September 17, 2023
2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, & where the Spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM!”
With constitution this past weekend Sunday, September 17th, I wanted to give a HUGE thank you to the #HSLDA! The HSLDA (like our founding fathers when they wrote the constitution), used their vast Bible knowledge & discernment to make private homeschooling legal in the state of California, as of August 8, 2008. To this day, private homeschooling is not legal in every state. That is correct. The freedom to choose the education system that best fits each of our children’s individual God-given talents and abilities is not legal in every state! Our family has been so blessed (and the blessings keep coming) by having the freedom to privately homeschool or choose to “school” in whichever program the Holy Spirit is leading each of our children.
I (Mrs. Smith), decided I wanted to homeschool (back in the Fall of 2018), because I saw the opportunity to individualize our children’s academic & extra curricular programs, based on each of their interests & God-given talents. You see, in my job as a Social Pathologist, prior to having children, it was common place to individualize academic programs for children with special needs. In my opinion, individualizing academic programs (ONLY for students with special needs), is discriminatory but that is beside the point.
During that time in 2018-2019, our family had an artist, a passionate Little Leaguer, as well as a first grader who needed a little one-on-one help learning to read. Being encouraged by a friend to individualize our children’s programs through private homeschooling seemed like an amazing opportunity! I could hire experts who were passionate about each of their particular subject areas. In past history, this type of schooling had only been available to royalty!
Fast forward to Fall 2023 and although I loved individualizing our younger three children’s education & extra curricular activities, the last almost 5 years has had a ton of benefits and my reasons for homeschooling have changed! The benefit I couldn’t see until we actually homeschooled ourselves was how many memories we have made as a family and our relationships have deepened with each other and each of our four kids which is priceless and can’t be taken away from us (1 Corinthians 13:8). One of the reasons might be because of all the time we have gotten to spend together compared to traditional school but the most obvious reason has been the fellowship of our Spiritual Family Bible study! This only came about due to mandated California quarantine but of course everything works out for God’s reasons by surrendering to our leaders. Romans 8:28! By putting God’s words into our relationships at home as well as most of the kids academic subjects (like creation science & writing with scripture), the Holy Spirit has begun to sanctify each of us uniquely🔥 I’m not saying God’s words have made us all perfect – we are still a family with conflict like everyone else-but He is burning away our old selves and we are on our way to becoming new (Isaiah 43:19), which is true freedom and freedom that wouldn’t be available without The Bible, The Constitution, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), California Home Educators Association (CHEA), and on and on and on and on with friends and helpers ignited by the Holy Spirit!!!! 2 Corinthians 3:17 Thank you for working to keep our state Free to privately homeschool!