Ann V. on homeschooling

I love so many of Ann's posts. She is a great writer and a wonderful thinker. And she loves Jesus. So much.

If you're not subscribed to her blog, you should be.

This particular post about homeschooling was so moving. I wanted to share it as I feel it is incredibly laden with grace and humility, conviction and intentionality, inspiration and encouragement. There were several bits that especially stood out to me:

1. Where two or three are gathered, there He is also. What I love most about the homeschooling lifestyle is that we are all together, in all our glorious mess, day in and day out. We are not time-torn or fragmented. We are gathered. There is no dichotomy between God and secular: we are making a one-piece life. We are real, transparent, and growing –sometimes painfully– with each other, season upon season, and God is in the center, bathing us sin-scraped ones with His Grace. That’s rich.

2. We personally don't believe that children are called to be kingdom warriors in the public school system because, to our minds, that doesn't seem a level playing field. There are agendas operating there that may leave a child at a disadvantage. But do we need to walk with our children in the world with a vibrant, fearless faith that has full confidence in an all-powerful God? Yes!

3. Segregating people on the basis of age is a false construct, seen nowhere else in society. Separating children from siblings, from family, their natural community, homes, faith and environment to instead be grouped in a rather institutionalized, sterile space with potent agendas that may be disconnected from community values, that marks time with bells... this disconnect from the real world may not be most conducive to fostering a whole-hearted person whose faith, family, work, and service is all woven into a cloth of one piece.

4. ...homeschooling is this magnificent crucible, to reveal impurities and sinfulness and brokenness. It keeps us on our knees. Homeschooling often hurts and disappoints. You cry and wonder if you are insane to try to educate these children, to disciple these little hearts, while laundering, cooking, cleaning, managing a household, and still being a wife, a sister, a daughter, a missionary in your community, a servant to Christ and in your faith community. And He smiles and says that He walks with you, has grand and glorious purposes, and He understands radical and crazy!