Recently, I was stopped at a curriculum fair and asked this question by someone who was considering homeschooling.  Life at our house had been insane for months, and it was a bit of a rough ride.  When she asked me, I knew what she was looking for.  She wanted the basics, the simple answer.  She wanted the legal requirements, the scope and sequence suggestions, the tips for curriculum and the directions to support groups.  But she had caught me on an off day and the answer I bluntly delivered was, “Everything.” 

It takes everything to homeschool.  It takes your time, almost every minute of it.  That time as you stand in the grocery store surrounded by magazines becomes current event discussions for middle school social studies.   During those hours as you wash dishes at the sink and your little boy clings to your leg, you will find yourself teaching elementary physics of water and bubbles.  Those minutes at the end of the day are no longer yours, when your teenager finally comes to discuss the meaning and nature of man from the poetry assignment you gave him that morning.  Seconds as you hide in the bathroom are claimed as little voices ask from under the door, “Mom, what is 2/3 divided by 5?” 

It takes your money. Gone is the cushion of two incomes.  Money takes on new priorities.  Lavish vacations and spendy toys are bygones. Every extra dollar is suddenly viewed as a way to buy music lessons, purchase that curriculum that might help your kinesthetic son learn his phonics, or find that expensive science kit used online.  While your church friends go out to coffee and spa days during school hours, you are busy and broke.  “Me” time and “me” money no longer exists.

It takes your energy.  All of it.  Physically and emotionally homeschooling is draining, for long days are often required where the many hats of teacher, mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend and support group leader/member are juggled.  You will suddenly be misunderstood by friends and family because you homeschool.  They will become confrontational and judgmental of you as a parent and as a person. You will not be able to share your successes with them, for they will not value them.  That confidence that you wear so easily now, will fray at times and if you do not turn to God for refilling daily it will unravel.

Spiritually you will be tested in ways you never knew existed.  For those children you spend the day with are little mirrors that show you very clearly what fruits of the spirit you most need to work on.  Daily you will wrestle with the spiritual attack that you are not “good” enough for the job set before you.  You will have new things to pray about unceasingly. For truthfully, when you homeschool your entire life changes. 

Homeschooling really is discipleship.  It is the daily laying down of your own life for the benefit of others and for the growth of God’s kingdom, one child at a time.  As Dr. Voddie Baucham said during the conference, we begin to build multigenerational lines of faithfulness that affect the whole world around us.  Homeschooling is ministry work, hard and labored with its swells of ups and downs.  It is not for the faint of heart or the weak willed for they quickly fall by the sidelines when the difficult bits come, and they will come.

“But…” I said taking a deep breath, “The rewards are worth it.”  The joy of watching your oldest son share the gospel easily with anyone he meets because he is not peer dependent is worth it.  The pleasure of hearing the child who struggled with reading, read God’s word aloud with understanding and meaning, is worth it.  The happiness of knowing that the strong wills and hearts of those you most cherish are directed toward God first, is worth it.  The rewards are far beyond the sacrifices.  But do not go into this blind or unaware and thus be ill equipped to persevere. Jesus knew that discipleship was costly and He forewarned us all.  Being salt and light to our children and making them bright and flavorful is work worth doing, but count the cost.  It will cost you everything.

“But don’t begin until you count the cost.  For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills?  Otherwise you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds.  And then how everyone would laugh at you!  They would say, “There’s the person who started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!....So no one can become my disciple without giving up everything for me.”

           Luke 14: 28-34 NLT