Ever heard any of "those" remarks? Our family certainly has over the years. However, none of those comments matter when you know you are doing the right thing, and you truly believe you are following God’s plan for your family. The conviction to homeschool should be just that: a conviction. Convictions do not collapse under the weight of criticism, ridicule, harassment, or even doubt. They may waver momentarily due to our human natures, but if they have a firm foundation, convictions hold strong.

Hi! My name is Kim Lundberg. My husband and I have nine children, and we have been homeschooling for sixteen years now. We love our big brood, and we love homeschooling! We are an eclectic, book-obsessed, history-loving family, and one of our favorite things to do is to manage--by means of a miracle perhaps (and advanced skills in geometry and physics certainly never hurt!)--to find room somehow for just one more bookcase in the house!

Years ago, when my husband and I were missionaries in China, we made the choice to homeschool our children. We knew it was what God wanted us to do, so when our oldest child was four years old, we got started. I must admit that, being the kind of person I am, I was ready to commit for the long haul from the very start. Kindergarten through high school, all the way--that was me! I had read several books on the subject and prayed about it, and it seemed very clear to me that homeschooling through high school was the very best thing for our family.

My husband, on the other hand, wanted to sit back and watch how things progressed during the early years. As time passed, he realized that homeschooling was a wonderful success academically, and he also saw that nothing could beat homeschooling for building strong family relationships. Yet he was still concerned that if we kept homeschooling for too long, the kids might not feel comfortable making friends in the real world, or they might not be able to relate well to other authority figures.

Fast forward several years. We had resettled in the States for health reasons. My husband began teaching Bible classes part-time at a Christian high school, while also working full-time at our local hospital in the ITS department. After just a few weeks, he decided that traditional, institutional high school, whether Christian or public, was definitely not where he wanted our children to spend those crucial teenage years.

He saw that peer-dependency and an immature romance mentality were dominant factors even at the Christian high school. He noticed that there seemed to be little time for delving deeply into important topics, and he wondered how the teens coped with all the homework they were assigned on top of all their extracurricular activities. How could there possibly be any time left for being with family or being with God?

In addition, my husband saw that most of the teens in the school seemed to have no goals or purpose in life. Sure, there were a few exceptional kids that stood out from the crowd, but was that environment really the best place for them? We couldn’t judge for others, but we knew that our children would grow stronger in every way if we continued homeschooling.