How Could I Not?

I worked in our church's nursery this past Sunday with a few other moms, and when the conversation between a couple of them turned to school curriculum, I couldn't help but tune in.  Even though we are homeschooling our children, I am always interested to hear what's going on in our public school district.  With the progression of the discussion of a new math curriculum which neither students nor parents seem to be "getting,"  I found my reassurance of our choice to homeschool growing even stronger.

You see, there are several reasons why we have chosen to homeschool our children; but the primary one for me is this:  When it comes to my kids, I am a control freak.  During these tender years especially, I want to be in control of what they are learning and how they are learning it; so, for me, homeschooling is the obvious answer.  I wouldn't want to be in the position of these frustrated and somewhat helpless parents whose children aren't understanding math simply because of the way it is being presented.  Nope.  I'd rather be in control of the situation.  People say to me, "I don't know how you do it (i.e. homeschool)."  I answer to myself, "I don't know how I couldn't."

I love knowing exactly what my kids are learning--and learning it right along with them.  And, I love knowing that I am not missing the opportunity to build God's precepts into their learning.  The time that I have sitting with my children, giving them my full attention as I teach them with their full attention, is (from a discipleship standpoint) absolutely invaluable.  What a great opportunity homeschooling has been for me to pour God's Word into their lives.

Homeschooling itself has indeed been a blessing in this way, and so has our choice of curriculum.  One of the many things I love about our Sonlight curriculum is that it includes a Scripture memory verse in each week's lesson plan.  The Bible says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), so why shouldn't Scripture be a purposeful part of our children's education?  It is certainly the subject that effects the most change!

Yesterday, a little while after I had introduced and discussed this week's memory verse, "Only fools insist on quarreling" (Proverbs 20:3b, NLT), I discovered that Abel had left Legos out on his bedroom floor and told him it was time to pick them up.  With neither a word nor a moment's hesitation, Abel ran upstairs to do as he had been told.  When I later praised him for the way he had promptly and happily obeyed, he said, "I did that because I remembered our new verse."

Like I said, I don't know how I could not homeschool.

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