Homeschooling my children made me smart(er)

I have two lovely friends I like to hang out with. We don’t see each other every single day but they are my go-to gals when it comes to needing prayer or just a girls night or afternoon doing girl stuff.

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They’ve said to me several times that I’m like a walking encyclopedia. One of them calls me a Rolodex.  If there’s a subject they bring up, I know something about it. And I got to thinking about the last time they said this to me and I said, “you know, I think it’s probably because I homeschooled my kids. If there was something I didn’t know about, we looked it up together and learned about it.”

Remember, I was homeschooling before Google. That means we went to the library or used our encyclopedias. (My oldest is 34 years old.)

We learned a TON of stuff together. I remember teaching my children and saying to them, “I never learned this! Do you know how blessed you are to know this?”

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When my children were grown out of homeschool (my youngest, twins, with special needs, attend special classes at the high school now) and I decided to go back to college, I found myself debating with my professors using logic that was never taught to most of the young people in my classes. In one of my history classes the text made a sweeping generalization regarding the Great Awakening. It stated that the Great Awakening occurred only because people were living in fear.

“How do they know that?” I asked the professor. “They weren’t there.”

Little foxes like this enter into lots of text books, and little by little, whittle away at the vine of common sense and a Christian Worldview.

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One of my professors in English was a practicing Wiccan. Naturally, her beliefs spilled over into the class. She picked on me because I was vocal about being a Christian. She’d try to bait me but she couldn’t because I was able to answer with logic and reasoning.

“I wish you were a normal Christian. You’re no fun to debate,” she said.

One time she admitted that she thought Jesus was a great teacher.

“Yes,” I said. “I like Him.” It was a spontaneous response that brought a chuckle out of the class.

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A professed atheist sat in the front row and constantly bashed Christians with generalizations. I was able to respond with love and knowledge to all of his comments, explaining that one shouldn’t base their disbelief of Christ on people’s actions, but on Christ Himself. In the halls of the college and out in the community, this man showed me great respect.

I was only able to do what I did, I believe, because of all I’d learned homeschooling my children about history, science, philosophy and logic. I knew what I knew what I knew. I was solid in my belief and was able to express it with reason.

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If you homeschool, how do you think homeschooling has made you smart(er)? I’m thankful for the education I received educating my kids. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It makes me marvel at how many super-smart Mamas are out there parenting these kids and teaching them. If only we could all get into one room — the amazing conversations and world-changing ideas we could create!

Comments 2

  1. I home-schooled my oldest, he’s 32 now and has an advanced degree from Columbia University. It was through 7th and 8th grade. In a way, I feel like he taught me. I understood more about how a child learns by watching him gobble up information without being bored by repetition and the dumbing down that happens in a class full of 30 students at various levels of understanding. This is a great post Karla!

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