Can Your Choice to Homeschool Your Children Change the Trajectory
of Their Lives?
As a fellow homeschool mom of two sons, I would like to share with you a small part of our
homeschool journey—a journey that truly did change the trajectory of their lives.
ADHD – Curse or Superpower
When our younger son, Jon, was in first grade, his teacher suspected he had ADHD. After
talking to her, Hank and I had him tested. The tests confirmed the teacher’s suspicion, and
we decided to put him back in kindergarten. He stayed at that school through first grade,
but I saw that his needs were not being met in a traditional classroom with its many
distractions. Being his mom, I didn’t see him the way that his school did. Where others saw
a hyperactive six-year-old, I saw burning creativity. I knew he needed to learn in his own
way, so we made the decision to become a homeschool family.
Work with Strengths
In the foreword to my book, Raising Up Dreamers—Find and Grow Your Child’s God-Given
Talents, Jon wrote, “My mom’s choice to homeschool me changed the trajectory of my life.
For the first time, I wasn’t berated for what I didn’t have. Instead, we celebrated who I was.
ADHD was no longer a hindrance but the key to a creative mind. My mother encouraged me
to follow my innovative instincts and formed our lessons around them. Her school operated
in a different way from the classic way of learning. Each day started off with thirty minutes
of prayer. Granted, I could barely close my eyes for thirty seconds, but I learned the
importance of prayer at an early age. My mother was not only a teacher of math, science,
history, and the like. She was a teacher of faith.”
Thankful for the Opportunity
Andy wrote, “I’m grateful for parents who encouraged me to dream, who realized that
serving God could be out of the box and creative. The Christian life was always framed for
us as ‘the great adventure.’ I didn’t realize it as a kid, but now, as an adult with children of
my own, I see how many things my mom intentionally fostered in our lives that allowed us
to find our purpose.”
Homeschooling gave me time with my sons. It not only gave them time with us as parents
(so we could find and grow their God-given talents) but time with each other, which gave
them time to pursue their God-given talents together.
Making Their Way
You see, by the time those two little boys had graduated from homeschool, God had opened
doors for them to pursue their dreams. What was the trajectory of their life? They dreamed
of making Christian motion pictures. You may have seen some of their work. Erwin Brothers,
now called Kingdom Story Company, has made six major motion pictures. The list includes
October Baby, Moms’ Night Out, Woodlawn, I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, the Kurt
Warner story, American Underdog, and the newly released Jesus Revolution. On their
website they wrote, “Our mission is simply to spread the gospel further than it’s ever been,
using film as the medium. By creating bigger, better blockbuster films, we can expand the
reach of the gospel with an undeniable presence in the faith and mainstream market
through stories that have the power to change the world.”
When they were making their movie Woodlawn, I was on the set, and I stood in
amazement. There were more than two hundred crew members working that night. Family
and friends were no longer needed to work the event, but Hank and I did get to host all the
investors, pastors, and heads of many ministries who had come to watch. While I stood
watching my sons run the show, I asked my Lord, How did we get here? We got here step
by faithful step. I like to call them daily deposits.
It’s all a Journey
As homeschool moms, we have the joy of building character in our children little by little,
moment by moment, day by day. We must make daily deposits in their lives early on. As a
mom who has made the choice to homeschool, remember that God has given you the
opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives.
“Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us . . .” —Ephesians 3:20
