Isaiah 58:12 describes a group of people who will (among other things) help raise up the "age-old foundations".  Our society as a whole has very little family structure, cohesion, and commitment.  Our families are a mess.  It's our desire to help raise the age-old foundation of family.  As parents we are taking the responsibility of academically educating our children as part of an overall strategy to build a strong, loving, committed, and godly family.

     Jesus gave a wonderful example of just how important family is to God. 

     John 14:2-3, 23 says, "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am….If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

     Where is Jesus right now?  With his Father--in his Father's house.  Jesus and the Father are living and ministering side-by-side!  And by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling the hearts of the Christians, both Jesus and the Father have come to make their home in our hearts.  It's the Father's desire to live and minister side-by-side with His children!  We are children of God.  We are part of His family.

     So, why do we home school?  We home school because we want our children's academic instruction to occur within the guidance and oversight of their parents.  We want their instruction to occur within the framework of their family.  Practically speaking, if our children were in a public or private school, they would be outside of our influence and training 8 hours or more a day.  In our opinion, this would be detrimental to our family.  As a result, we have taken the responsibility to educate our children here at home-- side-by-side with us!

     Secondly, we take seriously Jesus' command that we disciple our children.  Jesus' closest disciples lived with Jesus, traveled with Jesus, ate with Jesus, ran into problems with Jesus, and ministered together with Jesus.  Much of Jesus' teachings came as a spontaneous part of everyday life.  Life itself is our school, and the teacher was the one whom those disciples were sharing their lives with.  We want the same to be true for our family: we view life itself as our school, and we the parents have the privilege of seizing the many spontaneous teachable moments of the day to help educate our children.  Academics are an important part of training our children, but we also strive to instill godly values, family values, work ethic, and reaching out to other people.  This is all a part of our curriculum.  We can't do all of this if our children are not home schooled by us.

     In short, we home school because of the value we place upon "family", and because we want our children's education and discipleship to come primarily through their parents' direct oversight.  In the past, my wife has borne nearly all of the responsibility of home schooling, but that is changing.  I am making efforts to do part of my vocational work out of the home so that I will have more opportunity to educate my children as well.

     There are also some additional reasons we home school our children:

1. I have taught 5^th and 6^th grade in a Christian school for 3 years.  Because there are often 20-30 kids in the classroom, it is hard to teach to everyone individually. There just isn't enough time for the teacher to instruct all of the students one-on-one.  At home we can give large portions of time to one-on-one instruction.  This one-on-one instruction yields much greater understanding, and it greatly decreases the amount of time needed to teach.  It is very possible to learn more in 2-3 hours at home, than in an entire day at a public or private school.
2. Teaching at home gives us great flexibility.  We can school in the morning, afternoon, or evening.  We can school on weekends.  We can school year round. We can school at our own pace.  We don't have to school on the same days each week.
3. We have greater ability to take field trips.  We can use many types of resources like the Internet and other media to tailor a thorough curriculum.

     Just as public schooling and private schooling have advantages and disadvantages, so does home schooling.  Home schooling requires a lot of time and commitment from the parents.  Record-keeping and organization are needed to help things run smoothly.  Parents will also need to find ways to get their children involved with other people, especially other children.  Some parents may not feel adequate to teach all subjects, so you will need to find other resources to help you in these areas.  Local home school support groups can help with these needs.  All in all, though, we believe these are very good, strong reasons to home school.  For our family it is the best way to go!