Right around when the world seemingly lost its mind in 2020 the thought flashed in my mind – I’m gonna have to homeschool.

A year later, we moved into our neighborhood. I cried on an early morning walk with 18 month old Judah as a big, yellow bus picked kids up for school. I didn’t feel comfortable sending my kids to school, yet I loved school as a little girl and always imagined my days taking my kids to school as a mama. You see, I didn’t want to homeschool. I didn’t have the vision for it and I knew that I didn’t have the patience. There were so many things I expected to accomplish from 9am – 3pm each day.

But the Lord is so gracious to me. He sets me on paths I never want to be on and I find myself softened and eventually excited about his ideas. Now, two years since that weepy walk, our homeschool is off and running.

While praying over our new endeavor the Lord has revealed three main reasons to homeschool my babies.

1. Scripture – I get giddy at the thought of starting each day with Scripture. Of stringing it through all of our curriculum and subjects. Of getting asked a question and saying, “let’s see what God’s Word says!” Of hymns playing as we color pictures, read Bible stories, memorize verses. I want the Truth of the Bible to be imprinted on my kids’ hearts. When I imagine my kids as teenagers, I envision them being told something outlandish by friends, movies, or the internet and their lie radar sounding in their minds. I want them to learn how to fact check against the Bible. Proverbs 1:8 tells us “ listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching,” giving me all the confidence to believe that I was created to help imprint the bible on my babies hearts.

2. Nature – God’s natural creation is vital to our family. I believe humans are at our best when we are immersed in it. Barefeet in the ground, sunshine in our eyes and on our skin. Salt air, desert air, mountain air. Doesn’t matter, just fresh air. And then the intricacy of it all. The detail and beauty that points to our Creator. The anthills we stop to inspect are as magnificent as the ocean sprawled out before us, neverending. I want our studies to focus on what God created, what he said was good at the very beginning. 

3. Savoring Childhood – I get protective thinking about the fleeting days of childhood. I want to create space for my kids to linger. To soak up every last drop of the freedom and sweetness that is childhood. I don’t want to rush them out the door by 7:30am. I want their tiny hands mixing pancake batter, slowly wiping the sleep from their eyes in their pajamas. I don’t want them in a classroom. I want to watch them catching grasshoppers and rolly pollies. I want them to get bored and create. I don’t want to fill their schedules. I want to fight to keep them open. The way childhood was before we modernized it. Before it became a competition and our kids became our products. I want them to flourish and grow into who God has created them to be. So I will prune and weed and fight to protect their childhood as the greenhouse that it is.

Already, just a few weeks in I can see God’s provision and fingerprints all over our endeavor. We are excited to see what he has in store for our family and how he uses this experience to refine us and make us more into his likeness.