The Confidence To Homeschool

We’re supposed to walk by faith not by sight. This is much tougher than it sounds especially when you’re just starting out.

One episode of Focus on the Family and I was ready to jump into homeschooling with both feet. Nike had been running “Just Do It” ads for 4 years and I always liked going against the grain. I was ready to roll with it.

Kathleen was a bit more skeptical.

For one thing, she would be the one doing all the teaching. I was a young CFO of a startup company spun off from Weyerhaeuser. Long days and monthly business trips meant I would do very little teaching.

Kathleen was a young mom with 1, 3 and 5 year old daughters. Chasing diapers, cooking meals and ironing my shirts meant her days were already full.

And I wanted to add reading, writing and arithmetic.

Then there was the family situation. My mom and aunt were long-time public school teachers. Kathleen’s sister and brother-in-law were both public school teachers. Our pastor’s wife was a public school teacher.

The obvious thing was to leave education to the paid professionals.

With one amazing question, Kathleen changed the course of all our lives. She visited the local public school and asked, “What will students learn by the end of kindergarten through third grade?” The principal gave her the “scope and sequence” for these grades.

Kathleen soon realized that Christina already knew 90% of what she would learn by the end of Kindergarten. Colors, shapes, numbers and letters.

We could teach Christina nothing for a year and she wouldn’t fall behind.

This gave us the confidence to start homeschooling.

Same thing applies when you’re choosing a homeschool curriculum. You want to know what they’ll learn and how will it prepare them for life.

Listen to this podcast episode about the Ron Paul Curriculum English 7 course. Imagine earning college credit before starting 8th grade!
https://www.ronpaulhomeschooling.com/english-7-brad…

Always learning,
Richard Emmons