August is a significant month in the life of a homeschooling family.  It is the month where, if you haven’t already, you need to nail down several things related to homeschooling.  Here are ten things to consider.

1. Talk.  With your spouse.  Make it a date but with the specific purpose of discussing her ideas, struggles and goals for the upcoming year.  You need to make this happen and can use this list as a guide.

2. Curriculum.  A great place to start this discussion with your wife.  Help her with the research or discuss the research that she has already done.  Talk to other homeschooling families, use the internet, interact with the curriculum developers, but don’t lose sight of the importance of a product saturated with a Biblical worldview – not just a Bible verse or two tacked on to the end of a lesson.  What about developing academic excellence and critical thinking in your child?  Does the product cover all subjects necessary for a well-rounded education?  How do the various subjects interact with each other?  Who are the authors and what are their backgrounds and qualifications?  Even if your spouse takes the lead in this, make sure you have skin in the game by asking questions and understanding the options before you make a buying decision.

Our family has a seven-year-old dachshund, named Louis, who is a source of both joy and frustration on a daily basis. He has beautiful, shiny, black hair with tan paws, eyebrows, and snout. He loves to go for walks, so a week or so ago I took him for a little adventure down the street to sniff out whatever seemed interesting to him. While he was sniffing at something, I looked over and saw a little twig with two acorn cups still attached. The acorns were gone, but the cups remained.



My mind is constantly turning over blog ideas, so I started thinking about encouraging homeschool parents to get their kids outdoors and explore. Suddenly I had a flashback to my own childhood. I grew up in New Jersey. When I was a very young child I lived in a town where riots were becoming more and more prevalent (it was the mid-sixties, in case some of you are wondering). My parents were very young Christians and had little training in parenting or rearing their children to walk with God, but they had strong ideals for their family. One of those was to raise us in a safe, nurturing environment. So, at the age of eight I moved out to Central Jersey which was much more rural than our previous neighborhood. There were cornfields and cows nearby, but all the trappings of city life were just miles away.

I see you unloading your van, getting your cart or stroller ready to go into the convention. Your children are excited and chatty as you are making sure they have snacks for the walk around the convention center. I see you double checking each little one to be sure he or she is wearing both shoes. Your list of materials to look over is ready, and your family is excited to see other homeschool friends and attend workshops on homeschooling.

As I watch you peruse the convention center, you kindly accept catalogs from vendors and let us interact with you and your precious children. We so enjoy getting to know you and want to help you with homeschool resources. I am struck with the knowledge of the sacrifices so many families make to educate their children at home. This causes me to wonder—what event led you to make the choice to homeschool? Now that you have committed to educating your children, to what lengths are you willing to take that commitment? Have you come to the conclusion that the decision to homeschool is just the first of many on your journey to educate your children? Each child’s educational path is an individual journey in itself.

Steph & Cooper – 1996