As parents or guardians, we make daily decisions for our children in every area of their lives. If we strip those decisions back to their roots, we know that everything we choose for our children is rooted in love. Decisions surrounding our children’s education are an expression of love for the future adult we are currently raising and the child we have with us today.
Many reasons surround our decision to homeschool: situational, moral, religious, or quality of education reasons. Those reasons show that we homeschool because we love our families. There is significant sacrifice involved in being your child’s primary educator, and humans simply don’t live sacrificially without love. Some have chosen to educate at home because we want to protect our children from and equip them for a world that can be confusing and cruel. Some of us love the idea of being there when we teach a concept, and we can see the world opening up to their hungry minds. And although there are always struggles or “bad days” among any group of people spending large amounts of time together, most of us love the closeness and strong interpersonal skills that result from daily relationship building.
It is important to remember that whatever your approach to teaching your child through their early educational years, a thorough education is Love. We love our children enough to provide them with the knowledge necessary to succeed in whatever they choose to explore in their adult lives. We don’t need them to be an expert in every academic field, but we want them to have the tools to acquire any expertise they choose from hobby farming to biomedical engineering. We also love humanity enough that we want to send out knowledgeable, compassionate, and hard-working humans into the world. And we love our children enough to note their weaknesses and give them the tools and techniques they need to overcome them for a lifetime.
Although we know the world can be harsh and cruel, it is no more loving to ignore a weakness than to point it out. Willful blindness is not Love. Take a look at your New Year’s resolutions for the last few years – are you aware of your weaknesses? Even children are generally self-aware enough to know what they are “good” and “bad” at handling. And it is not Love to gloss over or ignore those weaknesses. We love our children through their flaws by acknowledging, encouraging, and providing tools to overcome, precisely as we train ourselves to overcome a bad habit or consistent weakness. And we don’t quit when it’s an unexpected challenge, for ourselves or our children. Showing our kids that we have the power to enact change in our own lives will give them the confidence to continue to face their weaknesses and prevail.
Teach your children in love, about love, and with love. Show them that love is both fierce and gentle. It is both an academic discipline and a delight-led adventure. Pour out so much love in your educational world that it spills over and impacts the world around you for generations to come!
