Hello! We are the Brown Family and we are new to homeschooling. We
have three homeschoolers in grades: Fifth, Kindergarten, and Pre-School.
We began our homeschooling journey last spring when we pulled our fourth
grader out of public school and finished up the last seven weeks of
the school year at home. My husband and I came to the decision to homeschool
in a round-about-way! God had been showing both of us separately (me
through a women's bible study, and my husband through his own personal
bible reading and prayer) the value of homeschooling.
I am also completing my elementary education degree through NSU and
I was becoming more enlightened on the "philosophies" and
"unspoken rules" of public education....it angered and scared
me! Then, after attending a biblical seminar by Dr. Thomas Sharp from
the Creation Truth Foundation (CTF),
my husband and I had a "meeting-of-the-minds" about what we
want our children to be taught and why. We talked with our 4th grader
who had already been exposed to mixed and confusing messages about creation
and evolution....her teacher said she did not really believe in evolution,
but she never-the-less taught the class the evolution theory.
Why would we want our kids to be taught a lie that contradicts the
foundational truth of God's word? Talk about confusing and misleading!!
Immediately, we began praying about homeschooling our kids.
"THESE COMMANDMENTS THAT I GIVE YOU TODAY ARE TO BE UPON YOUR HEARTS.
IMPRESS THEM ON YOUR CHILDREN. TALK ABOUT THEM WHEN YOU SIT AT HOME
AND WHEN YOU WALK ALONG THE ROAD, WHEN YOU LIE DOWN AND WHEN YOU GET
UP." Deut
6:6-7
We specifically prayed that God would direct us and give us His guidance
and that wherever He was going to lead us that we would wholeheartedly
LEAP with HIM! The answer was quick and clear for us!
"THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT IS RIGHT AND JUST AND FAIR--EVERY
GOOD PATH. FOR WISDOM WILL ENTER YOUR HEART, AND KNOWLEDGE WILL BE PLESANT
TO YOUR SOUL." Proverbs
2:9-10
Everywhere we turned God affirmed our decision to homeschool. An example
of His affirmation is when we went to say good-bye to our daughter's
4th grade teacher and she said, "I don't blame you a bit...I am
so excited for you I have chill bumps!", this, coming from a person
who has been in public education for years. A few days later, I shared
with an NSU professor our decision to homeschool and his words were,
"Knowing what I do about where public education has gone over the
last twenty years or so, if I were still raising my three children,
I would homeschool.", enough said!
I am not going to lie, it has been a leap of faith and self-sacrifice.
God answered our prayers and He made us aware that homeschooling is
a lifestyle change, not just a spur-of-the-moment decision. If I had
to give anyone advice regarding homeschooling, it would be, "Talk
with as many homeschooling families as you can, ask lots of questions,
read, read, read books about homeschooling, let it all soak in (if that's
possible), take everything and everyone with a grain of salt, and then
PRAY that God will show you what is right for your family!
"TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN
UNDERSTANDING; IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AND HE WILL MAKE YOUR
PATHS STRAIGHT." Proverbs
3:5-6
Blessings to you,
The Brown Family
