Our Homeschool Life: Introduction

Welcome to my Homeschool Life blog.

This is just a light, friendly blog where I will share various stories and adventures from our everyday life, to help you to feel more connected to our family—affectionately known as The Adamites. At my wife's request, I am the primary educator in our family—a role I have dubbed the 'Chief Education Administrator' just to make it sound fancier.

Our decision to home school was not made lightly; in our quaint, rural town with a population of around 3,000, there are two schools to choose from—a government-run school and a private Catholic school. A half-hour away in our nearest regional centre there are several other choices for Christian education, however our discussions with parents and students of these and other Christian schools left us with concerns that secular agendas were still permeating these institutions. As parents, we believe the responsibility for what our children learn and how they make sense of the world ultimately rests with us. It is our role as parents to teach them right from wrong and to teach them Truth, and we believe education of all description falls within those bounds.

Don't get me wrong; we do not begrudge parents who send their children to school—both of us went through the public school system—and we have great relationships with families from both our town's schools. But we, personally, are not prepared to shoulder the burden of our children coming home every day and telling us they have been taught something we do not believe to be age appropriate, or that they are not equipped to handle with discernment.

And for anyone who may be concerned that we are 'brain washing' or 'indoctrinating' our children, please know that we still report to our state education governing body, who assesses all of our education—both in years completed and years ahead—to ensure we are providing our children with a sufficient, government-approved, curriculum-based education that meets our children's needs and rights. Yes, we teach our children what we—as their parents—believe, and encourage them to believe the same, just how any other parents would raise their children. But we also teach them about other people's beliefs and about commonly accepted points-of-view. Ultimately, it will be up to our children to forge their own paths and accept their own beliefs as they continue to grow and develop.

But, like all these blogs, at the end of the day my posts are simply a way for me to serve any of four purposes:

1) to let off some steam,

2) to try to find my flow when overwhelmed with writer's block,

3) to connect and engage with you—my readers, and

4) to get out of re-editing manuscripts for the umpteenth time.