Homeschooling is on the Rise
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There are so many factors to consider when choosing the best education for your child. I'm John Fuller, joined by Dr. Danny Huerta, who heads up the Focus on the Family Parenting team. And Danny, we had six kids and we had this intent to homeschool. And so we started off with that.

But we didn't homeschool all of them all the way through. My first, I think, graduated from Fuller Academy. My second got a diploma from some outside school. And at one point, we had to put one child in school and another asked to be put into a school. And then...

There's one child, it was no question, he's going to school. So many options. There are. How did you and Heather figure this out for your kids? Well, I mean, we happen to have a really good charter school in our community, and we had heard a lot of parents, Christian parents, that we knew talking about this school, and

And my father-in-law is a real estate agent, and he knew in District 20, this is a fantastic school. You need to look at it. There's a wait list for that school. Yes, yes. And so I actually put our kids' names on the wait list the week after they were born. Oh, my word. Really? Yeah. The week after I went in, registered them in, they were on the waiting list and barely got in. Oh, wow.

But that was an advantage we had in our community. It's not always that way. But Heather and I needed to sit down and just talk about that, make that a topic of discussion. Where do we want our kids to go to school? Because as we were getting closer to that time where they were going to be going to either preschool or kindergarten –

We had to compare the other options to make sure we had made the right option as we learned who our kids were and their learning styles that we were starting to see take shape. And so it definitely requires consideration and conversation. Yeah. And my point as we open the show is you have to kind of know your child. Yes. And some kids aren't going to do well in a classroom. Conversely, some kids aren't going to do so well at home. Yes.

That's against the backdrop of us being kind of early adopters of homeschooling. I mean, in the early 90s, it wasn't exactly as mainstream as it is now. Now, it is a big deal these days to think through homeschooling and to approach it. Here is a great conversation Focus President Jim Daley had with Cynthia Tobias about some of the data points and things to consider about home education.

So we've covered kind of the landscape of public education and then getting to know your child's learning style and how to get them in a place to succeed. Let's move to that third component, which is what are the options educationally now? There are millions of new homeschoolers, as an example, because of the public school scare, I would say. Once parents were able to peer into the homework and the assignments and the class discussions,

through the pandemic, parents were like, oh my goodness. And I think over a million new homeschool students entered homeschool programs. Speak to the options that are there for parents. And the interesting thing in 2020, 63% decided to homeschool instead of do school in the living room. When schools opened again, only 17% of that 63%

went back. The rest stayed homeschooling. Yeah, so it's big right now. It's one of the reasons why I invited Mary Jo Dean, who she and her husband founded Great Homeschool Conventions, and I asked her to write two chapters of this book for me to describe how the whole landscape of homeschool is changing.

There are some amazing things in the homeschool. And it used to be, and I just, you know, I think, I hope I don't offend anybody, but, you know, like 30 years ago when I first started, I avoided the homeschool conventions because they were real strict with me and they were kind of, you know, they were sort of countercultural, if you know what I mean. And then it kind of turned into, well, I'm afraid they might all be women in denim jumpers.

But it's not even that at all. But now, in the last 15 years or so, it's professionals as well as the whole spectrum. I've run into lawyers and police officers and firefighters who say, you know what? Whatever it takes. If it takes this, that's what I'm going to do because our children are too important and valuable. So we get some really good ideas. Yeah, there's so many good ideas.

in the homeschooling movement where they do co-op learning. You get together with other parents that have expertise in math or in science or something like that. I think here in Colorado Springs, we have a lot of retired Air Force that they're astronauts and pilots.

And you can get into groups here in Colorado Springs, for example, that an astronaut is training your child in science, in space science. That's pretty cool. That's right. So the expertise is high. When you read these chapters, I think you're going to be inspired to find out more. You know, and I think back, Cynthia, with Dr. Dobbs, I mean, he really got that rolling focus on the family, did a lot of programs on homeschooling back in the day. You remember that, John? You probably were just here. I do, and we homeschool because of those programs.

And I think that's one option. You still have good alternatives. We did with, at the time, the charter school that we put our boys in. We thought it was a great option. Thanks to Trent. He came up to me not long ago and said, Dad, I'm the only one in my class that knows how to write a college paper.

because of my high school. Boy, did he complain then, though. Right, right. And I've had John's kids do that, too. So you do have some good choices. Some really good choices. So public school, but really know your school. Charter school, home school, Christian private school, that can be expensive, but people might look at that as well. And you know, the bottom line with this book, it's totally biblical worldview. And there are scriptures to back it up, and we don't make any bones about saying that

Your child was created by God, and it's too important not to keep the biblical worldview first priority in their lives. And one of the statements I make in the book is, it will take sacrifices, but just be sure it's not your child who's the one being sacrificed. Boy, that is well said, Cynthia. And I, you know, again, I think of...

what is it that you want your children to know? And I think when you look at Christian values, Christian virtues, it's such a odd thing that we are dampening down any kind of teaching of any kind of values and virtues in public school. And I, you know, I'm probably going to get some criticism for that, but I'm staying in tune with it. But when you have students who are graduating without the introduction of good, strong, and I'm just saying not even Judeo-Christian values, but just

God's natural virtues if I could say it that way what do you expect students to graduate with? They're not going to understand Appropriateness and not lying not cheating not doing things that actual are counterproductive to the culture So you know that is critical if we're producing people that have no values and virtue out of public education

we're going to have citizens that have no values and virtue. And that's really unhealthy for a democracy.

Well, obviously here at Focus on the Family for many, many years, we've been pro-homeschooling, if you can step up and do that. Danny, you've really been able to speak to a lot of homeschoolers. You go to these homeschooling conventions. Yeah, those, man, John, they are amazing, super life-giving conventions. And we'll be in Virginia, Wisconsin, and Florida. We'll be with the great homeschool conventions. They have five regional conventions. And we'll be with the great homeschool conventions.

Usually, there are about 2,000 to 5,000, 6,000 families at these conventions. It is active. You can learn about curricula. You can learn whether or not you want to do homeschooling, if it's for you or not.

wonderful places to go. I encourage you, if you have a homeschool convention near you, go to it, meet some of the homeschool families. If you're considering it, we have a lot of families that come to those and actually ask many questions. They're going, I don't know what I'm doing or should I do it? Should I not?

and he gives you a lot of great information at the homeschool conventions, and you have great workshops as you're thinking about schooling in your home. Now, in the clip we heard, Jim mentioned that he and Jean chose a charter school for their boys, and I believe you and Heather did the same for your kids. Give some quick guidance to the parent who's like, well, I see the need and the possibility, but I can't do it right now. There might be some life circumstance. How do I find a good school for now?

Yeah. And especially now with culture, you've got to be real careful as to what school you're going to choose. So feel free to interview the principal of the school if you want to. You can do that. You can ask them questions. Tell me more about your school. What's your vision for the school? This is a great idea. I love this because I think it used to be just you sign up because that's the school.

But there's so many options. You really are interviewing that principal and the staff, aren't you? You are. And you can ask other parents around the area, hey, what school have you chosen? Why did you choose it? How did you go about that process? And some people may give you a lot of insight as to who they contacted. And maybe you contact some of those people.

Real estate agents also know a lot about the schools in the area. Ask them some questions about the schools. Yeah, you mentioned this previously, that your father-in-law is a real estate agent. And I found that out through him, that they need to know about the schools in the area for people coming outside of the area and give them insights into the schools that they're going to be buying into. And then ask the school, when you talk to the principal, ask,

"Hey, how did you guys choose the curriculums that you're using? And tell me how it's deployed and a bit about your staff. What's it like to be at the school there?" Those are great questions to ask. You'll get a feel for whether or not they're giving you a sales pitch or they're genuine in that.

And then pray. Pray about the decision and know that it's not final. If a year doesn't go well, I know it's disruptive to the child, but it's not the end, especially the younger kids where you move them to a new school and you explore a different school. Yeah.

Well, this all goes back to something that Cynthia was kind of teasing out, and that is be curious about your child and their education. That means be curious about the educators that you might be handing off to. And regardless of your approach to choosing the education for your child, a couple of things. One...

The Learning Styles Profiles. That's something that Cynthia addresses, and we're going to link over to a series of free articles by Cynthia Tobias about The Learning Styles. Look for that link in the show notes.

And as you consider the path ahead for your child, Cynthia Tobias' book is called Reclaiming Education. Teach your child to be a confident learner. It's an excellent tool, great resource by Cynthia. She has so many wonderful insights and we'll send that book to you for a gift of any amount when you donate today to the Ministry of Focus on the Family. You can donate through the episode notes or our phone number is there as well.

Next time, encouragement for overwhelmed moms from Christy Clover. For now, on behalf of Dr. Danny Huerta and the entire team, I'm John Fuller, and thanks for listening to the Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast.

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