Raising our children up with a Biblical worldview is of utmost importance to me as a Catholic homeschooling mother. As a Catholic parent, giving my children a Catholic education with a Biblical worldview from the beginning is my number one priority. I believe it should be every Catholic’s priority.
Also, I strongly believe that every parent should consider homeschooling. I understand this may seem daunting, scary, or even impossible, but it’s not. There are many ways to make it work; you just have to want to do it for your children. If you can figure it out for your family, you will never regret it. If you can, homeschool your children.
While I understand not everyone will agree with me, and that’s fine, I am not here to judge anyone, and ultimately the decision for what is best for your family is solely up to you. However, for us, outsourcing our children’s education was never an option. With the current state of the school system and it’s ranking on a world scale, there is no way we would ever consider sending our children to a “traditional” school, no matter if it is public or private.
While you wrestle with the idea of homeschooling your children, I would like to encourage you to do your research on homeschooling to learn more about it. Fear usually comes from not knowing, and when it comes to homeschooling, the fear is always from stereotypes, the unknown, rumors, and just plain ignorance. There are many resources available, and it’s also important to learn what the Bible says about home education. This is a big one for me because the Bible is very clear on how we should educate our children.
Let’s get into my top 4 homeschool myths:
Myth 1: Homeschooled children are not well socialized and have no friends.
This myth really makes me laugh because it’s just flat-out ignorant. When someone brings this up, I often wonder if they have actually taken time to think about it. If they truly believe that children must be in classes with other children their same age and that that will magically make them “socialized” and able to survive out in the real world? I don’t think so.
Having worked with children of all ages for over 10+ years, traditional school is not teaching your child how to socialize; they are not learning proper social etiquette; they are not learning how to start a conversation or even proper greetings when walking into a room, which should be common sense, a simple “hello,” etc. If they were these children in “traditional” schools, they would be actively showing these skills in their everyday lives.
There are so many opportunities for homeschoolers to socialize with other kids their age and also kids around their age. It’s important for kids to be able to socialize with a wide range of ages, not just with others the same age as them. In everyday life, we are not constantly around people who are exactly the same age; we are around people of varying ages, and we should be able to confidently socialize with them.
You can join a co-ops for your kids with other homeschool families that meet once or more times a week. You can also schedule meet-ups, park days, or outings with other homeschool families, too.
Have your child join a sport or other extracurricular activities that may interest them. This is all about what you make it for your child, and each child is different and will crave more or less.
That is the beauty of homeschooling; you can adapt your homeschool and mold it to be a custom education for your child. Traditional school is not doing that; they are teaching everyone the exact same way regardless of their learning style.
MYTH 2: Homeschooling is expensive
Yes, homeschooling can be expensive; I am just being brutally honest. However, you can homeschool on a budget if you need to. There are many free resources out there; you can buy a used curriculum, you can use online video curricula, get a library card, and you can also look for various sales on curriculums you might be interested in. Many write their own curriculums or splice together various curriculums to make a tailor-made curriculum for your children; this is what we do.
We happen to use a boxed curriculum, along with another curriculum for math and phonics/language arts. I add in bits and pieces of my own, for example, studying Saints and Catechism, and a foreign language. I plan to add Latin later, and Latin would ever be taught in public school.
You can also join a co-op that is parent-led and get classes for your children through those means. It’s really all about how you want to do it while following the homeschool laws for your state. At the end of the day, homeschooling can be expensive, but it can also be done on a tight budget; you just have to figure out what works for you and how you plan to teach your children.
Myth 3: Homeschool parents are just indoctrinating their kids.
Okay, so what? This one is so simple for me because either you send your kids off to be indoctrinated by some stranger, pushing that stranger’s views on your impressionable young child, OR you teach your child in your loving home by your own standards, morals, and views. The fact of the matter is that indoctrination is happening no matter where your child is educated.
For example, this is what is happening in government-run schools. The goal is no longer to teach politics but rather to indoctrinate students in a narrow set of political beliefs. It’s no longer to teach students the biological genders of man and woman but to indoctrinate them into believing there is a vast number of genders. Which, quite frankly, is absolutely false. Honestly, are these government-run schools really teaching anything of substance? By the looks of our ranking on a world scale, I’d say no.
For me, we never wanted a secular education for our children. Government schools do not consider the ideas, opinions, or beliefs of the Catholic Church. They deny Jesus as our creator; they deny that God exists; that is indoctrination. We are the parents of our children, and we have the right to choose what our children will learn and what we will teach them, period.
Myth 4: Homeschool kids will miss out on what other kids are doing in school.
This is one that really gets me because a lot of people say, “Oh, my kid will miss out on prom,” as if this is some right of passage. As if going to prom sets you up for the rest of your life. Honestly, if the highlight of your life was your high school years, then your parents made a massive error somewhere. We need to set higher aspirations for our children than if they end up going to their high school prom with the captain of the football team. These types of goals for our children are meaningless and not what the Bible intends or teaches.
Homeschool children have many opportunities for children to participate in outside school activities such as sports teams, and if dances or proms are something you can’t let go of, join a co-op that hosts them; there are many that do, and if you can’t find one that does, start one yourself. It’s about taking actions, and while there might be some work needed by you, what if you are doing something wonderful for your children?
With everything said, sure, my kids will miss out on some things that kids going to “traditional school” are experiencing, such as rushing in the morning for drop-off, school lunches, sitting at a desk under fluorescent lights for 10,000+ hours, teachers with rainbow-colored hair, school shooting drills, etc. The truth of the matter is the positives definitely outweigh the negatives for us, and quite frankly, it is hard to find a single positive for why we’d send my kid to a traditional school.
Maybe these myths listed above were a few that popped into your head when you questioned the idea of homeschooling. Have any of them run through your mind? These are the classic responses that people often ask who know nothing about homeschooling.
When we remove the ideology that a child must go to “school” to socialize. That is, assuming socialization is something that is pushed in schools, it’s not. In fact, children are told not to talk in class or while in line, or they will get detention or be noted for excessive talking. If you are not supposed to talk in class or in line for class, that wouldn’t leave much time for this socialization. We should remember that children are not in school to socialize; they are there to learn.
With all of this said, I hope you know that God gives you grace in your journey with your children and will lead you on the right path. If you are questioning homeschooling and feeling a pull in this direction, listen. If you are reading this, you are wanting to homeschool or weighing in on it. Talk to Him, and he will provide—not always what we think we want, but always what we need.
