Thirty years ago when my husband and I began homeschooling my younger sister and we had a little one-year-old toddler, all the homeschooling buzz was teaching our children the Bible and protecting them from bad teaching at school in terms of humanism. Humanism was a buzzword at that time, and those of us who were seeking homeschooling were going to keep our children from being indoctrinated by it. Here we are thirty years later, and there are many other dangerous teachings in government schools besides just the original homeschool enemy of humanism.
None of us like to think that if our children go to school they are being taught bad things. But if we look at many teachings in schools, we have to admit that much of it is not what we would be teaching our children if they were at home with us—because we wouldn’t want to teach them things that are opposite of the Bible. Sex education has taken on a whole new meaning as now curriculum is provided for schools to teach about gay marriage and to push many non-traditional (i.e. non-Biblical) family arrangements.
When we take our children to museums, I always think about all of the things that we tell them as we walk through the exhibits. How the billions of years are not true. How we do have an intelligent designer. How the creation story in the Bible is really the truth. And on and on and on. Then I think how difficult it would be if my children were in school. We would not just be looking at how to undo one day at the museum with creation materials and biblical teaching. Every year in science and even many times in history, our children would be learning that evolution is true, that the big bang is what really happened, that there is no creator. I often feel overwhelmed just trying to undo one day at the zoo or one day at a history or science museum. I can’t imagine how a parent could have the time, energy, and resources to undo ongoing teaching that contradicts the Bible that is taught in science classes year after year.
This is not a guilt trip for those who have to send their children to school by any means. It is not even a guilt trip for those who choose to send their children to school. But I would be remiss if I did not say that a major benefit of keeping our children at home with us is being able to teach them the Bible every single day.
It is not just creation, biblical marriage, life at conception, and other “science” teachings, but it is way bigger than those. Through homeschooling we have been able to, day in and day out for at least twenty-five years, teach our children the one another’s of Scripture, how to live like Jesus would live in our treatment of others, what the Bible says about character and living above reproach, how to have strong relationships by interacting in a way that is pleasing to God, how to make wise decisions, how to become an outstanding worker through applying biblical concepts, how to guard our hearts from evil and those who would lead us astray, how to live a moral life, and so much more.
If teaching our children science as it applies to the Bible were all we were able to do, that would be enough to say that this homeschool benefit is valid. But I was able to spend every day for twenty-five years reading aloud to my children from godly poetry, hymns, character training books, nature books that are biblically-based, creation science materials, the Bible, discipleship books that point us to living for Christ, and much more. My husband and I have also been able to teach our children from the Bible as we “walk in the way,” “sit in our house,” “rise up,” and “lie down to sleep.”
Being able to teach our children from our own religious beliefs is truly a major benefit of homeschooling – – let’s not let this opportunity slip by and become complacent in teaching the Bible and God’s principles every day in our home schools.
