My husband is the general manager of a Christian bookstore, one with an abundance of homeschool materials compared to most its size, and he has so many discouraged and floundering homeschool mothers come in with this question or some variation of it. Am I qualified to teach my kids? How do I know if I’m qualified to teach them? What if I’m not qualified to teach them? What if there’s one (or more) subject(s) I feel particularly unqualified to teach?

My answer to that question would have to be… it depends.

First you have to figure out what you are really asking.

Are you asking if you are fully knowledgeable of and qualified to teach basic math, consumer math, algebra, geometry, biology, anatomy and physiology, physics, language arts, literature, American history, world history, and at least one foreign language and an instrument (i.e. to replace the entire faculty of a K-12 educational institution)…

Then no, you’re not qualified. That is an outrageous job description that very few if any parents can meet!

If instead you are asking if you are a reasonably well adjusted, intelligent adult who has a good grasp of basic life skills and common sense to pass on to your children, and who is perfectly capable of helping your children find the resources they need to learn the things they need and want to learn that you don’t happen to know…

Well, are you?

You see, the question you are asking and the answer you need depend greatly on what your children actually need and what stick you think you should measure yourself and your children by. What are your goals in teaching your own children? Who’s opinion truly matters in this discussion?

And if you aren’t sure on that very foundational issue, then please let me help you find (or regain) your footing.

God’s Opinion of Your Children’s Education is Most Important

We nod our heads to this truth, but let’s be honest… as with many other truths we “know” about God and life, we more often than not don’t live like it’s true.

For example, in your homeschool, you might say “oh, of course God’s opinion matters most of all”. So you try to give your little “school” a catchy name that includes this idea of honoring God. Maybe you try to start off your days with some kind of Bible reading, Bible story, or prayer. But then what do we do?

We say okay, my child is in “x” grade and “x”-graders should be learning this, this and this at these levels and so I need to find a textbook or curriculum to cover all these bases. But of course I want a Christian curriculum because I love God and want to put him first.

Stop for a minute and look back at that paragraph. In just a couple of sentences, how many of your assumptions and foundations came from God and how many from somewhere else? Is God really first in that line of thought, or is he just tacked on the end as somewhat of an afterthought? Even you if you were to rearrange the sentences so that the first thing you say is that it should be a Christian curriculum or book, does that actually make any difference to your assumptions and your priorities?

If I don’t seem to be making sense, just bear with me here and let me ask you a few questions:

• Firstly, who says what grade your child should be in?
• Next, and digging a bit deeper, where did the method of assigning grades even come from?
• What if your child is “doing poorly”, and you aren’t sure what to do about that? How do you figure out what grade he is in? Do you need to hold him back?
• What if your child is “gifted” and you think he should be in a higher grade than others his age? How do you navigate that? Does someone need to approve of it somehow?
• Next, what about the issues of subjects? Who or what decides which subjects your child should learn at a certain age and why? How do you decide whether to add in or leave off any subjects?
• What exactly are textbooks and curriculum? Why are they the answer (or at least the starting point) to most of our homeschooling questions?
• How should you go about grading your child’s work, approving or disapproving of it in a helpful way?
• Most importantly, for whom and/or from whom are you “covering all your bases”?
• And to top it all off, what in the world should you do you do about that dreaded record keeping?!

There’s so much to think about, it’s not wonder we end up so overwhelmed and scared. It feels like there’s a lot to mess up and little reassurance that we are ever doing it “right”.

So, let me ask, have you ever asked any of these types of questions and, if you have, who do you ask them to?

If you’re asking Google, well, good luck with that one! You’ll get as many answers as there are stars in the sky…

Or maybe you are asking other godly homeschoolers, which is most certainly a better place to start but can still end in confusion and frustration from too many “helpful” voices.

Maybe you’ve asked people who make or sell a curriculum you are interested in, or someone who puts out homeschooling podcasts or summits (and interestingly, much of the time, their unique methodology or their curriculum that just so happens to be on sale for a limited time is the answer to your problem).

Have you ever thought to take these questions to the Lord first? Has it occurred to you to take your very most foundational assumptions about learning, education, and homeschooling to him and his revealed revelation in his word to see if it’s even in line with his goals for you and your children?

I would argue (and will continue to flesh out) that I believe our very starting point as homeschoolers is often entirely wrong. I believe most of us start with many flawed assumptions and that inevitably leads to loads of questions, doubts, guilt, and confusion.

God Has Given You His Scope and Sequence

I can’t go into everything in one post but I think just a couple of verses may help you start to rethink your starting point and align better with God’s agenda.

Are you ready for it??

Forget everything else you know, everything else you’ve ever learned about education…

THIS is God’s scope and sequence for your children:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
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Deuteronomy‬ ‭6:4-7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

That’s it.

That includes both what God wants your children to learn and how he wants them to learn it. (It actually answers quite a few questions regarding education in one fell swoop, but we’ll get there…)

And for further direction and clarification…

“Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.”‬‬

Proverbs‬ ‭22:6‬ ‭AMPC, emphasis mine

God tells us to teach our children, gives us a very specific body of knowledge to teach, and gives us the methodology we are to use.

Can you fulfill that assignment? Better yet, do you think that you can fulfill that assignment on the Lord’s wisdom and strength?

That is the real question you should be asking yourself and the only one that matters.

Anything That Hinders You From Following God’s “Scope and Sequence” Has to Go

This is tough. Really really tough.

I’ve been working through this part for almost 12 years and it’s still a struggle to let go of all the worldly trappings regarding education; to keep on trusting that God’s way is all that is required of me and that it is always best.

There is so much opposition to face and there is a reason:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John‬ ‭10:10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If God’s plan is perfect and designed for our good and his glory, and that includes his plan for education, then of course the enemy wants to thwart it any way he can. And so often, the subtler the better so that we don’t catch on to what he’s doing.

I believe that by twisting, adding to and complicating God’s plan for our children’s growth, our enemy has successfully stolen much of our joy and effectiveness as well.

We get so lost in endless rabbit trails of the “who’s”, “where’s”, “when’s”, “what’s”, and “how’s” of our children’s educations that we’ve forgotten the “why’s”. We’ve abandoned the very heart of God’s will for ourselves and our children and then expect his blessing and peace, and there’s a reason those things often evade us.

So back to the original question but using the right measuring stick…

What are God’s Qualifications for You to Teach Your Children?

1) That you have children 😉

2) That you know and serve him as Lord… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might…

3) That you prioritize His Word and learning from it yourself… And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart…

4) That you prioritize communicating to your children what you have learned/are learning about God… You shall teach them diligently to your children…

5) That you are willing to do your best to help your children apply God’s word to the various aspects in life… and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise...

6) That you are willing to give them the basic tools and reasonable freedom they need to explore the world around them in a way that honors God and acknowledges who he made them to be... Train up a child in the way he should go…

That’s all that’s required.

So don’t be so hard on yourself, don’t let fear entangle you, and don’t worry about what others think or say about you. You encouraging your children in their learning will look as unique as you and that individual child… don’t let anyone put a heavy yoke on you or your child. Don’t put one on yourself.

Live, learn, and love your children in the freedom of the Lord!

Our goal for our lives includes not only doing the work [God] has given us to do, what we call the dominion mandate, not only exercising dominion over our children (that is, raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord), but seeing that they are about the business of doing the same. You want to see your children, now abiding in the true vine, bear forth much fruit. You want them to grow in grace, to become more sanctified, to become more and more like Jesus. You want them to be consumed with pursuing first the kingdom of God. […] Thinking that education is something different from discipling our children is a sure sign that we have been ‘educated’ by the state. Education is discipleship.”

R.C. Sproul Jr., When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling

No matter how devoted we are as Christian parents to seeing that our children get a “Christian education”, most of us still associate learning with this false dichotomy of “religion” and “education” that we’ve all been taught. It’s hard to think outside of that because of how ingrained it is in us, and has been for generations now.

You go to church to learn about the things of God and school to learn about all the “other stuff”, right?

But there is no “other stuff”! All things there are to know are either the things of God or, because we live in a fallen world, the things in opposition to him. There is no neutral ground in a world created by and ruled by him.

Sending our children to the state for education is not neutral.

But neither is taking the state’s model home and trying to tack Jesus onto it.

“Knowledge” in the Bible consistently implies knowing the things of God, not some specific scope and sequence laid out by man.

But we’ve been taught all of those things for so long that we accept them as true and function as if they are true. I grew up homeschooled most of the way through myself, my mother being a Christian and strongly emphasizing a Christian approach, but it hasn’t been until the last several years that I’ve realized the deep effects of any dichotomy at all existing in how we are taught.

Learning math (the logical order God has written into the fabric of the world) or science (how the parts of his world function and interact with each other) or history (how he has providentially worked in time) or life skills (how we are to function in a way that brings him glory) all fall under that knowledge. They aren’t separate, they aren’t “secular”, they can’t be learned well in a vacuum.

I grew up thinking that math and English “skills” were somehow set apart from life in general. Separate. That they were kind of “neutral” but you had to master them to live out in the world. Secular. That science could be learned 100% indoors. Vacuum.

My mother never said any of that. It’s just how “school” is “done”.

I hated history throughout all of my school years, it just seemed entirely disconnected from real life and felt overwhelming and boring and burdensome. I saw it as separate from my faith that was so deeply precious to me, as secular – essentially just a massive heap of facts to memorize for no apparent reason – and learned it in the lovely, dry vacuum known as History Books without all the priceless interconnectedness of people’s lives and events and God’s working in it all. If it had been presented to me as deeply interconnected to my faith and I could have learned it through books that brought it to life, I would have been all over it, as I am now!

I don’t say any of that to pick on my mom… I believe she did the best that she could with her understanding of how to Biblically raise her children. And how I grew up was so vastly different than how I could have if I had been raised by the public school system. I am so very thankful for how God protected me in that way.

I only share it all to say that homeschooling unfortunately doesn’t solve this problem.

Setting apart hours of your child’s day for “school” (which I might point out is itself borrowed terminology)naturally teaches this separation.

Teaching your children, this is “school time” and this is “normal life” teaches the dichotomy. You don’t even have to say it.

All of this is why I would implore all Christian parents to determine to tear down the example of government schools all the way to the foundation and start over.

Don’t try to dig the old foundation out from under the building and awkwardly shove a new one down there. Don’t decide that increasing the height of the building and adding some architectural flair to it will make it better. Tear it all down.

And start by building a brand new foundation. One that says that discipleship is the main thing. Because it is. Education is discipleship.