Published here with permission from The MOORE REPORT INTERNATIONAL - January/February 1997

The Moore Foundation, Box 1, Camas, WA 98607

Homeschooling Builds Strong Families

by Dorothy N. Moore

Families, like individuals, are never perfect, but it's always worthwhile to investigate the ideal. We believe that there is no more conducive medium than home education to strengthen families.

Homeschooling parents have shown their love for their children by sacrificing their own desires and committing themselves to their young. Probably the most common positive outcome of homeschooling mentioned by parents is family togetherness of a quality that can seldom happen otherwise. They do things together   worshiping, eating, studying, working and playing. We have seen this carry over into the way parents and children stick together through hard times.

When Mom and Dad go to work at different places and sometimes at different hours and the children go to school, the family often doesn't even share a sit-down meal together. This brings about alienation within the home which can easily lead to family breakup unless parents unite in special efforts to bring them together by giving their children their most valuable gift   time. Many children are deprived of this much-needed ingredient in their lives and sometimes are given material things instead.

A second advantage in togetherness families is the absence of peer dependence, unless your children are more with their age mates than with you in the neighborhood, the church or even in your extended family. It is not easy to say "No" when you see things getting out of hand or you have doubts.

Recently, a mother wrote about her 13-year-old daughter who was invited to a friend's home with the understanding that the friend's father would pick her up. But she had read and remembered Dr. Moore's column, "Just Say No... For Parents." (Mar/Apr MOORE REPORT INTERNATIONAL) She assessed the situation before deciding what to do, and then told the friend that her daughter had too much to do to visit that day. The friend was very disappointed but her own daughter seemed fine.

Later when she asked her daughter about it, she really hadn't wanted to go. This was all made easier by the fact that neither of them liked the father   or his driving habits. Ultimately she discovered that this man is a registered sex offender who molested a local girl about age 12 several years ago and spent several years in jail. Although our goal is never to stimulate suspicion, she joined us in gratitude that the article had turned out to be timely counsel which may have saved her much grief. The lesson here was simple enough, "When in doubt, don't."