A Homeschool Graduate Embarks on Teaching Her Own Children

Hello, I’m Karin, and I’m excited to begin blogging with BJU Press to share my homeschool experiences and discoveries. My blog posts will offer a glimpse into our homeschool life, share practical teaching ideas and Deuteronomy 6 teaching moments, pass on tips from veteran homeschool moms, and discuss ways of balancing homeschooling with homemaking. We will draw strength from Scripture as we learn to trust and obey the Good Shepherd, who will “gently lead those who are with young” (Isaiah 40:11 NKJV).

In the picture above, the excited student sitting at her desk is me, twenty-plus years ago. My mother has faithfully homeschooled her four children and is currently finishing up with my youngest sibling in high school. BJU Press was the backbone of our curricula, and that’s what my oldest sister is now using to home educate her children.

I still remember the anticipation of opening a new box from BJU Press—interesting textbooks and colorful workbooks of my very own that would become quite familiar throughout the school year. One of my favorite times was when my siblings and I would gather on the couch to listen to my mom read us a classic book. We’d always beg for “just one more chapter.” When I was in junior high, we started using BJU Press Distance Learning, which at that time was broadcast via satellite. I laughed and learned through science classes with funny Mr. Harmon and grew in my love for writing and grammar with Dr. Seibert.

I so relished my homeschool experience that after high school I continued learning from home through CLEP tests and distance learning college courses. At Liberty University, I completed studies for my BA in interdisciplinary studies with concentrations in English and journalism. I have enjoyed writing and editing for three different Christian ministries, doing mostly contract work from home.

God blessed me with a Psalm 1 husband that I met at my church. He grew up going to church, but in college, when God convicted him of his sin and caused him to be born again (John 3), he trusted Christ as his Savior and Lord. He had a good experience as a child going to public school in a small town, but we both agreed that we wanted to home educate our children. God has blessed us with two children so far, and we feel the weighty responsibility of the mandate to raise them in the “training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4 NKJV).

Having been homeschooled myself, I’m not bound by idealist notions of a Pinterest-perfect homeschool room with an always prepared teacher and ever eager to learn students. I know it’s difficult since as a child I was a challenge to teach at times. I remember on several occasions walking into my mom’s room and finding her on her knees in prayer. Only by God’s grace can our children learn to fear God, which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Only by His saving work in their hearts—through repentance and faith in Christ—will they have a home in heaven and a heart for learning and serving in God’s world. So we fall on the mercy of God and ask Him for strength to teach our children, trusting Him to reach their hearts.

Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:16–17 NKJV)