Scenario: Deanna is a new homeschool mom with three kids. The oldest is in 10th grade and loves volleyball. The second is a fourth grader who loves math. And the third is a kindergartner with special needs. All planned to do in-person school this year, but because of COVID-19, their family chose to homeschool. Deanna feels some trepidation as she starts her homeschool journey.

Claire Taylor of Midlothian, Texas, said she knew she was on the right track when a friend told her, “You’re already a homeschool mom.” The friend pointed out that Taylor was doing many of the things involved in teaching her children at home. She already thought home education might be a good fit for her sons, 8-year-old Rhett and 6-year-old Reed, but the pandemic gave her the final push to switch.

If you are a parent of school-age children, I don’t have to tell you that COVID-19 has shaken no institution more than education. July saw a mad scramble as school districts across the nation anxiously eyed the data and monitored each other on best practices for reopening their facilities—or not.

As shutdowns and social distancing debates dragged through the summer and COVID-19 flared in the South and West, politicians and educators in Washington, D.C., wrangled over a big question: How should they direct a mighty army of 57 million schoolchildren? Meanwhile, parents across the country wondered how they could provide for their little platoons, children used to the routine of school and likely to be on their own for part or all of the fall.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Gregg and Sono Harris became familiar faces to many in the growing number of Christian families educating their children at home. 

Gregg Harris spoke at conferences and workshops, and the couple’s oldest son, Joshua, became something of a teen icon: He spoke to homeschool audiences, he wrote articles, and he produced New Attitude, a magazine for homeschool kids.

As a young mom, Martha Hazelrigg rarely left the house with her four homeschooled children during school hours. When they did venture out, she coached them to tell inquisitive grocery clerks and shoppers they attended a local Christian school. It was true: Hazelrigg’s children homeschooled through that school’s independent study program. But in 1985, home education was rare, and mothers had legitimate fears that skeptics, even family members, might report them to the government.

On Friday nights during football season in Richfield, Minn., half a dozen 16-year-old boys sporting grass-stained uniforms, still sweaty from practice, filled every chair around the Childs family dining table. They wolfed down whatever food Kristin Childs set on the table: In 40 minutes, they had to be back at school to watch the varsity football game. In those brief 40 minutes, Kristin and her husband Patrick saw an opportunity to show hospitality and Christian love to their son Eastman’s teammates.