Last week my family and I attended our state homeschool conference. Every year I learn something new, find great curriculum deals, discover curriculum that is new to me, and leave encouraged.
I’ve written before about why you should attend a homeschool conference if you get a chance. I think I may do another version of that article someday about why you should attend a Christian homeschool conference, even if you don’thomeschool. If a homeschool conference is a good one, at least half of the sessions would be uplifting to any Christian family, and I love that about our local conference. The focus is on raising our children and discipling them, and then also practical/academic tips - but the meat of it is a biblical philosophy on child-rearing that would benefit any Christian parent.
I received a conference-recap email from one of the many homeschool blogs I follow, and I really enjoyed it and was inspired to share a few takeaways from the conference we attended (including some interesting curriculum finds).
My Main Takeaway
A big theme of our conference this year was passing on the faith to our children. If you are not aware, the statistics on youth leaving the church in Protestant denominations in the United States are very grim. A full 70% of Christian youth leave the church, and these statistics haven’t improved in years - if anything, the situation has worsened. There were a couple different lectures about this topic (from Israel Wayne and George Barna), and though I only attended Wayne’s talk, from what I can tell the bottom line was the same - taking your children to church every week isn’t enough. Sending them to a Christian private school isn’t enough. Even homeschooling isn’t enough!
Kids need to have a good relationship with their parents, and they need to be trained by their parents. No one has as big of an impact on the faith of children as their parents do. Children need to know the tenants of their faith, see it being put into practice by their parents, and receive focused teaching about biblical doctrines (the truths of the faith) and a biblical worldview (how those truths should affect the way they see they world and the way they live).
You obviously can’t pass on that kind of knowledge and faith if you don’t have it yourself! Alot of Christians think we have a biblical worldview, and we don't realize that in many cases, we actually don’t. Wayne shared the PEERS test, which is a biblical worldview test - he said that though he quibbled with the phrasing of a few of the questions, it’s not a difficult test. The statistics among different groups of students who have taken this test are very interesting (and scary, honestly).
(This is a graph from the Nehemiah Institute website, the organization that produced the PEERS test. That blue line represents a TINY number of Christian private schools that have a high focus on biblical worldview training, as opposed to those that focus on academics - only about 2% of Christian kids are in those types of schools. The green line represents homeschoolers, who only started being included later. Honestly, I think we homeschoolers could do better. The traditional Christian private schools and public school lines should be sobering. Keep in mind that all of these lines represent ONLY youth from Christian households.)
The benefit of homeschooling as it relates to all this can be summed up in one word - time. Parents have the biggest influence on their kids, but that influence can be diluted by a lack of time spent with our kids. Homeschool parents have an advantage because we are not lacking for time - we are with our children nearly all day, every day!
Homeschool children (should) have an up-close look at what a Christian life should look like, because they see it playing out in every situation we encounter daily. Scripture tells us that “everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). That’s a little sobering, isn’t it? It means as homeschool parents we need to be careful that we ourselves are living out a truly biblical worldview. Our strengths in this area will likely be passed on to our kids, but also our weaknesses.
Time is also a crucial ingredient for building any strong relationship, including with our children, and having strong relationships with both parents provides a distinct statistical advantage in passing on the faith to our children.
(This chart is from the Gen2 survey, which is a general survey of churched Millennials and the impact of their upbringing on their practicing of the Christian faith as an adult. You can look at all the findings from that survey here. They are up-front about the fact that more people who were previously homeschooled took the survey than those schooled in other ways, despite trying to specifically advertise to those who went to public or private school. Despite the sample being a little uneven, it’s still pretty interesting.)
Homeschoolers, we have alot of things working for us! The trick is not to squander all these advantages, which can certainly happen. This whole discussion was simultaneously heartening and challenging to me.
For Further Reading
Though the website is a little old-school, I recommend exploring the Nehemiah Institute - they are the organization that produced the PEERS worldview test, and they have alot of interesting documents and resources.
For more information specifically on the exit of youth from the church and what we might do about it, I highly recommend the books Already Compromised and Already Gone by Ken Ham.
Israel Wayne has a couple helpful books about parenting and education that I’d recommend: Raising Them Up and Education: Does God Have An Opinions? (don’t be put off by the title, it’s a great book - I even had my oldest read the chapter on math, and it greatly improved his attitude!). He also has a systematic theology and biblical worldview curriculum for middle and high school that we picked up for our 8th grader this year.
George Barna also has a new book related to this topic, and I haven’t read it yet, but I might pick it up: Raising Spiritual Champions.
Other Interesting Sessions
“Why Americans Can’t Read” - Alex Newman - It’s shocking how illiterate we have become in America - half of American adults are functionally illiterate, and those statistics are coming from the Department of Education itself. I couldn’t find an article from Newman related to this topic that wasn’t behind a paywall, but the answer to this problem comes down to one thing - we need to ditch the “whole word” method and go back to actually teaching phonics.
“The Problem With School Choice” - Alex Newman - There are alot of unintended consequences with allowing the government to fund ALL school choices via vouchers and other forms of funding, which is a big push in many states right now. You can read this document if you are interested, which includes alot of the information Newman shared in this talk.
“Help! The Highschool Years Are Coming!” - Jan and Roger Smith - This session included so much encouragement for the high school years! I couldn’t find any articles about this specific topic online, but you can hear from the speakers on Zan Tyler’s podcast.
“Is Homeschooling Just For Women? - Israel Wayne - My husband went to this session and came back inspired and challenged in his role as a Christian (and homeschool) dad! I’d personally recommend anything by Israel Wayne, I’ve been encouraged by his resources many times. You can check out his ministry here.
Interesting Curriculum
Homeschool In A Box - I didn’t get to explore this booth much, but this company is on my list to research - their booth had a bunch of themed, hands-on learning boxes that I think my kids would find so fun!
Homestead Science - This is a family-run homeschool company from Idaho, and I am particularly interested in their survival study, which seems right up our alley.
Math Without Borders - We spent a good amount of time talking with the man who owns this company about this high school math option - it’s on my list to research for next year! But I wanted to point out “The Grandpa Project” on his website, which includes a bunch of videos he put together for his elementary and middle-school grandchildren to learn more about math - and this page in particular is the best math facts flashcard system I’ve ever seen online. All this is free on the website, and we’ll definitely be using it this summer! He also has a “bonus topics” page with a bunch of fun math videos that we’re going to explore.
New Generations Resources - Generations is a curriculum company we’ve been exploring for history mainly, but my little girls have also been enjoying their science books - they have this new science curriculum coming out for 3rd grade about the human body that I’m considering getting! They also released this adorable catechism book for the littlest learners - I really love that all the answers to these catechism questions are an actual Bible verse.
There are so many other interesting tidbits I could share, but I’ll leave it there! I would love to hear if you’re ever been to a homeschool conference, how it was helpful for you, or your thoughts about any of the topics or resources I shared here! Comment below, or hit reply if you are receiving this in your inbox.
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