www.KristiStephens.

com 1
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

Why We’re
’re Planning
to Homeschool
A Personal Journey

This four-part explanation

xplanation of why our family is
Image from wikipedia.org choosing to homeschool
omeschool originally appeared on my
blog, KristiStephens.com, in the fall of 2009.

I know that many families wrestle with the educational options that are before them,
so I wanted to share how our family arrive
arrived
d at the conclusion to homeschool. As
I have tried to state as clearly as possible in the following pages, I do not
believe homeschool is the answer for every family. However, I hope that these
various elements that we have considered might give you an encouraging
framework by which to prayerfully consider what option might be best for you
your
own children.

May God be glorified as we raise this next generation

generation!

-^Ü|áà|

Contents
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool ................................................................................................
........................................... 2
Radical Discipleship ................................
................................................................................................................................
..................................... 4
Packing for Ephesus................................
................................................................................................................................
...................................... 7
Quality Stamped All Over It ................................
................................................................................................
....................................................... 10
 www.KristiStephens.com 2
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

I love the turn from summer to fall. I love the colors, I love it when you can smell fall in the air, I
love chilly mornings that require a sweater. And I love school supplies!

The back to school buzz always gets to me. Loved it as a student, found it exciting (and
terrifying) as a teacher, and now I am loving reading the homeschool blogs I follow as parents
gear up for a new year of schooling. Since AG is still three and our “homeschooling” pretty
much consists of getting books from the library and playing Candy Land using Spanish words
for the colors ;), I don’t have much to add to the back to school excitement. But, I thought it
might be a good time to share why we are planning to homeschool.

I always loved school. I attended two different excellent private Christian schools K-10, and
finished my high school years in a well respected public school district. I can honestly say that I
enjoyed both, both gave me excellent academic training and extracurricular opportunities, and
God used both forms of education to shape and prepare me for the life He had called me to.

My husband also loved school. He attended two different public schools K-12, with one year of
Christian schooling his 9th grade year (but that was a missionary kid school in Brazil, and that is
a whole different story!) He also excelled academically and thoroughly enjoyed the social circles
and extracurricular opportunities these schools offered him.

We had such positive schooling experiences that we had always agreed that we would consider
public or private schooling depending on our children, the area we lived in, and what God laid on
our hearts. But not homeschooling. No way! Those homeschool kids were weird and they missed
out on all the things we loved about school!

Oh, how God has a sense of humor.

Four years ago I was pregnant with AG. I was sitting at my desk doing data entry at work
listening to our local Christian radio station. During Focus on the Family, a homeschool family
was interviewed. And it changed my life.

This family had such an articulate, well thought through understanding of why they were
homeschooling. They knew exactly what they were trying to prepare their kids for, and
deliberately chose homeschooling as the best way to disciple their children and prepare them for
life in the “real world.” This was the first time that I had really heard a well-reasoned approach
to homeschooling other than “keeping your kids out of public school.” The ‘keeping your kids
 www.KristiStephens.com 3
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

out’ argument never sat well with us – first of all because we both had attended and benefited
from public school, and secondly because the goal was avoiding our culture rather than engaging
it. If I remember right, the Great Commission wasn’t “go therefore and avoid all sinful people.”

As I listened to this program, I stopped doing my data entry and bowed my head right at my
desk, confessing to God how stubbornly opposed I had been to homeschooling and yielding my
will – if He called us to homeschool, I was willing to do it. That was not an easy thing to say. Lo
and behold, God took that seed of willingness and has grown it – and now I am thoroughly
convinced that God is clearly guiding us down the homeschooling path.

This week I’d like to share several reasons why we have chosen to homeschool (this post would
be WAAAAYYY too long if I did it all in one!). Now, I want to clearly state that I am quite
positive that homeschooling is not for everyone. Don’t read these posts as judgement against you
if your family is not homeschooling. Like I have already stated, my husband and I had very
positive private and public educational experiences. I know many people who are passionately
devoted to teaching in and supporting both types of schools – and praise the Lord that His people
are following His call! What I share will be the reasons that we have come to the conclusion that
homeschooling is the best choice for us at this time.

To be continued…
 www.KristiStephens.com 4
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

Radical Discipleship

There are many components that have gone into our discussions and considerations of
homeschooling. This is by far the weightiest one in our minds, so this seems to be the best place
to start.

Several years ago, my dad had sent us a cd of sermons by their pastor at the time, Dr. Ed
Dobson. The series was on 1st Timothy – and right off the bat the first message caught our hearts
and minds. Dr. Dobson and his son Kent gave this message together, building some background
information about Paul, Timothy, Ephesus, and the church. It was a fascinating sermon, but what
was most impacting to us was thinking about the meaning of discipleship to a 1st century
believer and what it meant for Timothy, in particular, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a pastor
of the Ephesian church. [we'll get into Timothy more tomorrow.]

Understanding what “discipleship” really meant in the first century is enough to blow my mind
all on its own.

Students in the 1st century learned large portions of the Scripture – it was common for teenagers
who had been called to be disciples of a rabbi to, by the age of 15, have all of the Torah
memorized – that’s all of Genesis, all of Exodus, all of Leviticus, all of Numbers, all of
Deuteronomy. Memorized. Word for word.

If they continued on with the rabbi, by the time they finished with him it was expected that they
would have the entire Hebrew Bible memorized word for word! In addition to that, as a disciple
of the rabbi, they would have:

1. memorized all of the rabbi’s teachings (word for word!)

2. been able to explain and defend all of the rabbi’s intepretations of the torah
3. sought to actually learn to behave just like their rabbi
4. then made other disciples themselves

We listened to this when we were newly married, and I was teaching high school Bible in a
Christian school. I cannot fully explain to you how spiritually and emotionally draining it was for
me to teach God’s Word to high school students all day. Because of prep? No. Because of
teenagers? No, I really enjoy high schoolers. I found it discouraging and defeating because how
 www.KristiStephens.com 5
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

little the majority of students and parents seemed to care about learning God’s Word well and
living it out.

After listening to this series I could not get away from the idea of true discipleship. We toss the
word discipleship around a lot, but I don’t think we really expect anyone to be this “radical” in
their approach to following after Jesus Christ. A 15 year old with the first five books of the Bible
memorized? A complete commitment to follow Him, learn every one of His words, understand
the meaning and basis of His teachings, live just like Him, and then teach others to do the same?
Do that and everyone at your church, let alone your local public school, will think you are a
lunatic!

Being a disciple does not just mean that you wear your Christian t-shirt and refrain from
swearing. It’s more than telling people that Jesus loves them and handing them a tract. Being a
disciple means you give up your life - you wholeheartedly commit to knowing God’s Word
inside and out, seek to follow so closely after Christ that you stop worring about “being yourself”
and “showing your uniqueness” or whatever – you want to look just like Him.

This was the first seed of God’s call in our hearts to homeschool. I know that first and foremost,
God has called me to be a disciple – and I am far from those expectations of discipleship given
above. I cannot say “follow me as I follow Christ” to my children if I have not personally done
whatever it takes to follow Him.

Second, God has entrusted these children to me, and it is primarily my job – not the church’s job
or the youth pastor’s job – to disciple them. To teach them the whole counsel of God. To teach
them what the Bible says and means! To teach them what it means to live like Jesus 24 hours a
day.

I have heard others who have studied and know Greek discuss that the grammatical emphasis of
the Great Comission (Go make disciples and teach them to obey everything I have commanded
you) is not on “go” as we often think – it emphasizes make disciples. Teach them
to obey everything I have commanded you.

This is reason #1 why we are planning to homeschool: I believe that God has given us a job that
takes 24 hours a day. Will my children have the whole Bible memorized? Probably not. But
making learning and living the Scripture a centerpiece of their years in our home is something I
believe wholeheartedly that we must do – and it will take tremendous effort and time.
 www.KristiStephens.com 6
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

I want my kids to know math, science, literature – I hope that they know these things quite well
and excel at them. More than anything, I want them to know and live the Word of God. I want
them to look just like Jesus.
 www.KristiStephens.com 7
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

Packing for Ephesus

On Tuesday I discussed what radical discipleship really means – today we’re going back to the
story of Timothy to think about what that discipleship is all about – in Timothy’s life, it was
about packing for Ephesus.

Let me explain.

First of all, consider the fact that Timothy was half-Jew, half-Greek. We are told that Paul
circumcised Timothy before taking him on his journeys with him (Acts 16:3)- read between the
lines: Timothy was completely on the outside of Jewish life and culture. He would not have been
allowed to receive training in the Torah from the Rabbi, he would have been restricted in even
participating in temple worship. Unlike the boys who grew up memorizing the Torah word for
word, Timothy didn’t have that kind of access. However, that does NOT mean that he didn’t
know the Scriptures.

2 Timothy 1:5 tells us that his mother and grandmother had “sincere faith,” which Paul was
persuaded lived in Timothy also. 2 Timothy 3:15 tells us that Timothy had known the holy
Scriptures “from infancy.” Guess who was teaching little Timmy? Mom and grandma. They had
taught him the truth from infancy and prepared him to the extent that the other believers spoke
well of him and Paul called him to follow him on his journeys – in other words, Paul took
Timothy to be his disciple.

How old was Timothy at this point? In Kent and Ed Dobson’s message, Kent points out that the
word used for “young” (describing Timothy) in 1st Timothy 4:12 actually means ‘under the age
of 20!’ Those letters were written years after this point, which means Timothy was probably
around the age of 15! [This makes sense, considering that boys were selected around the age of
12 or 15 to follow rabbis.]

Paul sets out with young Timothy. They walk thousands of miles together. Imagine the
discipleship that went on during those journeys – I’m guessing Paul was not one to waste time!
Eventually, they spend three years in Ephesus.

Ephesus would probably blow our minds. Ephesus offered asylum to any criminal. It was the
slave capital of the world. There was not a single believer in Jesus Christ when Paul arrived on
the scene. The worship of Diana (or Artemis) was so central to life in Ephesus that we are told in
Acts 20 that eventually as more people placed their faith in Jesus Christ and abandoned idolatry,
 www.KristiStephens.com 8
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

it was upsetting the local economy and actually caused a riot! Into this pagan and corrupt culture
Paul walks, with his 15 year old disciple Timothy. Every mom’s dream for her boy, right?
Eventually Paul leaves for further missionary journeys, and he appoints young Timothy to pastor
the Ephesian church. Alone. In Ephesus.

Get this: Scholars say that in less than 100 years, Ephesus was 90% Christian. Partly because
of a gangly teenager, an outcast from his culture, who was taught God’s Word from infancy,
discipled well in adolescence, and equipped and sent to serve.

What does this have to do with us homeschooling? Here are a couple of points that come to
mind.

•We do not expect enough of our kids.

I touched on this in the last post so I won’t dwell here. Just think about a 15 year old, acne
spotted, gangly, vocally-unstable boy travelling alongside Paul. Called to follow a man who
knew the Scriptures better than most anyone, who loved Jesus so radically he was stoned and
beaten and threatened and arrested multiple times! And after a few years with his teacher, think
of this very young man left alone in the Las Vegas of the day, called to pastor a young church
without a single believer more than 3 years old in the Lord.

•We expect too much of our kids.

Nope, I’m not contradicting myself. We don’t expect enough of our kids when it comes to being
a true disciple of Jesus Christ (because we don’t expect enough of ourselves.) But we expect too
much of them when we send them out into the battlefields of our day without equipping them
properly.

Paul didn’t just pluck a 4 year old kid out of Lystra and send him to pastor the church at
Ephesus. He was diligently taught the Scriptures as a child. He was intentionally trained as a
disciple of Paul. He knew God’s Word, he understood the culture of Ephesus and learned
alongside Paul how to teach the truth and recognize error in an incredibly pagan society.

I admire the conviction of many believers who feel strongly that we need to be a light in our
public school systems. But I wrestle with the thought of sending my young and foolish (all
children are!) children into an environment where they will be taught things that contradict
God’s Word, where they will be surrounded with peers who do not fear the Lord and have been
 www.KristiStephens.com 9
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

exposed to awful things, where they will be in the most violent crossfire of the battle for the
hearts and minds of the next generation.

No, I don’t believe the goal of our homeschooling should be to avoid the culture. However,
before our children can successfully engage our culture with the message of Christ, they must be
trained. They must be discipled well. They must be taught wisdom as they learn to fear the Lord.
They must work alongside us and see firsthand what it means to live out our faith in a world
gone mad.

This was what really drew me to the family interviewed on the radio years ago. Their
homeschooling was intentionally done to teach their children to know God’s Word, to engage
their culture, and to have the skill set needed to think critically and Biblically.

Is homeschooling the only way to do this? I don’t think so. But whatever choices we make about
the education of our children, we must understand that there is a very real battle going on. We
must be careful to protect them – not just from physical danger, or emotional trauma, or
educational failure – we must understand that until they develop wisdom and insight and a true
knowledge and understanding of Scripture, they will be so easily led astray by the vain
philosophies of this world.

O Lord, what a gift you have given us in our precious children. Teach us how to love them well.
Give us the wisdom we so desperately need to parent them in the daily mundane moments, and
give us eyes to see the battle going on all around us – show us how to protect them, equip them,
and teach them to engage in that battle for your glory. I pray that they will grow to love You,
love Your Word, and obey you wholeheartedly. I pray that they will turn their world upside down
for the sake of Your name.
 www.KristiStephens.com 10
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

Quality Stamped All Over It

Today’s post isn’t so much why we’re homeschooling as much as a basic look at the philosophy
undergirding our general thinking about how we want to go about educating our children.

Among other things, I believe strongly that the education we provide for our children must not
settle for being “adequate” or “comparable” – it must be excellent. My kids’ “pretend grandma”
(who is an old family friend of my in-laws) was an administrator in a very well respected district
in our area for many years – it breaks my heart when we talk about homeschooling and she has
so many stories to share of families in the area who claimed to be “homeschooling” and were
providing a very poor, substandard education for their kids. I think most of these homeschooling
families are probably well intentioned, but I think that neglecting to provide excellent education
is often a reflection of the “keep the kids out of public schools” mentality rather than a mentality
of discipling our children and preparing them for the Ephesus of our day.

Now, when I say that I want my children to have an excellent, even superior, education, I have to
be careful. Homeschooling, like anything else, can quickly turn into something motivated by
pride and self-righteousness. Am I seeking to educate my kids in order to be little living trophies
to my excellent parenting and homeschooling skills? [Ack - that sounds terrible even typing it as
a question!] Or, am I seeking to disciple to follow humbly after Christ and equip them to engage
their world with the good news He offers?

With that in mind, not only do I want my children to know Scripture extremely well:

I want my children to know math and science well- in our day and age, they must be well
equipped to engage and answer the faith-challenging questions that come out of scientific fields.
Sometimes Christians undervalue scientific study – but, this is our Father’s world! Proverbs 25:2
tells us, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
God’s glory is embedded in all of creation; as we study the intricacies of the human body, of the
marvels of a butterfly’s metamorphosis, of the mathematical nature of music, it is an honor to us
to learn it and it brings great glory to Him as the creator of it all! Truly, the “heavens declare the
glory of God,” and home education gives fantastic opportunities to teach our children to see the
Creator behind the creation!
 www.KristiStephens.com 11
Why We’re Planning to Homeschool

I want my children to communicate well- from creative writing, to good grammar and spelling,
to communicating through the fine arts or building a webpage, communication skills are not an
end to themselves. Ultimately, homeschooling is not about preparing the next batch of crazy
homeschoolers to win the national spelling bees! In the end, what it boils down to is that God has
given us a message that needs to be communicated. The Scriptures echo with the message that
God has communicated to us – through the written word and the Living Word – and He tells us
to go and tell, to be a city on a hill rather than a light under a bushel. That message can be given
through the internet, through the written word, through skillful conversation, through public
speaking, through drama, through story, through art, through song!

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the jist. Education is not an end to itself. I pray that my
children will master their areas of study, but not so that they can look down upon their peers with
an air that says, “I’m smarter and better educated than you. I can spell better than you, I’ve
memorized Oedipus Rex, I built a computer out of spare parts I found at a flea market, and I can
speak four languages!” :) Once again it boils down to discipling them, training them, preparing
them to engage their world with God’s Truth.