If you are thinking about starting your homeschool journey, it can seem like a lonely endeavor. Making the switch from traditional public or private school to home education is a big transition, but reclaiming family-centered learning doesn’t have to be in isolation.

Homeschooling is better with a friend. At Classical Conversations, you are connected to a local community of fellow families, all walking the homeschool journey together.

Shifting perspective is often the first step when wrestling with the decision to start homeschooling. But once the decision is made, finding community can be sparked by serendipitous conversations in the grocery check-out line or at a birthday party. We look back at our homeschool journey’s path, and we see God leading those life-changing chance interactions.

Take a look at Classical Conversations dad and CFO Rex Elliot’s homeschool journey from a mainstream educational mindset to a family culture of innocent individual learning.

Is There An Alternative To Traditional Education?

“‘Get off my lawn!’ reflects how middle-aged people often feel about the younger generation. The younger crowd disrupts the carefully manicured achievements of a lifetime. They also seem to grab the fruits of that hard work before they’re fully ready.”

As people grow older, they begin to wonder why their parents’ generation refuses to step aside. This hesitation creates a crucial moment. It’s a chance for the younger generation to learn what was never taught and restore the natural cycle of life. But society is nearing a point where this transition may not happen smoothly, leading to new and unexpected challenges, especially in education.

Parents of preschool and school-age children can reconstitute their own family culture by homeschooling their children through high school. Most parents today have mistakenly accepted that the only option to educate young people is through a modern public or private school.

The recent growth of homeschooling has only begun to question that premise, and the degradation of social norms promoted in modern schools has only added fuel to the fire.

The Typical Traditional Education Model

My two oldest children began their elementary education in a parochial school in Massachusetts after I was relocated to Boston by my former employer. The school was filled with well-meaning teachers who shared our faith and values.

For five years of pre-K – 3^rd-grade experiences, I felt that they were receiving a reasonable education, and my daughter’s behavior challenges, as well as my son’s lackluster math scores, could be attributed to their genetic deficiencies likely passed on from my side of the biological collision that spawned them.

It did not occur to me that any learning environment with a student-teacher ratio of 18:1 would be problematic for almost any child.

Sparking the Homeschool Journey

After I decided to semi-retire following years of frustration with a corporate culture that did not align with my family values, I moved the family south to be closer to friends and relatives.

Like many American parents, we placed the children into the local public school without hesitation. In fact, we selected our new neighborhood in the north Atlanta suburbs primarily because of the ratings that the schools there had received. They were an A+ school, but it didn’t take long to figure out that the devil had literally beaten us to Georgia and issued his own report card.

In an initial review of a single section of a 3^rd grade Social Studies textbook on the topic of American Colonialism, I found almost a dozen examples where European immigrants were characterized as white opportunists who only came to the Americas to dominate the native population and exploit the land and its resources.

Meanwhile, the natives were described repeatedly as peaceable people who lived at one with nature and only wished to be left alone.  Since this was occurring only six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the children began the semester at home with personalized iPads.

From the machine, I was alarmed by the sound of my son’s teacher’s elevated-pitched rebuke of him slouching in his chair while staring at Pandora’s version of Brady Bunch boxes. I began to pay more attention to the content distributed through the state-issued screens.

George Orwell would have been undisturbed to find Bill Gates explaining the benefits of online learning, Anthony Fauci instructing kids how to protect their teachers from disease with masks and social distancing, and Bill Nye summarizing the dangers of climate change. I, however, was a bit surprised and not amused.

Providing A Homeschool Community

I was 90% there already, but a little research into the Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum the school was planning to roll out later in the year completed the task of pushing my family out of the modern school nest. But where would we go? Public school was out of the question. The Parochial schools did not have enough places for both children in their assigned grades for the spring semester.

On All Hallow’s Eve of 2020, God would provide the answer. As I enjoyed the Covid modified Trick-or-Treat festivities throughout our new neighborhood with my impending truancy-problem children, my far more sociable wife welcomed the other Covid shut-ins by giving them all much-appreciated candy, mostly my favorite chocolates, in anticipation of extra inventory.

One such wayward group belonged to a beautiful family that lived just half a street away. As it turns out, they shared some common history with my wife, and their lengthy conversation turned to schooling. They were a Classical Conversations family, as the Holy Spirit would have it. With no other viable options immediately in front of us and only dread and despair behind us, we desperately waded into the homeschool ocean.

Homeschool Dads Can Lead

Since I had stepped away from a corporate career—another worthwhile story for another day—and my wife had a complete lack of knowledge or experience with homeschooling and considerable skepticism, I became a homeschooling dad for our children in their first CC Community.

My own ignorance was astounding, so much so that I taught that first semester having only stepped into one Community Day with the family. I was able to muddle through using the e-zines and my own ingenuity. Luckily, my wife attended every Community Day with the children and, after seeing how it was supposed to be done, offered to take over that fall. All were grateful.

Classical Conversations Communities Equip Families

What I witnessed with my immigrant wife, whose first language was not English nor home culture even within Western Civilization, still has me transfixed. I grew to love her even more as I watched her innate organizational skills and personal drive to succeed in building a thriving education environment.

She was successful in large part because of the support she received from the CC community, our neighbor, and our new friend. They not only gave her tools for her newfound teaching career, but they also gave her a social outlet and network of co-collaborators in this incredible parent-led educational journey.

Most importantly, I saw my children regain their innocence and grow into the unique individuals God had designed them to be. We have avoided at least some of past generations’ errors regarding our children’s education and are building a family culture of our own choosing. As a dad, I can only say, “Thank you.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Classical Conversations believe?

Classical Conversations emphasizes that all subjects are deeply interconnected, with God as the ultimate author and creator of each one. As we explore each subject, we gain a deeper understanding of God’s nature, and in turn, knowing more about God enriches our understanding of every subject being taught.

What curriculum does Classical Conversations use?

Classical Conversations Foundations curriculum, grounded in memorization, equips parents and tutors to guide children in building a solid grasp of essential subjects such as history, science, English, geography, math, and Latin, all presented through a Christian lens.

Challenge programs offer a curated curriculum in the six strands of grammar, reasoning, research, logic, debate, and exposition.

Why homeschool with Classical Conversations?

Homeschooling with Classical Conversations connects you to a supportive network of families who grow and learn alongside one another. It provides parents with the resources and encouragement they need to nurture unique, engaged students who embrace learning throughout their lives.

Final Thoughts: The Homeschool Journey

The decision to create family-centered learning in your home is usually marked by tiny realizations and perspective shifts over time. Reclaiming your family’s values at the heart of learning is a blessing that will have ripple effects for generations.

Are you looking to connect with like-minded families along your homeschool journey who are focused on classical Christian education? Find out more about Classical Conversations and join an Information Meeting near you.

The post One Dad’s Inspiring Homeschool Journey to Classical Conversations appeared first on Classical Conversations.

Meet Nathan Williams. He serves as one of three pastors at Northshore Church of Christ in Mandeville, Louisiana—and he’s a long-time homeschool dad! Here’s this homeschool dad’s perspective on how homeschooling with Classical Conversations has helped his family navigate classical, Christian education.

A Homeschool Dad’s Perspective on CC: A Compass and a Wind

My parents homeschooled me and my two brothers back when homeschooling wasn’t cool.

I started first grade in 1984 and graduated twelfth grade in 1996. My parents knew nothing of the classical model of education, but they knew they would honor the Lord by managing the content of my studies.

I’m glad they did.

Meanwhile, my wife had navigated the public schools, which meant she wasn’t classically trained either. She observed the ugly side of mashing together a few hundred worldly-minded youths.

Because I was homeschooled and because my wife was public-schooled, we were both determined to homeschool our children, but we didn’t know exactly where to start.

Read: “Homeschool vs. Public School”

For the first couple of years, we experimented with our oldest child, Josiah (the poor eldest, right?). But one day the Lord connected us to a lovely lady, seemingly at random, who told us she was starting a Classical Conversations community in our area. She asked if we’d join her in this exciting new venture.

Twelve years later, we’re deeply pleased we said yes.

Why? Because Classical Conversations has provided my family ship with a compass and a wind.

Classical Conversations Helps Me Steer the Family Ship

As a husband and father, God gave me the responsibility to lead my family. If things go well in our homeschooling, my wife deserves the praise, as she shoulders the lion’s share of the day-to-day work with the kids.

If things go poorly, though, the buck stops with me—and rightly so.

I am responsible for steering the family ship, for keeping the focus on Jesus, for realizing when course corrections are needed.

The Classical Conversations community gives me and my family a compass by which to navigate our children’s educational oceans, and they provide motivating wind to move the sailboat.

Classical Conversations Casts a Vision for an Educational Destination

As I wasn’t classically educated, I knew nothing about the trivium, the natural stages of educational development through which all children progress. Classical Conversations taught me about the grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric stages of learning.

Read: “What Is the Trivium?”

After walking the homeschool road for twelve years, my two oldest boys have graduated, and the fruit they have borne is sweet. I am glad we trusted the classical model. Not only did it provide an excellent framework for training my kids, but it has helped me to continue my own education.

If you hover around the Classical Conversations community for long, you will hear that parents can redeem their own education.

It’s true!

Classical Conversations Helps Me Get to the Destination

My youngest, Caleb, is about to begin his second year of Essentials, and God has blessed me with a flexible schedule, so I plan to be his Essentials Tutor.

Did I mention that Essentials is my favorite Classical Conversations course?

Whoever named it “Essentials” hit the target, as it provides the essential building blocks and skills these young folks need for understanding and expressing themselves through the written word. In my opinion, most college students today need this course!

My only daughter, Kaia, will start Challenge I soon, and she will implement those building blocks she learned in Foundations and Essentials in math, Latin, writing, and beyond.

Josiah and Xander, my two oldest, completed their first twelve years of education well-equipped to learn whatever they need.

That is a major goal of true education—to teach someone how to learn for himself.

We don’t spoon-feed them any longer because they can now put food on their own plates and, Lord willing, they will eventually provide for others. Classical Conversations provides a vision for getting to that destination and then helps along the way to arrive.

Classical Conversations Provides Constant Support and Encouragement

As a husband, I’m in charge of supporting my wife and making sure she has everything she needs (Ephesians 5:25–33).

When she is with other parents in the CC community, I know that she has friends and support. In fact, although we needed much more cheering on in the beginning years, now we do more cheerleading for younger parents!

If we sent our children to a public school, we would constantly be battling worldly and sinful influences from school acquaintances. No friend is perfect (we all sin), but the children of families who honestly and openly love the Lord tend to make more wholesome friends for my children.

CC communities provide healthy environments for our kids to enjoy, grow, and thrive.

Read: “Why Classical Conversations Members Love Community”

Final Thought

And that’s my “homeschool dad’s perspective” on CC. As I look back over our years with Classical Conversations, I see a few lows, yes, but many highs.

Classical Conversations has given us a compass and a wind. The compass provides real-time feedback on our present location in relation to our destination. The wind moves us toward that right destination.

I’m excited to begin another outstanding year. Praise God for what He has done and continues to do!

The post A Homeschool Dad’s Perspective on Classical Conversations appeared first on Classical Conversations.

Moms and dads are different, and not just in terms of biology. As we ponder the dad’s role in the home school, keep the three “I’s” in mind: influence, impact, and involvement. Dads can exert a positive influence over the home school, impact their kids’ character, and find ways to get involved in homeschooling. While moms do the hard work of “manning” the trenches, dads can act as sounding boards for moms, keep pointing at the big picture, and keep the family pressing toward the end goal.

Influence: A Double-Edged Sword

Influence is a double-edged sword that defaults to every dad.

We all have influence, whether for the affirmative or the negative.

Affirmative influence is a light shining before others. Negative influence, meanwhile, hurts and hinders. Every father must choose: will he be an affirmative or negative influence in his home?

Influence Cascades

Experience has taught me that I must be intentional if I aspire to be an affirmative-influencing dad. Otherwise, I’ll prioritize the wrong things and the result will be regret.

My wife is my first priority as a homeschool dad. Mom has the most control over our kid’s education in our home. That’s her influence. When I am supportive of her, praising and simply talking with her, and acting as her number one cheerleader, I’m exerting an affirmative influence.

And this influence cascades. When my kids see me loving my wife, living out our values, and leading family devotions, they develop a greater appreciation and respect for her, and everyone benefits.

Fun can be a great source of affirmative influence from dads!

Read: “How to Make Homeschooling Fun”

Impact: Intentionality and Eternality

Impact, like influence, comes in positive and negative forms.

Looking back, I can see the negative impact I had on my kids because of my own pride, insecurity, and, worst of all, distraction. I find it easy to become distracted in the doing—in life—and that distraction allows my impact to go unrealized. Unrealized impact is still impact. I may have impacted my kids in a negative way simply because I was not paying attention or I believed the lie that life’s mundane activities do not matter. The mundane is arguably the most important part of life. Everything matters!

Fortunately, God, in His mercy, has shown me these vital errors and allowed me to correct my mistakes. I’ve learned that impact is like influence: you must be intentional.

Start Small, but Focus on the Eternal

Start small. One way I create impact as a dad is by teaching my kids to better aim at the target. Experience teaches two principles: first, you often cannot learn something without failure, and second, you will never hit your target if you do not aim and release your arrow.

If I teach my kids to begin with small goals, they’ll grow to overcome failure. If I teach them to aim small, they’ll miss small. The insurmountable becomes surmountable. And that leads to the eternal.

I’ve learned to focus my impact on the eternal, on that which lasts forever.

Would I rather make an impact by focusing all my energy on teaching my kids how to play basketball, rake up leaves, or clean their rooms? Certainly, those are worthy activities, but are they the aim of life? Or would I rather make an eternal impact by teaching them those invaluable underlying principles of life, to work with all of their heart as working for the Lord, and not man, and to make the joy of the Lord their strength?

By focusing my impact on the eternal, the little activities—basketball and raking leaves—become worthwhile, and my kids gain that perspective.

Education is a journey that begins with baby steps.

Read: “Raising Lifelong Learners”

Involvement: To Be or Not to Be

To be or not to be involved?

How will I feel reflecting over my life in my later years? Will I feel confident with the level of involvement I had in my family? What if my level of involvement hurt my kids’ trajectories? How would I feel then? Would I be okay knowing that I had avoided the hard because my flesh desired the easy?

Of course, it’s easier for me not to be involved with my kids’ education. It is easier for me to simply “bring home the bacon” and leave the homeschooling to my beautiful wife, the mother of my children. Being involved requires effort.

But it’s worth it. Involvement is the pillar for impact and influence; you can’t influence your family or impact your kid’s life without getting involved first.

Ask Questions, Make Yourself Available

In my experience, getting involved as a dad is often a simple matter of just asking lots of questions and then making yourself available. Involvement often doesn’t need to be specific: just be there in some capacity.

I volunteered at a homeless shelter for about a year. Early on, I was sitting at the lunch table by myself, and an older, wise man who had started and ran the shelter came and sat down with me for a minute.

He asked me what’s up. I told him that I wasn’t sure what I could do to help serve. He responded in a gentle, noncondemning way and simply suggested,  “Just do something.”

I will always remember that interaction and the life principle he taught me that day. I’ve learned that I do not have to always get it right, that I am created to take risks, and that God has given me a gift called faith, and my responsibility is to exercise it.

I aim to teach my kids the same.

Dads, learn more about classical education and find more ways to get involved with this free resource:

A Dad’s Guide to Classical Education

Numquam Cede

I still have that inclination to choose that easy route and do nothing to contribute to my kids’ schooling. But, whether I want to or not, I have influence, and I make an impact.

So why not choose the hard? Be involved. Be intentional.

As a dad, I emphasize to my kids that they do not have to be the best, the smartest, or the most creative. They should not measure themselves against other kids in the classroom. Instead, they should make an effort to do their very best, making small changes one at a time.

And my advice to other dads is the same. Consider this quote from the Lord of the Rings: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us.”

Numquam cede. Never surrender. Fight the good fight and be encouraged.

Interested in sharing your influence, making an impact, and getting involved?

Consider making a difference as a Licensed Director!

The post Homeschooling: From a Dad to a Dad appeared first on Classical Conversations.

“There is the great lesson of “Beauty and the Beast”; that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.” 

“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.”

G.K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy

I used to believe that homeschooling was not for everybody. I am often told there are mothers out there who should not be homeschooling their children. I no longer believe either of those things.

This is not to say that there are not mothers who are so chaotic in their thinking and living that they would make poor teachers. Rather, it is to say that their chaos is not innate: They were not created in the image of chaos; they were created in the image of God. Therefore, their chaos can be brought into harmony. They can learn how to be patience, to teach, and to learn.

When my wife and I began moving towards homeschooling, I was the catalyst. She was the reluctant one. She had a litany of excuses she would recite to me, from impatience, disorganization, and incompetence, to everything in between. Her litany was so patiently prepared, so well organized, and so competently presented that it belied itself; I did not believe it. The next school year we began homeschooling.

One of the first things—a practical thing—that struck me was this feeling of incompetence that is found among parents who are reluctant to homeschool. Forgive my glibness, but the very system that made you an incompetent teacher is the one you want to educate your children? I cannot believe that this is what we would want for our children! Be that as it may, though, it does not solve the problem of incompetence. The real crux of the difficulty is that if the system that made me incompetent to teach my children will only make them incompetent, too, where can I turn? If I then accept my responsibility to educate my children myself, but I am incompetent, how will I be able to train my children to be competent? This is a difficult dilemma.

Enter the transformative power of love. This is the “Beauty and the Beast” lesson to which G.K. Chesterton referred. All parents are naturally homeschooling: We teach our children to eat, walk, talk, and potty in the potty. Some of these tasks take more patience, organization, and persistence than teaching a child calculus! Incompetence is already being overcome as soon as we begin our parenting journey.

Again, I do not believe that there are mothers who cannot, or should not, homeschool. Incompetence is not innate to the human soul. It is learned. It can be unlearned. The resources that are available to homeschooling parents are ubiquitous, and the defining characteristic of a teacher is that she learns. Any actual incompetence is overcome because the children are learning from a learner who is herself in the process of self-correcting and improving.

Every other supposed hindrance to homeschooling can be overcome by love. First, consider the power of words. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. How did He accomplish this task? He accomplished it with His words. God spoke the creation in to existence. Our ability to create is limited in that we are reorganizers of creation from glory to glory—God created gold, we reorganize it into jewelry. This does not mean, however, that our words have no power. Jacob blessed his sons, and his blessing meant something. It did something to those who were blessed by him.  Fathers bless their wives—the mothers of their children—simply when we  speak encouraging words to them. Impatience, disorganization, and incompetence can be overcome by words from a father when he is blessing (not “guilting!”) his wife towards patience, organization, and competence.

Second, consider the power of love. We become capable of love because we are first loved. We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We become lovable because we were first loved—the “Beauty and the Beast” principle. This isn’t just a lesson from a fairy tale, however. The Church becomes beautiful because Christ loves her (Eph 5:25-27). Mothers become lovable as patient, organized, and competent teachers of their children because fathers make the effort to love their wives as such. Finally, we become great because we are loved. As Chesterton pointed out, men did not love Rome because she was great; she was great because they had loved her. Mothers will be the great teachers they are capable of being because fathers love them into it; we do not love them because they are great teachers.

Fathers, therefore, are transformers. We are not robots that can transform into powerful weapons or machines, but we are lovers who can transform mothers into women of beauty; patient, organized, competent beauties who can raise a generation of children who are virtuous, wise, and beautiful as well—a people who will then be teachers and transformers of the world we bequeath to them.

This is weighty. Failure, therefore, is a result of the failure of a father to be a transformer more than it is of mother to be a teacher. Fathers encourage and empower mothers as teachers by transforming them through encouraging words and acts of love. My own wife is not only committed to homeschooling, but to homeschooling our children through high school. She is also committed to modeling to other mothers the truth that they can do what she has done. However, more than hearing and seeing other mothers who have succeeded, mothers need to know that their husbands—the fathers of their children—are behind  them, encouraging them and loving them into being great.

Love transforms, and a father is the loving transformer of a mother. Love your wife. Love the mother of your children. Be a transformer.

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