Why Pastor Matt Homeschools His Kids
When asked why we homeschool the answer is simple, because we love God and we love our kids. Of course, families who don't homeschool would say the same and certainly I would not question one's fidelity for God or their offspring based on home education. It is just that, for us, we see homeschooling as one of the key ways for us to love God and love our kids.
We firmly believe, as the Bible teaches, that God commands parents to disciple their children. We love God so we obey Him in this command as parents and the best way we feel we can most effectively disciple them is through home education because it gives us a quality curriculum and quantity of time we need to present them to God as trained disciples. The time with our kids provided by home education is something we enjoy because we love our kids so we love having them around.
Our culture views kids as an inconvenience to avoid. You have one or maybe two, put them in a nursery, then put them in school and sports, leaving very little time for interaction. The average kid in our country spends less than a half hour in meaningful conversation with their parents daily: yet, they spend 8 hours at school and 5 hours consuming media. Once you add hours spent sleeping, eating and getting dressed, the average kid in an American home (including Christian homes!) gets little to no discipleship from their parents. We love our kids so we like having more time with them than this typical cultural routine and we love God so we take His commandment to heart to disciple our kids.
It's not rocket science, give me 8 more hours a day with my kids and I stand to have a greater influence and discipleship impact. Added, I get to (since God entrusted them to me) craft their curriculum using a wide range of academic sources and do so in such a way that Jesus Christ is the center of everything they study. They learn Math, Science, History, Art, Language, etc. from a Christian perspective - imagine that! We basically have Sunday School everyday and it's not limited to just Bible stories, we do biblical thinking in every subject with the conviction that all disciplines belong to God.
In addition to loving God so we obey His command to disciple our kids and loving our kids so we like being with them, we have many additional reasons for homeschooling. These additional reasons are usually answers to common hesitations or objections for homeschooling. Many of these additional reasons are creatively captured in the below graphic. I hope this graphic and post will encourage you to consider this sacred calling we have as parents and how this ancient and global approach to education provides you with a whole lot of love and fruit.
