Homeschooling

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Just to clarify, no I’m not married. I am trying to determine the type of lifestyle I could have in the ministry. I think homeschooling is the best way to go. Like I said, I am very encouraged by what I’ve read. I don’t mind driving a used car or not having cable TV if it means having a godly family.

By properly counting the cost and determining what I should work towards I hope to stay on track over the next X years until I start a family and enter the ministry (D.V.).

I sincerely appreciate everyone who has participated in this thread. It's not only been beneficial for me, but for any future PBer who might want to go into the ministry.

Thanks!!! :applause:
 
Mom and Dad still worry about this young man who has never went on a date or even so much as held a girl's hand.
AMR

I am sure dozens of guys on this board would be delighted with such a track record for themselves or future son-in-laws.
 
My son missed the social interaction, proms, and dating.

Brother, I'm struggling to find a downside in this sentence...

This sounds more like a litany of triumphs than anything.
I hear you and continue to tell the same to my son, who seems perfectly content (at present) with his situation. It is my own failure, relying on my own wayward ways as a youth, to see the beauty in such a situation.

AMR
 
Jonathan,

I support my wife and I on about $24,000. We could easily homeschool if we had kids...and would. I am totaly against public (liberal indoctrination) education. There is an excellent Christian School that I would love to send kids to, but it cost too much. Homeschooling is wonderfull and challenging. I went to the public schools. I wish I could have been homeschooled. (Of course we're way to old to have kids now, but I wanted to let you know that taking care of a family is possible on a cooks income.)

And that's the most important part of the homeschooling question. Being willing to have a stay at home wife. And being happy with what you have. We don't have alot of $$, but like in a nice mobile home on a lake that we are buying, and we eat very well. (My wife is a great cook!) Once you get that, homeschooling will be very possible.
 
I would think that a minister's income could handle this. My church is very small but my pastor makes just as much as I do if not more.
 
Just to give a ballpark figure, many families I've asked lately have told me they spend about $800-$1000 on homeschooling. All of these families had at least 3 kids and as many as 7. Most people advised that you could spend less than that if you put more work into getting supplies or made liberal use of free resources (using the library primarily, buying books and such used, reusing materials for subsequent kids). That's about $83 a month. We found it in our budget by cutting our cable and trash service. However, after about a year of doing kindergarten at home, we haven't come anywhere near spending that much. I bought a $25 book for teaching her to read, and then spent $20 on two K - level math books. We go to the library 2-3 times a week to get new books for read-alouds and reading practice for her. I also have an amazon wish list with all the books I'm planning on using next year so my family can give her those for birthdays if they wish. It doesn't seem necessary at this point to buy entire curriculums with so much available for free - I'm sure this will change as we continue and all of our kids are using materials. So unless you go whole hog right off, you probably wouldn't spend anywhere near that much until you had several kids doing school. As an aside, my pastor's family has 5 and I think uses the Veritas Press curriculum, which I know is quite expensive. I think you just have to budget for it and cut other things, depending on what you want to use.
 
Yo,

Homeschooling is cheap. Public schooling is deadly and free to send your child to hell. So I guess I'm a cheapo...LOL...

But a ministers Salary is more than enough, I mean the Presbytery's I know be paying that bread so you should be more than able to provide for a family to take many vacations and the whole nine yards...LOL...


Grace and Peace,
seal
 
I haven't been here in a couple weeks and come back to find a thread about one of my favorite subjects! :D

I agree with everyone who said that money isn't the issue when it comes to homeschooling. Homeschooling is a lifestyle, not just another educational choice in my opinion. If you believe what you are doing is right then it doesn't matter how much or little money you have in doing it.

We have been homeschooling from the beginning and at one point were making less than $20,000 a year and we have looked back and not known how we even payed bills and ate. But, the Lord provided.

Homeschooling does not have to be expensive. One year we bought a full curriculum package (1st grade Rod and Staff) and paid about $200-300. We didn't even use all of the books. I feel that full packages are usually a waste. We are what you call "eclectic, relaxed" HSers. To find out more about what those terms mean in the HS world you can go HERE. A friend of mine runs this site and has some very helpful info there.

Some sources of free curriculum or resources are:


The Puritan's Homeschool Curriculum


Old Fashioned Education

Ambleside Online

Tanglewood Education

1,000 Good Books

Directory of Unit Studies


Homeschool Helper Online


Now, I am not endorsing everything on these sites. We all have to use discernment for ourselves. There are lots more resources online but it would take me forever to post them all (not that I even know them all). I commend you for thinking this through before you get married. :)
 
Dear Jonathan,

It's not about a dollar amount. The basic issue is being willing to follow the Lord wherever He leads - into the ministry, a particular call, marriage, children, homeschooling, etc.

We discipled our children full-time through many years on one salary below the national poverty level, step by step, as the Lord enabled us. As Corrie ten Boom said, "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer."
 
We've been at four different churches (due to moving to new cities) in the past five years. In all of them, at least one of the elders has homeschooled, some with large families.

My husband is a software engineer, but was laid off during the dotcom bust and we had no income for 13 months straight. We still homeschooled that year. The Lord just provided. I did some tailoring for some ladies at church and painted a mural in exchange for books. We used the library. For the smaller kids who are learning to read, you don't really need a curriculum, just patience and a little creativity (or a willingness to search for ideas online and maybe join a homeschool forum where you can meet other people who are creative and just mine their ideas).

There are cheap ways to homeschool, it's really a matter of committing to it.

And for a philosophical perspective: for the vast majority of home schoolers I know of all income levels, the hard part isn't financing the books! It's being joyful and meek and gracious on a daily basis with little sinners underfoot, bigger sinners with their books at the kitchen table and the remaining sin in our own hearts.
 
Homeschooling should be relatively cheap depending on how many children you have.
I was homeschooled each year for probably $500 or less. I just used used books which were in good condition, it honestly worked out great for me.

I don't mean to enter an extremist point of view, but if I had a child, they would be homeschooled for probably a good portion of their education. When they are young and are simply learning fundamentals such as K-4th they could be educated in public schooling, (although if I was blessed in such a way I'd send them to a private Christian school like I was) but after a certain point, I'd want them to be homeschooled. You enter really fake societies and groups of people and they generally start becoming theologically weak (from observation) and it's not good.

If you make approx 50K a year, you should be able to do it no problem. God is also faithful to provide and if He wants you to homeschool your kids, He will certainly provide a way to make it happen, just be sure to be in prayer about it!
 
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