How Can I Encourage a Friend to Homeschool or Keep On Homeschooling?

The Watering Place: Come and be Filled with Encouragement for Homeschooling.

Homeschooling Encouragement Article by Harriet Yoder

Do she have the heart of a homeschooler?

It is good for her to consider the "cost". Homeschooling is a commitment of time, talent, and money. Parents have to die to self in more ways when they homeschool. How interested is she is the spiritual welfare of her children? Pray with her and for her about making the decision to homeschool. Ask your spouse to talk to her spouse, or meet as couples to discuss homeschooling.

Does she have support from family, friends, and church?

She has a least one homeschooling friend since you are reading this article. Please consider making yourself available to help her during the first year, if she decides to homeschool or for the next year if she needs help.

Perhaps you can do one or two subjects together in a small family co-op. History and science are great subjects to share in a multi-level setting. You can meet two to four times a month to do activities together or take field trips together.

With friends at church who homeschool, she will have a built-in support group. There is more likely to be acceptance at her church plus her children will have friends who homeschool.

It helps if the extended family supports the homeschooling effort. However, if that's not the case, she can still homeschool. If God has called her to homeschool, it doesn't matter in the big picture if family and friends agree. Encourage her to persevere. I've seen family and friends come around in the long run. They may not come back and tell you, but they will stop bothering you! Happily, sometimes they come tell you they were wrong and commend your efforts.

Share Your Experience With Her

First, you can tell her why you are homeschooling. Sometimes a personal testimony from a trusted friend makes the difference. Tell her what you do, how you handle friends and family, what a difference homeschooling has made (so far!) in your child(ren), what your support group does, etc. You can do this!

Considering Homeschooling Website

Then, you can direct her to the Considering Homeschooling website. They are pretty straightforward about the whys. Lots of statistics and research. There are results! One family that came to our last Considering Homeschooling meeting is going to homeschool because they have seen the older children of another homeschooling family and want their children to grow up like them.

Here's a link:

Considering Homeschooling Home Page

Show Her the Bible Teachings on Training Children

Nowhere in the Bible does God tell the kings (government) to train or teach the children. The kings did train their children--and prisoners like Daniel! That's something to ponder!

God has a wonderful plan. The family is the backbone of a nation. God doesn't want cookie-cutter thinking. He wants families to be unique and different because individuals are unique and different. He knew that if all the children were taught from one source (homogenized education) it could be a problem--like education under communism.

Check the Scriptures With Her

Help her to look up scriptures with words such as: father(s), mother(s). child, children, train, and teach. You'll find verses that support the concept of parents training the children.

 "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

And fathers, don't stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4

"Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons." Deuteronomy 4:9 

 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NKJ*

That is basically 24/7!

"Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words,
that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children." Deuteronomy 4:10

The Bible says not to be a companion of fools.

He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm. Proverbs 13:20 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him. Proverbs 22:15

If children are foolish and we aren't supposed to be companions of fools, what is the point of sending a child to be with a bunch of fools? Perhaps the teacher is a "fool" also. Some teachers are wonderful Christians who are dedicating their lives to their home mission field--the public school. But many are atheists, humanists. Do you expect them to train your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord??? It's like the Captain of a ship. If it crashes while the first mate is steering, the Captain is still responsible. Parents are the "responsible citizens of universe when it comes to training/educating their children.

Lamp Post Homeschool Store Website

There are encouraging articles about homeschooling, curriculum reviews, and information about homeschool curriculum on our website.

Lamp Post Homeschool Store

Our Testimony

We homeschool all of our children through high school, six have graduated and three are in progress. Three have graduated from college, two are in college and one will start next year.

Their employers (the oldest seven either have "real" jobs, baby sit, or do yard work) are impressed with their character, behavior, and work skills. Their college professors are impressed and tell us about the differences they see in our children!

The further we go on the homeschool path, the more convinced we are that it is the BEST for our children! If you are able, we encourage you to teach your children at home.

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