The following is Odelia’s testimony.  You can read Tiffany’s testimony here.

Hello,

My name is Odelia. I am eighteen years old, almost nineteen. I have been homeschooled from K-12, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications in 2020. Here is my story.

My father and mother taught me how to think, read, and write, beginning from when I was just a young child. From there, I could teach myself anything. And once I knew how to do that, I could learn anything I wanted to. And to some extent, that’s exactly what I did!

From age seven to age seventeen, I worked through mathematics, science, history, and English, as well as several other courses that were more or less “electives,” such as horse-riding, Chinese, and art. The Bible and my study of it, either together as a family or by myself, was (and still is) a huge part of my education. I learned how to read by reading the Bible; how to write by copying the Bible; how to memorize things by putting Bible verses to memory; how to apply what I learned by doing what the Bible says, as much as I could; and how to speak in front of others, by being part of our family’s daily Bible devotions.

When I was fifteen, my family came across Lumerit, formerly CollegePlus!. Lumerit provided me with the opportunity to earn a degree from home at a cheaper price, and in less time. (At the end, the costs of all the fees and courses together wasn’t really any less than the total tuition costs of universities in Ontario, but we didn’t have to pay for anything other than the textbooks, admission/graduation fees, and the course tuition fees.) I first enrolled into a degree track that would culminate in a B.A. in English, then switched half-way to Communications.

When I was working with Lumerit and taking courses through their platform, I took twenty-three courses in one year. This was possible only because a) my parents paid for the Unlimited Plan, which allowed the student to study as many courses (from those that Lumerit offered through their platform) as he/she could or wants to in one year; b) my parents were patient with me, and allowed me to “go all out” and do as many courses as I could, and finally; c) I stressed myself out and pushed really hard. I would recommend unlimited plans for confident, fast, and experienced (at least with online courses) students who want to finish college in the least amount of time. Looking back, though, it might have been better to have started with a five-course or eight-course bundle.

Those twenty-three courses I did in one year (I ended up using twenty-two of them on my final transcript) earned me enough credits for two years, which meant that I had cut off one year of studying for my degree. (Usually, a Bachelor’s would take four years: I finished mine in three.)

After this, I took the AP Language and Composition exam, which went for university credits for English. Then, I transferred to a “real” university, and took a bunch of courses from that university until I earned the required number of credits to get a degree. Then I applied for graduation, and I was done! 

I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to learn at home and get a degree online. Though there were things I did not like and would want to have changed about my schooling journey—I didn’t like having to use the computer for long hours each day, I didn’t enjoy having to work with secular textbooks and ideas in university and to have to use them as if they were right or acceptable, and I did push myself too hard and ended up hurting my physical health during that time—overall, it was a wonderful and enlightening journey.

Now, I am a writer and teacher.

I’m not sure how I should end this narrative, so I would close with a few thoughts on education versus schooling, and what has been most useful to me as I was “schooled.”

First, pursue an education, not just schooling. Learn (and teach yourself/others) to think, read and write. Learn to teach yourself, and learn things. Learn to be hardworking, diligent, and teachable (humble). Most of the time, time spent doing “bookwork” isn’t as productive or useful as time spent actually exploring the world with our feet, hands and eyes, learning about history and science by reading real books and primary documents from people who really lived during those times, and actually doing something about what is being learned about.

Also, one never graduates. Learning never stops. I don’t plan on getting another degree (though I did earn a Diploma in Applied Nutrition, in late 2020, to become a Certified Holistic Nutritionist) but that doesn’t mean I stop educating myself or learning and doing something new every day. Learning is a life-long endeavor—learning is living. Life is not something you put on hold for “schooling,” or something that comes after schooling. Learning should be about life and how God wants us to live it, knowing what to do with what we know and have, and doing what God has called us to do.

One last thing I would like to point out is, that it is crucial to get a firm foundation in the Bible, especially if you plan on going to university or college. Become Biblically literate. Understand what worldviews are, how they work, what different worldviews are based on, and why it all matters. Much of what is taught in school and universities are not Biblical or God-honoring. The school I went promoted itself as a faith-based university, but they used textbooks and course materials that were not based on the Bible, but were based on man’s twisted ideas of right and wrong, and things like that. I am glad that my mother and father taught me to study the Bible, to trust it, and to obey it. I’m glad that I did so. I also learned about worldviews, how to counter bad arguments, and how to identify bad ideas. You need that solid foundation if you want to stay strong and steadfast in the faith during and after getting a degree from a university. The battle of ideas is real, and the devil has a lot of tricks and wiles, some that are really subtle, and hard to catch and defend one’s self from.

I think that’s all I have to share: if you have any questions or comments, feel free ask me!

God bless, Odelia

In December 2020, our 2 oldest daughters Tiffany and Odelia had successfully completed their undergraduate degrees.  What is amazing is both of them were able to finish the bachelor degree in 3 years before they turned 20 years old.  All our children are home educated and none of them has set foot in a public school.

I thank God that we still have that kind of freedom in Ontario, although much of our liberty has been taken away since the covid restriction.

I remembered that 10+s years ago when we declared to our parents and friends that we would be homeschooling our children, the doubt and negative feedback were overwhelming.  However, we felt that God was calling us out of the public school system and to teach them based on biblical principles and values.  Academic achievement was not our main focus.  Our primary goal was to lead them to Jesus Christ and teach them to trust Him who holds all the wisdom, power, authority and riches of this world.

My wife Kay was the primary educator and she had spent countless hours in teaching our children everything she could possibly pass on:  Bible knowledge, reading, math, science, drawing, singing, piano, photography, etc….  You may ask, any Christian school teacher can teach the same subjects so why bother?

The “magic” lies in the bonding between a parent and a child, with everything done in a loving and forgiving environment.  Children thrive naturally when their parents are “there” for them every single day, watching and encouraging their every step along the way.  Homeschooling provides the opportunity for parents to tailor-made a unique curriculum for individual child; whereas it is impossible to do so in a public or even private school system.

It was a long journey that finally bears its first fruits.

As some families are interested in knowing more about the children’s homeschooling experience, my wife has asked Tiffany and Odelia to share their side of their education journey.  Here they are:

Hello, people,

I’m Tiffany, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chan, and the oldest in a family of 10 (8 children). I was homeschooled from day one and all through high school by my amazing parents. Last year, I graduated with a BA in Music and an AAS in Criminal Justice from Thomas Edison State University. Currently, I am teaching piano to local students. I am also teaching English online with a company called Home 2 Teach.

One of the most important things my parents taught me early on was how to learn by myself. In the process, they instilled in me a great love of learning, for which I am immensely grateful. My parents gave me the tools of self-learning by teaching me how to read, to write, and to think with a clear mind. They encouraged me to always press forward, even when things got hard.

In elementary and high school, I did science, English, history, and math… the usual core subjects. We used textbooks from various publishers. My mom made learning about the Bible a mandatory part of our schooling as well, and would tell me to copy Bible passages, memorize verses, and read it regularly. As I was interest in music, I also practiced (and still practice) the piano, and took violin lessons for a few years.

When I was in Grade 11, I took an AP English and Composition class from PA Homeschooler, and completed the exam as well. It was an amazing experience. Taking the class forced me to think critically, and taught me how to present arguments in an effective way. And best of all, the exam was really, really fun (well, to me, anyways).

While I was taking the AP class, I also started taking some college-level courses from Lumerit (here-it was different back then. Update: Since Pearson Education purchased Lumerit Education, the more similar program is here) . They were fully online, and self-paced. I like self-paced courses because it means I can finish a 2 month course in a week if I wanted to. I had decided to major in music, and since Lumerit did not offer any music courses, I took some online music theory courses from other universities. I then enrolled at my target university, transferred all the credits I had earned to that university, and took the rest of the courses I needed in order to fulfil the requirements of the degrees. Then I applied for graduation, and I was done! This journey took me almost 3 years to complete.

Some of you might be asking, how did I complete a music degree online? First, I got a Bachelor of Arts, and not a Bachelor in Music. A BMus would focus much more on music itself, while a BA would require more general education courses. You can find music history and music theory courses that are offered as online courses. As for the practical part of music playing, I continued to take lessons during these years from a local piano teacher with a PHD who once taught at Universities.  I also utilized local music festivals, musical, and recitals opportunities to get performing experiences.  All these helped me to create portfolios to showcase my performing abilities. This was one thing I liked about TESU; as far as I know, you can only do a completely online degree and major in music, if you go with TESU. Anyways, for every portfolio, I had to write about 5 pieces of music. For each piece, I had to write about its history, its form and key, and some key points on things to look out for when practicing and performing the piece. Then, I also included a link to a video of me playing that piece. As the purpose of the portfolios is to show the university what you have done, I was able to use videos from previous years. (If anyone is interested in pursuing this same path, I’ll always be ready to help!)

I am satisfied with the path I took in regards to higher education. Online university allowed me to be at home almost all of the time, and it also enabled me to complete in 3 years what would have probably took 4 if I had gone to university in person. With Lumerit, I was able to start taking university courses before I finished high school, thus saving me even more time and allowing me to graduate before turning 20.

I hope this narrative is beneficial for some of you. I want to encourage you to always keep learning. You never graduate. There are always more things to learn. However, I do want to caution against learning for the sake of learning; learning is not about being the smartest person on earth. Our purpose in growing our knowledge should be that doing so will allow us to serve God and others even better. For example, knowing more about the Bible will enable us to know more about God’s will for us, and thus we will be more able to live according to His will.

Odelia mentions below that it is most important to have a solid foundation in the Bible. That is true. The world is a battleground, and you must be armed with God’s Word in order to not be swayed by the ideas of the world.

Let me know if you have any questions.

In Christ,

Tiffany Chan

Odelia’s Homeschooling Testimony