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10 Reasons You Can Homeschool - Reason 9: Qualification
Episode 9 • 9th May 2023 • Grace in Homeschool • AmyElizSmith
00:00:00 00:16:51

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9 : 10 Reasons You Can Homeschool - Reason 9: Qualification

You are most qualified to teach your child because you love them and know them the most. You want them to succeed the most, and God will equip you because you are called.

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Amy:

Homeschool, like I said, has never been more accessible, so I just wanna

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encourage you to take a breath and make that decision that you can do this.

Amy:

Hi friends, and welcome.

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I'm your host AmyElizSmith.

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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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I am excited to continue our conversation about the "Top Reasons Why You Can

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Homeschool," and today we're gonna talk about that you are the most

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qualified person to teach your children.

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And the reason for that is you want more for your child and for

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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

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please just sit in that, that you are qualified to teach your child.

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You don't need a fancy college degree.

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You don't need a PhD or anything like that.

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Now I do have a master's in elementary education from the University of

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Michigan and sometimes I like to say that, and sometimes I hate to say it

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because it makes it sound like, Hey, I can do this because of my fancy

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degree, and that's just not the case.

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I can tell you that I do have a piece of paper, but what I actually learned in

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that master's program in terms of content was not what children should be learning.

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I learned more about child psychology and behavior, how to manage a classroom,

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how to facilitate a math class so that all students felt heard in conversations.

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But what I wasn't learning was the actual content or what the outcome

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should be from a child's education.

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I am no more qualified to teach your child than you are.

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Please, please know that.

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And once you're able to get into that frame of mind, you're gonna

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find a lot of these things moving into home education so much easier.

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And my hope for you is that this series and further series on my podcast will

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help bring you that confidence that you need and that you should have because

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you are a parent and therefore you are qualified to educate your child.

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And anyone who tells you that you're not qualified, they are wrong.

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Remember the first principal 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 and

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homeschool is a calling.

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It is something not to take lightly, but it is a calling and I believe that

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us as parents, no matter what your situation is, no matter if both parents

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work or one works, it truly can happen as long as you believe that, that you

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are the one who's qualified to teach your child more than anyone else is.

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I've been through quite a few things.

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Even though I was a teacher, I taught kindergarten for a while.

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Before that, I taught second grade, and I even had someone come up to me and say

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that they were gonna call CPS because we chose an alternative lifestyle to

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theirs and had different decisions.

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So these things will happen.

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I don't want to make light of it.

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Now homeschool is a bit more accepted today than it was 10 years ago or

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12 years ago when we got started with our first baby, and we decided

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not to send him to any preschool.

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But you are going to have people say crazy things to you and you can kind of

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just laugh and we wanna be respectful to all people, but just move on.

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I even had my mom at one point who was also a public school teacher.

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She was an amazing teacher, but at the time, and I would argue that 10 years

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ago was a different time because of many of the reasons we've talked about, and

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we're gonna talk about further about how far public education has turned

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to secular humanism and to the goals that are not our Christian values.

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That, anyhow, my mom even questioned it.

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Is this what was right?

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What about socialization?

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All of these questions and you will have those.

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But if you go into those conversations with the confidence that you are called.

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You are called by God to do this noble work, you're gonna feel a lot better and

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you're going to be able to just shake off those people that might say those.

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And some of those people, they may be family members, they

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may be your closest friends.

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And if they put a separation between you or if you have to

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put up boundaries, that's okay.

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And God will bring other people into your life who will support

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this noble and wonderful decision that you've made for your family.

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So people will ask.

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What, what about socialization?

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That's gonna be the first question people say because they think

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for some reason homeschoolers are just in their houses, not going

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anywhere or not talking to anyone.

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And that was the mentality that homeschoolers are weird and awkward.

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And I kind of giggle because my kids, they see so many people, they

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see so many different age groups.

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They've seen so many different people from different cultures

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and diverse backgrounds.

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It is comical because people just don't know what they don't know, and

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socialization does not equal being in a classroom with 30 other kids who

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are the exact same age and usually the exact same demographic as that child.

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That's not actually socialization.

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So that was just a side note here, but your child, They're not gonna be weird.

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Your homeschool is anything but criminal or abusive.

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These assertions that people might make.

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And like I said, I've been through all of them.

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You're going to have to just brush them off.

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Now, you may not come across anybody who says that.

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Like I said, homeschool is becoming more popular.

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Homeschool has really accelerated in these last couple years, and I wanted

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to share some of those stats with you about how homeschool is on the rise.

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There are many different institutes that have put out data for this, but

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according to the National Home Education Research Institute, homeschoolers do

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score 15 to 30% higher than public school students on standardized tests.

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And the average score, if homeschoolers are taking those tests, is between

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85 to 87% while public school children are scoring about 50%.

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So academically, you are setting your child up for success and many

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people are seeing this, especially since the covid 19 lockdowns.

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Before that about 9 million US students had been homeschooled in our country.

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Now this number has grown and homeschool is on the rise.

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Before the Covid 19 lockdowns, that happened in February and March

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of 2020, there were approximately 2.65 million homeschool students.

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And in 2021, it grew to 3.7 million, and then in 2022, that

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number grew to 4.3 million.

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So as you can see, 2.65 before those lockdowns, and now

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we're at about 4.3 million.

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These are approximate numbers, but it's really, really alarming.

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About 300 million students were homeschooled during that lockdown period.

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So a lot of families, they did get a chance to have their child home

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to see some of the difficulties.

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A lot of the difficulties that were happening with that virtual schooling, a

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lot of parents were displeased with the quality of academics, or should I say,

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lack of academics that was being taught.

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And that the liberal arts education is no more.

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And so there has been a tremendous spike in the number of homeschooled students,

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and I see this as a great positive.

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So again, some of those, some of those insults that I might have experienced

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or people before me, because it's only been 10 or 12 years for me, but those

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who homeschooled in the seventies, eighties, nineties, in the thousands

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those people were also trailblazers.

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They were pioneers in the homeschool time.

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Now, of course, there are a small handful of awful homeschool parents,

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just like there's a handful of awful public school parents.

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Who you see on the news, really horrific stories, that of course does not

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represent the homeschool community.

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And it's really unfortunate how the media and the news likes to

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paint homeschool parents as if this is all homeschool parent, when a

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really terrible story comes out.

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But we can just say, Hey, this is on the rise.

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This isn't going away.

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And the government school of old, they don't have the grasp on our children

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the way that they did pre this pandemic.

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Now we don't wanna demean family or friend's legitimate concerns,

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but we want to stay strong.

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We want to help them know why we homeschool.

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And this is why I've put this series together.

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So you can go back and you can read, the reasons why We Homeschool.

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And I have that in a free PDF that you can grab from the show notes.

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Just click there and I'll send it right to your email.

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The reasons you homeschool, and you can say these things to yourself to

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remind yourself in those tough days because you will have tough times.

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I guarantee it.

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I go through tough times.

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I've had tough times this week.

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I have a high needs child.

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Those things will happen, but I can say that every day it is worth it

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because I am there for my kids and I am the most qualified to teach my kids.

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So many people homeschool for many different reasons.

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This could be academic.

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There are many materials out there, and this is another

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thing I'm passionate about.

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There's so many choices.

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I've put together some of the very best choices through my extensive

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research to share free resources for you and also other resources based on

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what philosophy you may be drawn to.

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And each of those things can be really matched to every child's needs.

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And also your own, what is your teaching style?

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People choose homeschool for those academic reasons, moral reasons,

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social, familial, religious, physical, physiological reasons.

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So many reasons to homeschool.

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And again, you can be proud that you.

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Now another reason why you're qualified to teach your student is because you

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will expose them to subjects that they wouldn't have otherwise learned in school.

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And this just a quick example, could be the science of creation versus the theory

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of evolution in school that is taught.

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You could be teaching them biblical sexuality, whereas in school,

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they're not gonna be learning.

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You want to have rest, you wanna have a slower lifestyle, you want

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to feed them healthier lunches.

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You want them to have that personalized education so that they can have decent

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college prep and get into a college, perhaps even go to a community college

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before their high school time is gone.

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Homeschool also accommodates for special situations like family illness,

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military service, travel, scheduling.

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If you are a road schooler or a boat schooler.

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I have friends who road school and boat school and it is amazing

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all that their children have learned about history and geography

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through traveling with their kids.

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Homeschooling also allows us as parents to continue our own education.

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Homeschooling allows you to save money from not having to pay for private school.

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There are many amazing private schools out there, Christian private schools.

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But they are costly.

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And again, you are qualified to teach your child and able to teach your child in

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less of the time, and you absolutely can and should do it if you do feel called.

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Another reason is you can have schedule flexibility.

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This is wonderful.

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You are free from the school schedule, from drop off, from pickup.

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And you can take classes anywhere.

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You can take local community college classes, like I said before, and even

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young high schoolers can do so, and it's such an amazing time of preparation.

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And again, you are qualified to make those decisions for your child.

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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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It is amazing how our Father in Heaven is the Father of mercies and He bestows

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His benevolence and providence on a disqualified and disenfranchised humanity.

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God justifies the ungodly by faith.

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Always showing his mercy to us, even though we are so undeserving.

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And He will equip you, seek Him, and you will find.

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Homeschool, like I said, has never been more accessible so I just wanna

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encourage you to take a breath and make that decision that you can do this.

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Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer

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and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and

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the peace of God, which suppresses all understanding, will guard your hearts

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and your minds through Christ Jesus."

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Friend, that is my prayer for you, that you will be anxious for

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nothing, even in this vital decision to step into the homeschool arena.

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You can do this.

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You are called, and you are qualified to make all these

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