Jeannie Fulbright is the author of the Apologia Science curriculum that we will be using with Brett starting next year. I took the following message off of her page. I think that it really hits the nail on the head about why homeschooling is so important...I hope (and pray) that if you are questioning if you should homeschool or not, that you will take the time to read this and more articles like it...
A Journey Worth Taking
I've had the privilege to meet so many new homeschoolers that have just begun their homeschool journey. Most of them find homeschooling a delight. As they spend each day with their children, they begin to catch a glimpse into the little windows of their hearts and see things they didn't know were there - good things and not so good things.
What is so precious about this is that we really do come to know our children the way God intended for us to know them. God did not set up schools where children would depart for hours from the very people to whom He gave them to be reared.
Education was intended to be done at home from the very beginning, as was the training of our children's hearts. God's perfect order has been disrupted by the institution that came in to replace God's intention and design for homes and families.
That order was disrupted so long ago that now we have to read books and take classes on parenting and discipling our children because we weren't parented or discipled properly; and we weren't parented properly because our parents weren't parented properly, and on and on it goes, all the way back to the preindustrial age - when families actually spent time together and usually educated their children at home.
After industrialization, the home became second to the institution of school. Long ago, most every child was either home educated or only went to school during certain seasons. Most of a child's waking hours were spent at home with the family, where generations passed on what the generations before had been passing on for as long as anyone could remember.
If we don't have lengthy amounts of time with our children, we will likely miss the nuances that betray what is really happening in their hearts, what they really believe. If I only had a few hours every night with them, when we were both worn out from the day, I may not know what their wrong beliefs were or what their right beliefs were. If I did know, would I even have the time and energy to thoroughly correct them?
Homeschooling affords us time and energy to properly parent and educate our children. Because I spend my entire life with my kids, I know them so well. I know the exact areas where I can trust them to always make the right choice, and I know the exact areas where they need more training. I know their hearts. When I see misconceptions, we can work through them during the morning devotions, pray through them, and explore what the Bible says about them. No big hurry. We've got time.
One mom describes her experience when she brought her children home to school them. She was astonished when she realized that, because they had been in school for several years, she didn't even know - really know - her kids. Could not really knowing your children be God's plan for the family? No. Sadly, it's really no wonder children are in the mess they are today.
I believe homeschooling is so right. It is the model God set in place. It's a return to the ways of old. Isaiah 58:12 says, "...you will restore the foundations laid long ago; you will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live.
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