I love education. I loved getting it; I love giving it; I love talking about it. I grew up playing teacher with my dolls, my sister, and my imaginary students (whoever I could get to come and pay attention). A Bachelor of Education was a natural fit for me, and I entered into that program after I completed my Bachelor of Kinesiology.
Love of Teaching
Right after finishing my BEd, I was a single girl in my mid 20’s, and I decided to accept a teaching job in the FAR north of Alberta. While it seemed crazy at the time, I think this is one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I was able to have so many different experiences and specific training in education being in such a remote location. I was able to teach a variety of grades and subject matter over my years there as well as be part of planning committees and fulfill administrative duties.
I loved my students. I was, and became more so, passionate about every child’s right to a good education and an education that meets their needs. I was pro-inclusion and pro-diversified instruction. My teaching philosophy was extremely relational, and the quote I went by was “kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I still have wonderful relationships with some of my students from 15 years ago.
When God Shuts a Door
How did this translate into me homeschooling? Well, I didn’t know it at the time, but He was preparing this path for me. I always felt God was preparing me to make a difference in this world through my teaching. I just didn’t understand exactly in what capacity. I assumed it was through the students I was teaching in school, and for a season that was true. But when I became a mother and the time came for the end of maternity leave, the Lord really laid on my heart that I was meant to stay home as a mother to my daughter (eventually daughters).
For years, I wrestled with what God wanted for me in terms of using my gifts and skills. It wasn’t until my oldest daughter was 5 and about to start kindergarten that we even had the idea to homeschool. It wasn’t something that we had considered in the past and was really just born out of an unsettling feeling in our hearts at the thought of her going to school. There were a few factors bringing about that unsettlement, one of which being that we had to move a few months into her kindergarten year.
Called to Homeschool
We decided we would homeschool her for kindergarten and take it one year at a time. By the time that year was finished, we had fallen in love with this lifestyle for our family and decided we would do this until God called us away from it. All my passion for education is still there. My conviction that each child deserves a good education that meets their needs is as strong as ever. That feeling that God wants to use my skills in this area for His glory have been reignited as I feel I am walking in obedience to Him educating my daughters.
Why We Love Homeschooling
To succinctly write why we homeschool would be impossible. As soon as I could write down all the reasons, I would think of more. Yet the main reasons remain the same over the years: to honour God in what we believe He has asked of us, to promote family togetherness and relationship, to protect their childhood, and to give them the strong biblical foundation we wish for them to have.
To Honour God
Honouring God in what we believe He has asked of us and giving them a strong biblical foundation go hand in hand. We believe God has asked us to take the responsibility of raising up our children to know Him and discipling them as they grow in that relationship. We also take responsibility for coming alongside them to develop their character. We believe this is best done day in and day out, letting them watch us and come along with us in life.
We are here to deal with things that arise immediately instead of days later when we hear about it. We are able to address character issues we see that we may otherwise miss as well as gently training them in Godly character. We also love how homeschooling gives us time in the day to spend time together in God’s Word, teaching them not just the well-known stories of the Bible but why we can trust it to be true. We can teach them who God is and how we know that and study apologetics together.
To Protect the Family Relationship
It is important to us to “hold on to our kids” so to speak. With my husband's job, we move every few years, and due to that we are the constant in our kid’s lives. It’s important to us that their bond with each other be strong and their bond with us be strong. That can be difficult to do when everyone is apart for 8 hours every day.
We believe that the best place to learn to work through difficulty and arguments is within the safety of your family. If you can learn to get along and compromise with your sibling, you can work with anyone! We love that we get to do life with our kids, and they get to come alongside us in day-to-day things. With my husband's strange shift work, there would be many days the kids wouldn’t see him if they were in traditional school. With homeschooling, we get lots of time together as a family to strengthen that bond. We love how relational homeschooling is.
To Protect Their Childhood
I like the saying about not sheltering our kids but keeping them in a greenhouse. My goal isn’t to keep them cut off from what is happening in the world around them but to control how it gets to them and keep them safe. It is our desire as parents for them to be aware of what is happening in the world around us but in an age appropriate way from the basis of a Biblical worldview.
Children today lose their innocence so quickly, and we hope to prevent that and allow them to be little as long as possible. There are also so many scheduled activities for children these days that they get very little time to just play and explore their curiosity. With homeschool lessons taking much less time than traditional school, they have much more time in the day available to them to explore interests, experience boredom, and be wild and free children outside.
Hard, But Worth It
These reasons for homeschool really just scratch the surface about how we made this decision and why we love this lifestyle, but these are the core reasons. Not to mention how we love the individualized learning approaches and the ability to work at their speed. For us, homeschool has been a wonderful choice for our family. Not without difficult days but exceedingly worth it. How long will we carry on? Until God tells us it is time to do something different!
Written by Kristin Stewart
Kristin is a former teacher who now homeschools her two daughters, ages 9 and 7. She has lived many places in Canada due to both her teaching and being an RCMP wife. She is a writer and content manager with The Canadian Schoolhouse. She blogs at From Kristin and is passionate about helping mothers feel equipped to educate their children. She does homeschool consulting to help those starting out or struggling to choose a curriculum. She loves reading and travelling and actively posts on her Instagram.
Read more articles from homeschoolers sharing why they homeschool.
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).