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When Should We Prepare to Homeschool Our Kids?

When my husband and I first met, he asked if I would be willing to home educate if the Lord gave us children. I agreed, although I had no clue what this would mean for me and our family.

  • Verena Lawton
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The answers and advice may vary greatly from: as soon as a couple is married, to, at the latest, when a child is ready to start preschool or elementary school, depending on the regulations for a county or state.

When my husband and I first met, he asked if I would be willing to home educate if the Lord gave us children. I agreed, although I had no clue what this would mean for me and our family. Growing up, the only famlies I knew who homeschooled were missionaries who had no other option.

Knowing that I would homeschool if we had children, I started to show some interest in the subject and talked to a few friends who were already homeschooling. However, I often felt a bit embarrassed because at that point I wasn’t even pregnant. With the birth of our first child, I knew that I could start to seriously talk about homeschooling and prepare for the task. Yet again, I thought this was premature as my child wasn’t old enough for real school.

When the time finally approached, I contacted Andrea Schwartz thinking I would get some counsel as to what curriculum to use. The answer suprised and baffled me at first. She encouraged me to study the Instututes of Biblical Law by Rushdoony. It wasn’t what I expected, but I decided to do it anyway. It changed my way of thinking completely.

A few years passed and I am now in the middle of educating our four children. I sometimes wish I had started to read about home education and the Institutes of Bliblical Law when my husband asked if I was willing to commit to this calling. I certainly would have had more time then than I have now with the children around me.

However, we are to look forward as Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.  What we do today will influence the future. A comment from my seven-year-old daughter the other day confirmed this to me. As she was watching and helping me prepare the break snack she said: “Mummy, when I home educate my children I will also make them a smoothie in the morning breaks!” That’s it, I am preparing my daughter to home educate her children. She is getting ready to do it by herself one day. This process has already started for her. My daughter‘s preparations to teach her children are far beyond the “basic” subjects like mathematics, reading, writing, science, art, ect. It includes cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, ironing, sewing, gardening, shopping, bookkeeping ... As important as all theses skills are, the foundation for all things is her growing in the understanding of God’s Word and the application of it in every area of her life.

So, in whatever phase of life we find ourselves, whether we are single, engaged, newly married, are homeschooling, or are grandparents, it’s the right time to get ready to invest in future generations. What if I never get married and have children you may ask? The “getting ready” is built on the foundation of growing in the understanding of God’s law-word and it’s application to all of life. This is the core of our life’s calling. It’s the equipment to better fulfill God’s purpose in our lives, even if we don’t have our own children. If we are not directly involved in teaching our own children, there are other indirect ways of investing in the next generation—by supporting a mother who is home educating her children. It’s never too late to “get ready” for the investing in future generations.


  • Verena Lawton

Verena Lawton, is a native of Switzerland currently living in the UK. She and her husband are missionaries. Together they home school their four children.

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