How should we then homeschool? Let’s consider that question in light of the three main causes I highlighted for many to pursue charter schooling rather than privately homeschooling their children.

Money: Leafing through any homeschool catalog can be intimidating if you are on a tight budget. It’s especially frustrating if you have your heart set on a particular curriculum or homeschool method, and there seems to be a multitude of required books and paraphernalia to make your program successful. That is why you need to bathe this endeavor in prayer, just as you ought with anything you do. Ask God for wisdom about what you really need to have to teach your children at home. Make a list with two columns: “needs” and “wants.” Be brutally honest as you evaluate which column each item should go into. Is a computer with special software really a need? How about music lessons? Sports?

If you have determined what the needs are and truly think it is too much of a financial burden, consider whether there are financial sacrifices you can make in other areas of your budget in order to get the materials you need. It really doesn’t cost that much for the essentials. If you have an internet connection and a printer, there are many resources available online which don’t cost more than the monthly ISP fee, the ink for the printer and some electricity. You don’t have to have the exact books recommended in the homeschool catalogs. Over the years I have found enough great resources at thrift stores and book sales for next to nothing that my children wouldn’t suffer if I never, ever bought them a new book. The other day I bought Christian Liberty Press’s Streams of Civilization for a quarter, and two of the Focus on the Family Chronicles of Narnia dramatizations on cassette for $1.50 each. Those types of finds are not unusual. You can obtain any classic book with very little effort this way.

The following links are to help and encourage those who think they can’t financially swing it on their own:

Frugal Homeschooling Tips from Valerie Jacobsen
Laine’s Letters: Laine is an incredible lady who takes both her relationship with the Lord and her homemaking seriously. She has lived her entire married life on a tight budget, and I don’t know how anyone can read her examples of living within her means and not be encouraged to trust God more and be more content.
Ambleside Online: This is a complete Charlotte Mason style homeschool curriculum, using mostly online materials (and, though I say it with reservation, you can find many of the suggested books through the library).

Fear: Many who first start homeschooling wonder if they are going to seriously damage their children. I’m sorry to say that the same concern pops up repeatedly, even for those who are veterans at this venture. Reality is that your little sinners have a set of sinful parents, and the sanctification process works both ways: you are training them and God is using them to train you. When the inevitable trials come, the fight or flight instinct kicks in. If you are not prepared to “fight” when the bad days gang up on you, then your only other option is to run away.

Rather than running into the arms of the education “experts,” look at other options. When you are overwhelmed, sometimes it seems easier to just let someone else tell you what to do, but the experience of the Idaho mom I linked to yesterday is one example of how the broad road can lead to the castle of Giant Despair (see Pilgrim’s Progress). Again, you need to pray and know that 1)God will not give you more than you can handle and 2)His strength is perfected in your weakness. As with so many trials, if you hang in there, you will find that in time, the issue overwhelming you at the moment is eventually resolved.

But at the moments of difficulty it helps to have support. There are homeschooling groups in almost every area (though, as I have noted, some of the private groups are drastically diminished; the one which I once led is a third of the size it was when I first joined). Find other homeschooling friends to talk to about your issues. Join online lists and discussions with likeminded people who will encourage you in your circumstances. And do not bite off more than you can chew, a problem I have noticed with many of this generation of homeschoolers who are increasingly more concerned about intellectualism than about giving their children tools to be lifelong learners.

How our family homeschools using the methods of the Robinson Curriculum
Join the Patriarch’s Wives internet list: This is a large group of likeminded Christian women who can help you with any question or concern related to family and godly womanhood.
Homeschooling Today Magazine
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (in the interest of fairness and because Kate works for it )
Donna Young’s Homeschool Printables and Resources

Ignorance: Do a Bible study on the words “teach” and “train” related to your children. Read the book of Proverbs and write down all the things about which the author tells his son to “listen.” You will have a hard time making a biblical argument that God requires that we even impress upon our children the 3 R’s as the modern education system has delineated. Am I for illiteracy? (*snicker*) No, no more than Jesus was for parricide when he said that we are to hate our father and mother if we want to be His disciple (Luke 14:26) It’s an issue of priorities, and it’s easy for all of us to get those priorities all out of whack. Our number one mission as parents is to train our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Before you sign on the dotted line of that charter school enrollment form, read the fine print. If it requires you to agree to avoid any “sectarian” (read “Christian”) materials during school hours, put down your pen and leave. Check your state’s education code (the laws regarding how the public schools are to function) to see if that restriction is part of your state’s law. If so, and you plan to take the money but disregard the law governing what you are allowed to teach (particularly if you purchase Christian materials with it), then you are being double-minded.

Please go to the following links for more information about the consequences of the charter school issue:

HSLDA’s Charter School Issue Center
Charter Schools and ISPs: Promise or Hidden Threat, by Roy Hanson, Jr., homeschool hero to thousands of grateful families
Charter Schools: Look Before You Leap!, also by Roy Hanson
Priceless Treasures: My Reasons for Homeschooling by Gregg Harris

Now that I’ve outlined my position on this sensitive issue, let me be sensitive to those who are in “what if” situations. As I said before, “Your ‘what if’ does not trump my principle.” In other words, the whole principle is not null and void because there are some hard cases out there. But I have been a hard case myself, many times (yes, yes, you can stop nodding your heads now). Being self-employed, there have been times when we were in financial straits and wondered how we would feed and house our family, and we once even lost a house to foreclosure. I have had various health issues, including difficulties in every pregnancy but the first, requiring several weeks to months of bedrest. Our family has experienced some horrendous trials which left us emotionally and spiritually fragile.

I understand about difficult circumstances. I also have people I love dearly who are in stark disagreement with me on this issue, and who are happily involved with their public schools, and they still love me even though I’m so opinionated. I know there are women out there who agree with me on this but whose husbands prefer to either put their children in a charter school or even send them to public school. Some are in such financial difficulty, and the churches have been so impotent to help families in financial trouble, that they feel compelled to seek government help.

How do we relate to others when we don’t see eye to eye on this issue?

We relate to them as we do when we disagree on any other issue. I’d wager (oops, I’m going to get a reputation if I keep using that expression) that nobody reading this has any other person in their life, including their dear husbands, with whom they agree on every issue. One thing I often repeat to my children is that they must be hard on themselves and easy on others. We need to remember the journey we have taken to reach the convictions we now have, but that once we didn’t embrace. We need to be servants to those we want to influence, not strong-arm them into thinking just like we do. We need to remember that just as the issue of charter schools is one of proper jurisdiction, so is the decision about whether to open our mouths or keep them shut on this topic. It may not be your place to say or do anything.

Pray for wisdom about when to speak and when to be silent. Perhaps you will not have any opportunity to say what you think on this issue. Fine, our convictions are first meant to be lived out in our own lives. Perhaps you have a place where you can gracefully state your opinions, such as a blog or article you may write. It’s not uncommon for those in charter schools to become disenchanted and seek help and advice from private homeschoolers, so be approachable and generous with your encouragement. There are times, however, when a public position on this issue is unescapable, such as in a homechooling organization which needs to evaluate membership requirements. If God gives you opportunity to address it, do so with love, but love does not mean you have to agree that all “choices” are equal.

That will be the end of my controversies for this week, but next week I hope to address another negatrend. As Dy says, kiss those babies.

There are many people who move to our little community in the Sierras but continue to spend most of their time and money away from the area. We do go to the city occasionally for errands, but we are committed to having this place be our home in more ways than just a place to park our bodies at night. Thus, a few years ago I attended a planning meeting for a local homeschool group.

I have belonged to the county homeschool group for 12 years, including several years as a leader, but it meets on the other side of the county from where we live and I wanted to get involved with homeschoolers closer to home. I looked forward to meeting some new homeschooling friends. I’m normally a gregarious person, but I didn’t fit in with this group very well.

Almost all of the women at the meeting were part of the charter school program. Perhaps it was because most of them went to the same church where a couple of the pastors’ wives were working for the school district as facilitators for the program, receiving a “bounty” for each family they signed up. I tried, really I did. I politely listened to the suggestions for field trips and made a couple of my own. There were some good ideas for group classes. Like any homeschool meeting, moms volunteered for various activities. But after each new topic was discussed, the group’s leader explained how the charter school members (perhaps 2 out of 20 women were private homeschoolers) could get reimbursed for every activity mentioned. They were even getting “free” internet access, and one woman’s son was receiving flying lessons through the charter program.

I left knowing that I wouldn’t be able to be involved with this group. After so many years of paying our own way for everything related to our children’s homeschooling, through feast and through famine, it would eventually have been too hard for me to keep my mouth shut and keep my opinions to myself. I would have been the skunk at the garden party. Those ladies have as much right to freedom of association as I do, as does any private Christian homeschool group. That was not the place for me to express my opinions, but I have had other opportunities to do so, and that is why I am writing this now, with bandwidth we paid for with our after-tax dollars.

Why is it that so many Christian families are choosing to educate their children at home via public school programs? There are three main reasons I believe they are doing so (I will address the “what ifs” in the next post):

Money
Fear
Ignorance

First, let’s talk about that which the love of leads to all kinds of evil. We all think about money, and I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar (well, if I was a gambler, which, of course, I’m not) that we all have wished at times that we had more of it. While the Bible may not mention other things which we discuss by name—education or birth control or even the Trinity—money and material goods are spoken about in many places in straightforward language. In many of those many places, they are mentioned with admonitions about being content with what we have. There is even a commandment, one of the ten big ones, about not coveting what others have.

One of the top reasons I have heard given for why folks choose to be in a charter school is because they will get “free” stuff. Free computers. Free books. Free music lessons. Free classes. Free and easy.

I’ve talked before about TANSTAAFL (”there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”). Where does that free stuff come from? Mostly from local property taxes, some from the state coffers, and, most egregiously, from federal taxes with plenty of strings attached. “But I am just getting back some of my property taxes!” some protesteth too much. Maybe, but the state of California spends about $8000 per student in public schools. If you have two children enrolled in the charter school, they will bring in $16,000 for the school district, minus the amount your family receives in “free” stuff. Real estate is steep around here, but I don’t know anyone who pays that much per year in property taxes. Since those with children in government schools don’t cover all the expenses for educating their own children, guess who makes up the rest? Yep, it’s your neighbors who don’t have any children at home any more, or those who have chosen to educate their children without the government’s help. It’s sweet little old widows like our friend Miss Em, who gives us quilting classes in exchange for homemade bread and eggs from our chickens.

If those folks stop paying those property taxes to support the government schools, they lose their homes, even the sweet little ladies like Miss Em.

Another reason people give for using the charter school option is that they are struggling with teaching their children by themselves, and they are fearful that they can’t give their children the education they deserve. These people love their children and don’t want them to miss out on anything, and the programs offered in the charter schools combined with the “expert” advice on education, make a powerful temptation for those who feel inadequate. Being able to teach your children at home with government education experts at your beck and call (”we’re the government and we’re here to help you”) seems like a perfect set-up. But is it?

California education code forbids the use of any “sectarian” materials during school hours in a public school, and it’s written into the contract. When you hook up with a charter school, your home becomes a public school as far as the government is concerned. Christian curriculum is a no-no. How do the Christian facilitators deal with that sticky wicket? Some have advised their clients to cleverly rename the texts they plan to use when filling out the paperwork so that the bureaucracy doesn’t catch on that it’s paying for Christian textbooks. In such cases, the first lesson being taught to the children is Deception 101.

Others have discovered that the mandatory meetings (with children present, so they can be inspected), the required hours (much longer than most homeschoolers need with their smaller “class size”) and the extensive paperwork are quite burdensome. What was meant to be freedom from the responsibility of designing and implementing a homeschooling program independently, becomes a much harder taskmaster, reminscent of the Israelites trading their independence under the direct rule of God for the so-called security of a king (I Samuel Eight).

Lastly and ironically, many Christians educate their children the charter school way out of ignorance.

Too many Christians believe that education is stuffing as much knowledge into their children’s heads as possible. But that’s not what God says about teaching our children. In The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum R.J. Rushdoony said:

It is a deadly error on the part of the Christian School to assume that its task is similar to that of the “public” or government schools with Bible added to it. There are no common sets of facts that are shared by both Christians and non-Christians. If we simply reproduce the same facts, we reproduce the same religion of humanism as that of the state schools…

For us, however, in the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” This must also be the goal of our education…Humanistic schools belong to the world of antichrist, and we to the world of Christ our Lord. We have different Saviors, and different plans of salvation. We have also a very different kind of education.

Education is not neutral, and the methods we use to educate our children are not neutral. The government has no jurisdiction biblically or constitutionally to take money from one group of citizens and give it to another for a purpose it deems worthy, and Christians have no business taking that money to do what God has called them to do. I often hear conservative Republicans decry the socialist policies of the Democrats, but criticize the wealth transfer program called the public school system and the same conservatives often boo and hiss and label you unpatriotic.

Let’s not be ignorant of the fact that the great government education experiment, whether it takes place in an institution or the walls of your home, always comes with strings attached. If you send your kids to the institution, be prepared to deal with them being exposed to gross immorality, even in their tenderest years. Just ask the Arkansas mom who found that her children’s elementary and junior high school libraries contained books with such horrible obscenities, that I won’t even link to her website as she includes excerpts of the books, which promote sodomy and perverse experimentation (including illegal acts between teachers and students) to children (I checked online and found most of the same books available in the teen section of the local public library).

If you keep your children home but sign up with the charter school, be prepared to jump through hoops and face restrictions that you weren’t told about when it first seemed like such a good idea. Just ask the charter schoolers in Alaska who are facing audits and new restrictions on their freedoms.

Mr. (Peter) Torkelson (former state legislator and private homeschool father) agrees that the correspondence programs have opened up the homeschooling option to families that previously could not afford it. But he grew concerned when 80 percent to 90 percent of Alaska homeschoolers jumped on board. Mr. Torkelson recalls when state legislators first laughed at the homeschool movement several decades ago, then ignored it, then fought it.

He views correspondence programs as the state’s latest strategy to cripple decentralized education: “Once you’re taking the money, they have a legitimate interest in what you’re doing. This is a way to damage the movement over the long run.”

Did you get that? 80-90 percent of Alaska homeschoolers took the bait. Now it’s the bait and switch. The same thing is happening other places; can you really blame the private homeschoolers for becoming concerned? There is strength in numbers, and the numbers are dwindling. When enough succumb to the lure of government largesse, then what will prevent the state from saying, “Game over, we just beat you, join us”?

Have we forgotten those lessons we’ve taught our children about the freedoms the founding fathers fought for? They repeatedly warned of the danger of government grabbing too much power and oppressing the people. Read your Constitution, “we the people”! It was written not to restrict our freedoms, but to restrain the government from coopting power it was never intended to have. Read your Bible, people of God. We are raising up a godly seed for the service of King Jesus, not intellectuals, not good citizens, not more wage earners to expand the tax base. Let’s keep worshipping at the right altar, and it’s not the one labeled “Expediency.”

Part Three will discuss “How Should We Then Homeschool?” and “Loving My Neighbor When We Disagree.”

The following creative tips come from the Dollar Stretcher (you can subscribe to this online newsletter here). I did the treasure hunt idea (with rhyming clues) for one of our many birthdays earlier this summer.

It is amazing how much thought someone will give into picking out the perfect present yet uses very little imagination on how to give it. In many ways, the presentation of a gift is just as important as the item itself. Imagine buying someone a gold ring and leaving it on the kitchen counter with a note that says “thought you might like this.” Or contrast that with the gift of a ring hidden inside a rosebud that will “magically” appear as the rose blossoms in the sunlight.

The next time you are giving a gift, consider presenting it in a creative or meaningful way. I will give a few examples of things I have done which I hope will spur your own creative juices to flow and come up with ideas on your own. Of course I am flattered when my ideas are mimicked, however, I know that I am not the sole romantic person on earth. My aim is to bring out the romantic that is inside each of you.

On one Saturday morning while my wife was sleeping in late, I ran a string all through the house, beginning at the location where I hid her gift. The string went through cabinets, under seat cushions, in the bathtub, behind the sofa and throughout all the rooms in the house. Had I been thinking ahead, I would have attached small gifts all along the string as a teaser for the big present at the end. After I ran the string through our home, I brought the other end of the string to my wife in bed and explained that I had bought a present for her and it was at the other end. I had never seen her get out of bed so quickly on a Saturday morning.

Another way in which I like to give presents to my wife is by having her find them. I will write about 7 or so clues which lead from one written clue to the next until the final clue leads to the hidden gift. Sometimes I will even write the clues in form of poetry. He is an example:

With your ear you’ll hear
Not the ocean or the sea
But the next clue telling you
Where the treasure trove will be.
(The next clue was inside a conch shell).

If you want to go all out on the “treasure hunt” theme, you can give your spouse a tape in the “Mission Impossible” style giving them their assignment to locate the missing gift. Depending on the time you have and equipment available, you can even include videotaped clues which definitely would add to the overall excitement of the quest.

Once I created a treasure hunt though town which ended in a park where she had to walk certain paces to find where her “treasure” lay. This time it was a picnic that I prepared in advance and asked a friend to lay out for us while we were finding our way there.

There are dozens and dozens of ways in which you can transform the presentation of even an ordinary gift into a truly romantic occasion. Remember, it is the thought that counts. Put some thought into the entire gift giving experience next time.

As I enter my 17th year of homeschooling, I’ve seen a lot of fads come and go. The denim jumpers have pretty much been a constant, but curricula, popular personalities and homeschooling magazines have had their 15 minutes of fame and then been overshadowed by the newest trend. When we decided in 1981 that we would teach our future children at home, homeschooling was still a fledgling movement, and there were real Christian people putting their freedom on the line in order to live out their convictions that God had given them the responsibility of giving their own children a distinctly biblical education.

Now I’m wondering if private Christian homeschooling itself has become another fad which is fading into obscurity.

The negatrend which I want to address tonight is the widespread embracing of government-funded home education known in many places as “charter schools.” I first became aware of this educational alternative a little over ten years ago, when a friend and board member of California Home Educators Association (CHEA), Mary Schofield, spoke at our group’s back-to-school night. A new charter school program had recently begun in our area, and Mary was very concerned about it.

Mary had been (and continues) working for many years as a volunteer with Family Protection Ministries, headed by Roy Hanson and Jim Davis. You may not have heard of these men, but even if you live on the far side of the country and you homeschool, you owe them a lot. Year after year, they read every bit of legislation penned in California, looking for threats to homeschooling and parental rights. This is a herculean task when you consider that more legislation is proposed in this state than in the nation’s Congress. If Roy and Jim and Mary’s Family Protection Geiger counter starts to beep, they send out alerts to an impressive mailing/email/phone list around the state to mobilize the troops. I’m afraid that the saying, “As California goes, so goes the nation,” has some truth, so when we fight back against government intrusion in the state of fruits and nuts, it can benefit those in other states which tend to follow some of our follies.

At the same time Mary began to speak out against the charter school movement, the new Republican majority in Congress had a lot to say about education. First, they issued a call for curtailing federal involvement in education and vowed to fight to shut down the Department of Education. Then, they trumpeted school “choice” as a way to improve the quality of public education. I put the word “choice” in sarcastic quotation marks, because that term is usually bandied about by those who are up to no good. Rather than framing the issue in terms of right and wrong—in this case, questioning the constitutionality of government being involved in education through confiscatory taxation at any level—all choices are presented as equally valid. Many Christians were (and still are) promoting vouchers and other innovative uses of government funds in order to “break the government monopoly on education.” Our friend David Chilton, once a regular columnist for World Magazine (those were the days), engaged in a debate with Susan Olasky on the subject of vouchers. He was agin’ ‘em.

Fast forward a decade or so. The debate is still being waged between those who promote private Christian home education and those who see no problem with government funding families who teach their children at home. Feelings run strong on both sides, but those who argue, as I do, that private homeschooling is in danger of extinction and that Christian parents need to biblically evaluate whether the state has any valid role to play in the nurturing and training of their covenant children, are castigated as exclusionary and, yes, legalists. A senior editor of a popular homeschool magazine chided individuals and homeschool groups unhappy about Christian involvement with the charter school program for being “crybabies” and “devour[ing] one another.”

To be continued, please wait to comment until I post Part Two…

Tonight Gracie and I were out on the town till late…though “town” is used rather loosely since it was a tiny historic hamlet which rolls up the wooden sidewalks at 5 pm. We were continuing our docent training class there. We’re waiting for some patterns to arrive from this company so we can sew our period clothing. If you think jumpers are bad, try wearing a corset and two petticoats!

Since I was out so late, and I just had little crying, stuffy-headed munchkin climb into my bed, I will have to postpone beginning my controversial posts till tomorrow. For those who can’t wait for the controversy to begin, however, I can give a little immediate satisfaction. This post is inspired by my recent purchase of some modestly lovely clothing (yes, including jumpers) from the Eddie Bauer outlet which has all its items 30% off.

1. Skirts are very versatile; wear them paired with t-shirts, vests, sweaters and blouses. I have some button-front 3/4 sleeve cotton tops which are slightly tailored and look great with my skirts.

2. Combine plain styles with an item of clothing or a jewelry that is more unusual. I like skirts in classic styles and plain colors that I pair with odd things…for example, I own a vest that has black velveteen and tapestry and satin material in a crazy quilt pattern, and I put a cameo pin on its lapel.

3. Being modest doesn’t mean you have to hide the fact you are a girl. You should try to keep the necklines higher and the hemlines lower than the general populace, but wearing clothing that is tastefully tailored can be attractively modest.

4. Bright colors lift the spirits. Some basic, plain colors are good foundation pieces with which to coordinate other items, but find some colorful pieces, like t-shirts for layering, to pep up your wardrobe.

5. Don’t denigrate jumpers. They can be practical daily wear, and they come in all sorts of colors and styles besides potato sack denim. I’ve even got some denim jumpers with pizzazz—I’ve noticed that those who are so critical of the denim jumper don’t have any problem with 99.9 percent of the population wearing denim jeans for daily wear, even to church.

6. When thinking about your attire, don’t neglect your head and your feet. The Friedrich prairie muffins don’t wear daily headcoverings, but we do cover our heads for church, wearing hats which are attractive but don’t draw too much attention. As for our feet, not only are they shod with preparation of the gospel of peace, but we enjoy adorning them with unusual socks and tights during the colder months.

7. Thrift stores are one of the best resources we have found for quality clothes at a price a big family can handle. Look for stores in the nicer parts of town, and examine each piece of clothing you choose very carefully, trying it on if possible. I only buy the best-quality clothing in top condition when I buy it used.

8. Dress nicely for your family and especially your husband. Your daily wear should not be threadbare and full of holes, but pretty as well as practical.

9. Ditto for good grooming. I am an advocate of tasteful (not garish) makeup and hair which is styled in a flattering manner, though I think a woman’s hair should be worn long enough that she is unmistakably female (understanding that there may be occasional health issues which cause a problem with this).

10. When they are looking gloomy, sometimes my husband asks my girls, “What are you unhappy about?” If they reply, “Nothing,” he quips, “Then tell your face.” If you’re happy and you know it (and you have every reason to be happy if you are a child of God), then tell your face. A smile can transform your entire appearance.

For examples of some of my “fashion” suggestions, click here.