will as well.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus

2 Timothy 1:13

To Raise Functional, Godly Adults

A modern parenting myth is that parents should strive to raise happy children. I respectfully and vehemently disagree. Parents should raise God-fearing adults who are capable of resilience and stamina in a fallen world. Happiness will come and go, but “godliness with contentment is great gain” and actually assures eternal happiness that will far outlast the temporary highs and lows of physical life.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

1 Timothy 1:5

And to be frank, you do not really want your sweet ones to be permanent children. You want them to learn to do things for themselves; to try and fail and learn that failure is not the end of the world; to step out of their comfort zone and experience difficulty so they can see God really is with them in the valleys of deep darkness – and that the darkness has an end.

This means the goal of homeschooling should not be to coddle and shelter but to equip and prepare. Keep this thought in the back of your mind when you’re tempted to just give an A or let deadlines become negotiable or negligible.

Sure, your second grader may be sad if you mark a big red X on her math problem or your fourth-grader may have hurt feelings from your constructive criticism of his book report. But learning that their value is not derived from their performance is more important than temporary feelings. Not to mention how learning accountability, working to achieve goals, handling feedback, and dealing with deadlines and expectations will prepare them for things like jobs and bills and marriage and ministry and life.

And again, if I may be frank? God does not call His children to soft, pleasant pastimes. He calls us to take up our crosses daily and follow Him. It’s OK to teach this to your children. In fact, it’s recommended.

To Teach Your Kids to Think

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…

Mark 12:30, emphasis mine

Let’s face it: our public school system has gotten so caught up in bureaucracy, it’s long ago lost the mission of teaching a generation to think. Instead, I would argue most schools nowadays teach kids WHAT to think instead.

Thinking is becoming a lost art. Don’t let it happen. Your kids need to learn to love God with all their mind, and you are in a position to help them become good stewards of those minds. When your kids ask for help with a problem or have a question, whether about school work or anything else, resist the temptation to tell them the answer. Instead, ask follow-up questions to help them think through it and arrive at the answer themselves.

Invite an attitude of exploration with the divining rod of God’s Word as your center. Dive into other worldviews and dissect them according to biblical truth. Dig into tough questions about faith, culture, or even the biblical text itself. Help your kids see that God is the Author of truth and that all truth leads back to Him.

Prepare them to think so when people spout memorized anti-Christian sentiments or cultural confusion (such as the current gender chaos) at them in college or the workplace, they will be ready to address them without fear but with confidence in the Lord who gave them a mind they are already accustomed to loving Him and others with.

Is this harder and more time-consuming? Yes. But it is absolutely worth it.

To Develop Lifelong Learners

A final reason is to develop lifelong learners, not just box-checkers. You can infect your kiddos with the joy of learning about this immense and fascinating world God made as well as the depths of the Infinite God who made it.

In a homeschool, learning isn’t confined to a classroom but seeps into every aspect of life. Children can participate from a very early age in caring for the home, learning skills like laundry and cooking, and even being a part of shopping and other mundane tasks.

Car rides and the lunch table become places where ideas are brought out and discussed. In fact, some of our most incredible teachable moments happened in the car. So resist the easy button of handing them a device to entertain and anesthetize them when you take that hour drive to a field trip. Instead, engage your kids in conversation even when they are little. This pays out big dividends in the teen years and beyond.

My three are in college, and I have THE best time talking to them still to this day. They are intelligent, articulate, and fascinating people, and I’m glad I stuck it out and engaged with them through endless trivia about Thomas the Tank Engine and friends or the battery of ten thousand questions before noon each day. Now when I talk to them, I’m often the one learning – especially in their respective fields of study (structural engineering, cellular & molecular biology, and kinesthesiology).

As Tim Hawkins says it in his “Homeschool Blues” song, “They say, ‘You think you can school your kids better?’ Pretty much!”