Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
This school year is our family’s 30th year of active homeschooling. To achieve 30 years, you must have either a very large family or very slow learners. We have the former.

This week I’m going to be sharing a list of lessons our family has learned in the past three decades. Since they are not in any particular order, I’ll start with an intensely practical lesson: Let your phone calls go to voicemail.

Proper use of voicemail in the homeschooling context begins with the greeting. I recommend a Bible verse. Job 5:1 is a good choice: “Call if you will, but who will answer you?” Or, if you are worried about people coming over after you refuse to answer the phone, then you can use Proverbs 1:28, it says: “Then they will call me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.”

Okay. Here’s the serious point. You can’t homeschool when you’re on the phone. And as unfair as this may sound, even if you are giving advice to a caller interested in homeschooling, it still doesn’t count as homeschooling.

And the new version of this maxim—I know this may sound like heresy to some—is that you can’t be on Facebook and be homeschooling.

Homeschooling requires that you focus all available attention on your children. Prioritize your homeschool schedule. It’ll make all the difference.

I’m Mike Farris.