1. OUR KIDS ARE UNSOCIALIZED

2. YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT, ORGANIZED & CRAFTY 

3. WE BREED LIKE RABBITS

4. WE ALL WEAR GLASSES AND LIVE TO BE ON THE “GEEK SQUAD”

5. WE KEEP OUR KIDS IN A BUBBLE SO THEY WON’T SEE OR HEAR EVIL

“Those kids have no idea how to live outside their parent’s home. They’ll still need Momma to cut up their meat when they’re 30!”

I remember the first time I made my baby cry.

He was about 6 months old and playing contently on the floor. I reached past him to grab something lying on a table, when I accidentally knocked whatever it was over and it came crashing down on my son’s head instead. Thankfully it didn’t fall too far, wasn’t too heavy or sharp – but it made my precious baby cry. It was a cry I hadn’t heard before. It said, “OOUUCCHH! Mommy that hurt!”

I think it hurt me more.

As life moved on and my kids have gotten older, there are more of life’s objects that crash down on their heads. Accidentally or not. Some leave bruises, or even scars.

I’m still left with the same aching heart – I wish it wasn’t so. I wish they never had to feel the pain of an accidental blow or intentional stab to the heart. It hurts. I wish I could continually lie across them and take the hit myself.

But I can’t.

 

This year our family has committed to reading the Bible-in-a-year out loud together. Have you ever read Genesis out loud – in front of an audience? The Bible is rated R. I would try to quickly mumble an uncomfortable phrase to skirt the issue, but one of my kids would stop me in my tracks and say, “Whhooaa, wait a minute! What does THAT mean?”

When I would repeat, they’d crinkle up their nose and ask the next logical question: “What does that mean?”

That usually referred to a great concept like prostitution, Noah’s sons seeing his naked body after he’d spent too much time in the vineyard, rape, incest…the list goes on. It’s all in there, trust me!

My heart desperately wished to shield my kids from the realization/realities of living in a fallen world. But they have to know. They also need someone to help their minds straighten out the kinks in what it all means.

It can either be me as their parent to walk them through this junk, explaining openly what’s going on – what their choices are, what God says about it – and listen to their questions or I can let someone else do it. I’m sure their friends would be glad to talk about it and TV says it has the solutions, but do they hold to the standard of what is true, right, pure and acceptable?

Bottom line: Kids will get their questions answered.

The internet, while valuable, has an entire industry equipped and trained by a professional marketing team to meet common misspelled inquiries of 9-18 year olds with images to solve their problems. They’d be glad to help me in this area.

My son, while looking up “Fox snares” was met by such a site. Thankfully, I had told him, “if an image pops up, just look away” and that’s exactly what he did. The whole site was full of “foxy women” instead of “fox snares” and he closed his eyes and called me to come close out the window.

But without having a previous candid conversation about what-to-do-when-you-run-across-this, what would’ve happened?

Yes, as a homeschooler, I wish I could place my kids in a “holy bubble”. But I think I would want to do that regardless of how we choose to educate. That is just my mommy nature.

In reality, shielding them from reality will cripple them. I wish we didn’t have to talk about rape, porn, abduction, murder, abortion, but we do. We must.

We must talk and give our kids a plumb line of what God’s Word says about it. For nothing is new under the sun. I know it seems bad now, but nothing is going on that hasn’t already in some form or another already happened.

Last summer, I decided it was time to rip up the nasty, stained, dog-hair infested carpet and lay down hard wood floors. Recruiting my husband to head up the installation process, he proceeded to lay the new floor. Guess what he started with? A plumb line. In other words, a line that says, This is straight.

He ran a red chalk line all the way across the floor to mark where the first board would lie. From that line, we lined up all other boards.

Had we merely “eyeballed” it – “yeah, that looks straight” – we would not have had  straight lines. They may have looked straight to me, but not to a Master builder.

Sometimes what we do or who we are looks straight. It’s not until we discover the True straight line that we can then adjust all other boards accordingly.

Disclaimer: There is a right and apropriate time to expose kids to these levels of “realities”. Use your parental discretion and insight from the Holy Spirit as your guide. Many people disagree with me on reading the whole Bible as a family. That’s ok. You make that call but make it with an informed decision and regardless about when where or how, don’t be afraid to talk about the issues!

Homeschooling offers a great way to not place our kids in a bubble, but rather, on a consistent basis walk with our kids down the aisles often left in the shadows and expose them to God’s light.

So there you have it. Five common homeschooling myths I wish everyone knew before they ask my kids, “So what grade are you in?”

Thanks to Flickr for the bubble picture. I did modify it to 1200×627