Homeschooling is on the rise in the U.S. With so many issues going on and the covid-19 pandemic, many families are choosing to homeschool their children. There are innumerable reasons that a family might choose homeschooling. I am not going to get into those in this post. I will be writing about why my family has chosen religious exemption starting this year.
I have homeschooled my children since birth. Each year, I file a Notice of Intent and send it to the superintendent of our school district. I have a high school diploma and that is one of the “allowable” requirements in Virginia. At the end of each school year (anytime before August), I have to send in either an evaluation done by a teacher with a master’s degree or the results from a standardized test for each student. We have chosen to do an evaluation each year because it’s easier for us.
This year is a little bit different for us. We have prayed for a few years about filing for religious exemption to homeschool and we felt the Lord heavily giving us the go-ahead. In Virginia, we are allowed to file religious exemption to never attend public school for bona fide religious reasons. We are one of the only states that allows this. I am very grateful. After much research and praying, we finally did it.
Religious exemption to homeschool means that I will no longer have to contact the school board or superintendent for any reason and they will not contact me. I am free to homeschool my children and not have the constant worry of oversight from the government.
Our reasons for choosing this option are many but the main one is this: we feel God has commanded us (our family) to homeschool and never have our children attend a public or private school. One of my favorite verses about this is, Deuteronomy 6:5-7 “and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
If our children are in public school, we can’t possibly have the influence God has called us to have. There are so many variables when your children are away from you for 6-8 hours a day. You also can’t control who they have around them and what influences they might have in their lives. God wants us to keep good company. Homeschooling allows us to be around people who are like-minded and godly.
Another verse that I love is, Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” God wants us to train up our children in His ways and not the ways of the world. Giving my children a solid foundation in Christ will allow them to, someday, go out into the world and be well equipped with the gospel. Sending them to be the “salt and light” at a public school when they are not mature in their faith is setting them up to either fail or be influenced instead of influencing.
Our number one goal in homeschooling is to raise godly men who can defend the faith and be knowledgeable about biblical (and other) things. We want our children to grow in their love and knowledge of God and be passionate about their faith. We know this isn’t a guarantee but feel the Lord has called us to do His will in this manner and raise them up for Him.
Like I said above, we prayed about this decision for a few years and truly felt the Lord calling us to file for religious exemption this year. We felt it was perfect timing (God’s timing) and we are trusting Him to give us the wisdom and tools to do what’s best for our children and family.
