July 5, 2023 – The Freedom of Home Education

Hey, Mama!

Gena Suarez, Publisher of TOS

Homeschool Freedom: What is it?

Over thirty years ago when my husband, Paul, and I began homeschooling our (soon to be) seven kids, we had no idea about the history of the homeschooling movement in this country. We took our liberties for granted and never gave that history a first thought, because we didn’t know we should.

But when we learned over the years just how much work and angst and heart-wrenching situations went into forming this great freedom, it sobered us. And once understood, it caused us to want to pass on to the next generation the knowledge of this monumental privilege we (still) have, which is to educate our own children in the Lord rather than turn them over to the state to be educated (indoctrinated).

Back in the ’80s, the Christian homeschool movement was starting to take hold. Parents had always done it, even in the ’50s and ’60s, and then “Unschooling” took root during those later years and in the ’70s, but it was still a foreign a concept to most of society. However, in the ’80s, it became a “thing,” and soon there were support networks popping up in every state. There were emerging state homeschool associations, and parents in churches and small groups were banding together for purposes of socialization, mentorship, and outright support from those ahead of them on the trail. It was so rare in the ’80s to homeschool, and it was kind of scary sometimes.

Some of the states had a more difficult time than others in terms of “getting legal,” and some homeschool parents served jail-time. Seriously! I knew of families who had to cross state lines—literally sell and move to the state next door—just to “be legal” as they were being threatened by their own State Boards of Education and school districts. 

My friends Ed and Kathy Green, the founders of Homeschoolers of Maine, told me:

“Though unconstitutional, granting ‘approval’ to homeschoolers was the practice for many states in the early years. In Maine, the local school board initially granted approval of a lengthy homeschool application at school board meetings. Homeschooling families were called upon to defend themselves at these meetings, which were open to the public and to the press. Details would appear in local newspapers the next day. Many times, approval was denied. Treatment from one school district to the next was arbitrary and unequal. 

“After years of enduring this kind of harassment, homeschoolers finally came together to ask the Maine Legislature to correct this unfair situation. In 1989, the authority to approve a homeschool application was taken out of the hands of the local district and placed in the hands of the State Department of Education. 

“Approval through the state continued to be the practice until 2003. During the period of state approval, the process became more and more restrictive. Finally, it was simply unbearable and unacceptable to Maine homeschool families. 

“At that time, Maine was one of only four approval states left. Concerns about the treatment of homeschoolers reached the ears of legislators. Prayer and hard work by Maine homeschoolers finally provided benefit and relief with a new homeschool law allowing for a simple notification process for Maine homeschool families.”

Homeschooling was finally “accepted” in Maine . . . or was finally in the “Maine-stream” (grin) across the state, but it was not without a lot of grief and hard work. Can you imagine having to go before the local school district and plead your case? And this was not done discretely at all but in front of an interested public and even the press! Then the following day your story would be published in the papers? Just unreal. 

Times have changed, and now homeschooling is even trendy. It is VERY mainstream now in all fifty states, and in many other countries around the world. To educate your children at home is absolutely acceptable, and any talk of jail or having to cross state lines to stay legal is a thing of the past. But will it remain that way?

Can we keep our freedoms? And what happens if they are threatened again at some point in the future? Do today’s homeschool moms and dads have the same fortitude, the same convictions about discipleship as the parents of past generations? Do they even know the history so they could appeal to court precedence? Or is it so far from the mind . . . just a trend . . . maybe something to “try out” as education options are explored? I hope it’s birthed from and secured by the Biblical conviction to train up a child in the way he should go . . . so that when he is old he will not depart from it. 

I praise the Lord for pioneers like Ed and Kathy Green and so many others who stood strong for our freedoms and who very much desire to see future generations remember and hold dear where this movement came from, and to preserve it for the right reasons. I praise the Lord for HSLDA and for Dr. Brian Ray of www.NHERI.org who have worked tirelessly on keeping it legal and legitimizing the overwhelming success of homeschoolers with strong, credible data and research throughout the years. Where would we be without these leaders? They deserve our respect, and your children deserve to know about them.

Learn the history. Know why you are homeschooling. Be able to confidently defend your reasons, and stand strong for the entire duration so you finish well. Do not give up! Persevere and teach your precious children about this beautiful gift of time you have together—and why and Who made it possible. As you teach about the founders of our nation who fought for freedom from Britain, remember to share about those brave homeschoolers who went before us to pave this road of homeschool freedom we all still enjoy.

 Today, spend some time at HomeschoolFreedom.com and click on your state or province on the map there. Find out more about homeschooling in your area, and reach out to your Christian Homeschool State Association leaders to learn even more. They are standing by, ready to meet you, always set to pray with you, to educate you and support your freedoms, and to encourage you on your journey. They love the Lord with all their hearts, and they love homeschooling families. Go thank your State homeschool leaders today.

More from www.TOSAPPs.com here:

Freedom: It’s Why We Homeschool! by Deborah Wuehler
Transitioning to Homeschooling: Freedom, Flexibility, and Flourishing by Dan Beasley
Faith, Family, Finance & Freedom! by David West

 ~gena

Advancing Home Education with Adaptive Technology: Closing the Resource Gap for Equitable Homeschooling

Research shows that, by combining applied learning science with adaptive technology, we can accelerate a child’s subject-matter mastery in as little as 10-12 weeks. Curriculum resources with these capabilities have been accessible to school districts, but only recently have become widely available to home educators.

Adaptive technology can help address the non-linear nature of learning, and has the potential to revolutionize home education, especially in core subjects like reading and math. These programs are designed to identify areas where children need support, providing just-right instruction to address each area. They dynamically adjust to a student’s specific learning level, offering appropriate assistance along the way. As students progress, adaptive programs ensure thorough comprehension of essential concepts before moving on to the next level.

When evaluating adaptive programs, homeschool families should start with the following considerations:

1. Is the program research-based, backed by evidence of effectiveness?
2. What is the experience of the development team, and does that team include curriculum experts, cognitive learning scientists, and education specialists?
3. Does the program enable data-informed learning and instruction, allowing educators to identify student strengths and areas for improvement?

Age of Learning, a leading education technology innovator and creator of the widely popular ABCmouse® Early Learning Academy, has spent more than a decade developing programs that meet these standards. The company’s newest product for homeschoolers, Homeschool+™, is now providing these capabilities to homeschool families.  Homeschool+™ brings together a research-based approach, patented adaptive technology, and the expertise of curriculum and learning specialists to offer two leading, adaptive curriculum programs for math and reading.

By increasing the availability of adaptive programs and making them accessible to all students, we help ensure home educators maintain the freedom to choose what’s right for their family.  

https://www.homeschoolplus.com

Visit www.rhythmandwriting.com: a handwriting program developed by an Occupational Therapist that uses music, rhymes, & videos to teach kids to legibly write…the right way!

Stephanie Morrison

Family Freedom and Flexibility

The majority of homeschooling parents would list freedom and flexibility in their top five reasons to educate at home. If you are new to homeschooling, it won’t take long before you discover your top reasons why homeschooling works so well for your family. If you’re anything like me (and many other homeschool moms), you’ll discover more reasons each year why taking on the educational role in your children’s lives is so much better.

We have the freedom to homeschool, which is important, but more vital to our parenting role is the freedom to have a family life that doesn’t have to fit around the extensive schedule of an educational institution. This allows us to spend more time on the activities that are most meaningful to our children and us as parents. This also allows us to spend more time learning the subjects that resonate with family values and individual interests.

We have the freedom and flexibility to organize our homeschool days to suit our family needs. Our children can learn at their own pace and take ownership of their education as we instill in them a love for learning. Because we choose the curriculum, the learning time, and the teaching approach, each of our children gets an education that is customized and superior to anything an institutional system can offer.

Essentially, we have the freedom to be the family God has designed us to be. While there are a few areas of my family life that could use some God-guided improvements (we’re a work in progress!), I can confidently state that God wants my husband and me to guide the education of our boys—not just because of the current godless state of our public school system, but because God gave us these children to raise, which we couldn’t do as well if they spent more waking hours away from us than with us. With His guidance and grace, parents are the best educators, mentors, comforters, disciplinarians, and encouragers for our children.

Want some more inspiration about all the ‘bests’ of home education? See this article celebrating homeschool freedom that is a compilation of several homeschool parents sharing why homeschooling works so well for their family. Then get a PDF of a list of 50 reasons to be thankful for homeschooling.

About the author

Stephanie, her husband, and two boys are perfectly placed in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. She has educated her two youngest boys, ages 15 and 12, since birth. Pursuing her calling to help parents enjoy the responsibility of educating their children, she works for The Old Schoolhouse® in the marketing department and in sales support. She also coaches entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from home. She loves being a homebody, growing food indoors and out, and building up her permaculture property. See more about Steph at www.creatingworkandplay.com

Learn biblical Greek and classical Latin the easy way! Explore God’s Word with great beginning study tools.
Visit www.greeknstuff.com

Todd Wilson

Familyman Ministries

The Freedom of Home Education

I’m telling you . . . for all the problems we have in America, we still live in a great country. One of the perks of speaking at state homeschool conventions is that my family and I have been able to experience some of the best this USA has to offer.

We’ve walked historic battlefields, stood in the homes of former presidents, and looked out upon scenery that takes your breath away. My heart swells when I hear Kate Smith sing, “God Bless America . . . my home sweet home!!!”

God has truly blessed this country with freedoms that most of the world has never known. When you look at all that through the eyes of a child of God, you think . . . WOW! We’re up to our foreheads in FREEDOM. In fact, I love the Bible verse that says, “It was for freedom that you were set free.”

The sad thing is that most of the homeschoolers and Christians I meet seem bound and shackled like slaves who ignored the Emancipation Proclamation. Reminds me a little of the hamster my brother-in-law and his family decided to release.

They placed the open cage in the middle of the yard and walked away. After a couple of days, the hamster was still there. Even when they dumped it out of the cage, it returned.

I guess it liked cages, like most of us.

And yet . . . we’re FREE!!!!!!!!!

Kind of sad, huh?

So, from one emancipated slave to another, get out of the CAGE!!! Forget what everyone else says you should be doing or teaching, and start enjoying the freedom of being a child of the King. Live in freedom, eat in freedom, family in freedom, and homeschool in freedom.

Be Real,
Todd

About the author

Todd Wilson is a husband, dad, grandpa, writer, homeschool conference speaker, and former pastor. Todd’s humor and down to earth realness have made him a favorite speaker all across the country and a guest on Focus on the Family. As founder of The Familyman and The Smiling Homeschooler, his passion and mission are to remind moms and dads of what’s most important through weekly emails, podcasts, seminars, and books that encourage parents. Todd, and his wife Debbie, homeschool four of their eight children (the other four are homeschool graduates) in northern Indiana and travel America in the Familyman Mobile. You can read more at www.familymanweb.com.

Pillar of Faith

Jodi Riddle

How Freedom and Faith are Connected

The freedom to home educate our children is such a privilege. While some days may look dismal in our world, we can be thankful that we are still able to freely educate in the way we see is best for them. 

Teaching our children gives them the opportunity to not only be educated, but also be discipled-not by strangers, but by the very ones who truly want to see them succeed. Proverbs 1:8 instructs, “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.”  There is freedom and liberty in not only following God’s Word, but in being able to instruct our children to do the same.

What, then, are the results? Paul writes, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 3:14-15. The freedom to home educate ultimately gives the child more of an opportunity to know and love the Lord and that is true freedom.

About the author

Jodi started her journey with TOS in April 2016 and serves as the Director of Human Resources. She and her husband, Duane, have been married over 30 years and have spent over 20 years in the ministry. Along with being a pastor’s wife, she homeschooled her 3 (now grown) sons for 18 years and also taught in the private and public-school settings. Jodi enjoys teaching, playing the piano, and making cards. Her heart’s desire is to serve others and use her gifts to glorify the Lord.

Appreciating the events in history that led to the freedoms we enjoy today is important to teach to our children. We should know the struggles and triumphs that brought us to our present day and it should mean something more than just the facts written on paper. Move beyond just memorizing historical dates and facts with United States History: Exploration to the Present Day, where your learners will learn to think critically, research thoroughly, and dive deeply into history. Try it today at SchoolhouseTeachers.com!