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10 Reasons You Can Homeschool - The Overview
Episode 11 • 16th May 2023 • Grace in Homeschool • AmyElizSmith
00:00:00 00:19:53

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11 : 10 Reasons You Can Homeschool - The Overview

Let’s recap our beginning series: The 10 Reasons You Can Homeschool: Beginning Series:

  1. I am brave.
  2. The public school system is not for my child.
  3. I am the influence in my child’s life.
  4. I want to spend time with my children.
  5. I will not start instruction too soon.
  6. I want to share beautiful literature and art with my child.
  7. My children will avoid the comparison trap
  8. I will keep my child safe.
  9. I am qualified to teach my child.
  10. I love my child.

Resources


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Transcripts

Amy:

I had so much fun putting together this series for you.

Amy:

Hi friends, and welcome.

Amy:

I'm your host AmyElizSmith.

Amy:

I'm a homeschool mom of three and have homeschooled each from the start.

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While I have a master's in elementary ed, I want to teach other mamas that you

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don't need a fancy degree to have the passion and knowledge to successfully

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educate your children from home.

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I hope to bring you encouragement to jump in and start your homeschool journey and

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provide my absolute best recommendations to help you begin your homeschool journey.

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Thanks for joining us along for this crazy, messy, grace

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filled homeschool ride.

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Hi friends and welcome back.

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Today we're gonna recap on those Top 10 Reasons Why You Can Homeschool.

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You are brave.

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First of all, you are able to do this and able to jump in even if

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you don't have all the answers.

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Next, we'll talk about the influence you are in your child's life, and

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then the history of public education and why it is not for your child.

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Next is spending time together and the importance of play,

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the importance of fine arts.

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Avoiding comparison for the safety of your children, your qualifications

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as their parent, and finally, how you show your love to your child.

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I hope you enjoy this episode.

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We're gonna start with you are brave.

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Homeschooling means you're going against the grain.

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And anytime that happens, you have to jump in with both feet despite what

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your previous experience says and despite what people may be telling you.

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You may be absolutely terrified that you're embarking on a journey that

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you don't know where it will lead.

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You don't know how to begin.

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You even may think that you are gonna wreck your child's

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education or wreck their lives.

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But trust me, you can do this.

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You don't need a degree in teaching to intuitively know.

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That you were the one meant to influence and teach and direct

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your child in their future.

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Let me tell you that you are more equipped to teach your child who you

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love so fiercely than any 22 year old, fresh out of college or seasoned

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60 year old who genuinely loves her job and may be very good at it.

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You are more equipped than those people.

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Your brave decision to homeschool will open so many doors.

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And this episode is gonna focus on you are the influence in your

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child's life, and you want to be the influence in your child's life,

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morally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically and cognitively.

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I've heard it said that children need to be quote unquote socialized.

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And what about socialization?

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That's a big buzzword that people like to denigrate homeschool for.

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But just think, who do we actually want our children to be socializing with?

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Do we only want them to be with their same aged peers or only spend their days in

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all their hours of their waking time with one or a very small handful of teachers?

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And those teachers may or may not have the same moral and

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spiritual convictions as us.

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It's really amazing that people use this as an excuse that

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homeschooling or homeschoolers are weird or it's even wrong.

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We have been programmed to think that it is normal for children to be in

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a room all day with 20 to 30 other kids of their exact same age, and

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that is actually a very new concept.

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For centuries children have learned at home.

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Last episode, we talked about bravery, and it is brave to acknowledge these

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things and acknowledge that Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will

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your homeschool, but you've got this.

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You can take them out of the cog of public school and just spend time

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together, going to the park, going to the zoo, reading stories, reading aloud,

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and that can be enough for right now.

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You don't have to have it all or know it all to make that choice.

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Today, there is an emphasis on process over content in

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our failed educational system.

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Today we're going to be talking about the public school system and

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how that is not for your child.

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But we want children to think, but we are not giving them the knowledge and

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the wisdom for what to think about.

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If they are not taught basic, general knowledge, then what

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are they actually learning?

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Educational consultants swoop in and tell lawmakers the changes in

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transformations that are needed to make progressive reforms.

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Usually emphasizing the latest trends or having an increase

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in critical thinking skills.

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The educational system takes our tax dollars, constantly improves things while

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the actual students are not learning.

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Reform after reform, tax after tax, our children's hearts and

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minds and futures are at stake, and they are so, so compromised.

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And to what end?

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I know that as a parent, I'm not going to allow my child

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to be victim to these reforms.

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Today we face far more difficult challenges than ones in the past.

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Not only are we refuting absolute truths, We are now in our public school system.

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In our culture, we are completely reversing truths.

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The educational system can do that.

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Society can do that because the groundwork has been laid in the last century.

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I am so grateful that we have a choice.

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We still have the choice of what we want our own children to learn.

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If you send your child to Caesar, he will end up a Roman.

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The choice though can often be exceedingly difficult, but it is up to you

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Spending more time together.

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You don't wanna miss those moments.

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When we homeschool together, there's lush rushing around.

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Life is lived together and life is enjoyed, and everything in life is

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learning from when my kids were babies and toddlers a trip to the grocery

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store could sometimes be the only thing I did that day, but that was okay

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because we learned as we picked at our apples or as we weighed our grapes.

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Or a trip to the doctor or any car trip in general.

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Real life spent together with all the emotions and all the learning moments

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and the love and the tenderness.

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You grow and learn together.

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You are your child's greatest influence in spending your time with

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your children will never be a regret.

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Today we're gonna focus on play during those early years and

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delaying formal lessons until your child is developmentally ready.

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A child does not need formal lessons.

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They need play.

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Your child is not behind if they're not doing their handwriting lessons at four

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and five years old, or they're not reading phonetically those three letter words,

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or they don't have that sight word list memorized and reading that, that's okay.

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Just take a breath.

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Let your child have the sense of wonder that play can bring

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them, take away that pressure.

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And truly, if your child isn't in school, they won't know any different.

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They won't know that other children are obligated to learn these things so soon.

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I hope that's an encouragement to you that you can slow down childhood and

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indeed, I think that is what's best for a child in their lifelong development.

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Today we're gonna talk about sharing beautiful literature and arts with

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your child, children in homeschool, they can be exposed to composers,

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art, they can learn about botany and zoology and do hands-on activities.

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They can read good and powerful, beautiful literature.

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They can paint, they can learn all about God's truth from these

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wonderful things in God's world.

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They don't know what they don't know.

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So when we expose children to beautiful literature and to the music, and to

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the great pictures and great artists, for them to see different types of art.

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That is helping them to cultivate in their own little brains,

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"What am I interested in?"

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And that wisdom can be brought into the rest of their lives.

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We don't give them enough credit.

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They want reals topics.

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They want a liberal arts education where they're learning about the Greeks

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and the Romans and Egyptian times, and then going into the Middle Ages

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and the Renaissance and Reformation.

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Children wanna learn about these things.

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And they will make connections from knowledge of God, knowledge of man,

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and the knowledge of the universe.

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And we should never hold back from the great art and the great literature and

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the great music of Old and of today,

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Avoiding the comparison trap in school and online.

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Now it is a natural tendency for children to compare themselves to

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others, but through homeschooling them and through getting them out of those

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situations that can happen at school or on the bus, we can save them from the

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detriment that these things can cause.

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So, at our core, we do compare ourselves.

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It's what do we do as a result of that happening?

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Where does our mind go?

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And we have to help our children with comparing themselves with others, both

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on receiving comparisons or if they are thinking them or giving them out.

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We want our children to be safe of these things.

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We want them to learn at their own pace, and this is where homeschooling

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is connected to these ideas.

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Names on boards, knowing where to stand, behavior traps, things like stoplights.

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All of those things are really negative and can imprint on a

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child's soul in a negative way.

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So can the state testing and those national tests that

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the child has to sit through.

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And now I understand a lot of 'em are on computers where a child has to log in.

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That's a big time waster, but it also can be high pressure for some children.

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And I know parents can put the pressure on their children too, but I

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just, I don't see a benefit to that.

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I don't see a benefit to putting your child in that situation.

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How do we help them avoid those things?

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I truly believe it is to take them out of the equation, to

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take them out of that situation.

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I know that that's easier said than done, but when there's a will, there

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is a way so we can align ourselves with the good things that we want with

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those beautiful and noble and true.

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Ways that we want to cultivate in our children and influence them

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with, but also with our own goals.

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We can fight that desire to compare ourselves with others and focus

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on that growth mindset rather than fixing ourselves on that.

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We can teach that to children, and children can, if we continue day by day

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to help emphasize that growth mindset.

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The safety of our children.

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We absolutely want our children to be physically safe, and children deserve

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to grow up in a fearless environment.

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It is our job to keep them safe, so they are cautious of strangers.

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So they look both ways when they cross the street, but they don't need to know about

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every danger that lurks around the corner.

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As adults, it's our burden to bear.

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School violence unfortunately is a factor in our world today.

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Severe bullying is also a huge problem in schools today and these

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poor children who are experiencing these terrible times with bullying.

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My prayer for them is that they will have a defender and truly the defender.

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Is you parent, you were the one who fiercely loves them the most.

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I would implore you that if your child is experiencing anything

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like the offense of bullying, that you would pull them out of school.

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I know that that's a strong statement, but I don't believe that things

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could get better because it is such a prevalent thing in our society.

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You can't control the actions of another student or another parent,

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but you can control your response.

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There's another thing that I wanna touch on about the safety of our children.

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Unfortunately, in several states, schools are allowed to keep medical

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or psychological health, mental health information from parents.

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Our children deserve to be morally safe in our corrupt society, and

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they're being pulled every which way.

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From our societal norms and in the government schools, there are many things

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taught today that I can't align with.

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I want my children to be influenced by the word of God and by me as the

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parent rather than the schools and what their desire and their influence.

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You are the most qualified person to teach your children, and the reason for

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that is you want more for your child and for your family than anyone else.

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You love your child more than anyone else, so therefore you are

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absolutely the most qualified.

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You know your child, the best, you love them, and I just want you to please.

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Just sit in that, that you are qualifying to teach your child.

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You don't need a fancy college degree, you don't need a PhD or anything like that.

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Remember the first principle that we talked about in this You Can Homeschool

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series was that you are brave.

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You are brave because you will stand up to all those naysayers who are just simply

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misled about what your qualifications are or maybe they think they should

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be, and you're going to stand up.

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God doesn't call the qualified.

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He qualifies the called, and that's a saying that I don't know who to attribute

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that to, but let me say that again.

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God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

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So my dad has said that schools are basically like prisons.

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They keep kids locked up physically and mentally.

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Then prepare them for jobs that are also basically like prisons until they

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retire and go to their final prison.

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All of these decisions and all of these choices are ways for you

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to show your child that you love them the most in all the world.

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You want them to succeed the most, and God will equip you

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because you are called to do so.

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Our 10th reason why you can homeschool, and this I would

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arguably say is the most important.

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Homeschooling your child shows great, great love for your children.

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Homeschool is a sacrifice.

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Your children are with you day in and day out.

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So this can be exhausting and I can speak from experience.

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You love them.

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Therefore, we spend our days with them.

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We work with them on their schoolwork, educating them, or we

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read them books, we bake together.

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We live life simply together.

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So what you are doing, you are fighting the good fight and you will finish the

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race and you will have kept the faith.

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Because your children need you and that love for your children is so strong.

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We live by love and the love we give and the love we receive by the

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countless tenderness that go out from us and the countless kindnesses that

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come to us by the love of our neighbor and the love of our God, as all love

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implies, a giving and a receiving.

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It is not necessary to separate the waters of love, that flow.

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We do not ask what makes us happy, but we are happy abounding in life.

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Until some single channel of love and goodwill is obstructed.

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Someone has given us a offense or received offense at our hands and at once.

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Life runs low within us.

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We go languid and devoid of pleasure.

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We are no longer fully alive because we live by love.

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Not by a consuming and unreasonable affection for any individual, but by the

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outgoing of love from us in all directions and the intaking of love from all sources.

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This is not a state of intense and excited feeling, but as calm and

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continuous as the act of breathing.

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Thus, we receive into us the love of God and thus our own

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hearts go out and answering love.

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We want to bestow this love onto our children.

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I had so much fun putting together this series for you, and my prayer is

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that it's helpful for you to jump in to homeschool if you haven't already.

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If you're already in the trenches and doing your education at home, that this is

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an encouragement to you to keep on going.

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We certainly have tough days over here and we need to expect those, but to know

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that you are doing kingdom work truly, and that you can homeschool your child.

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