We never planned to be publishers. We're a homeschooling family of eight in Ontario — two parents, six kids, and one very crowded kitchen table. The magazine came later. The questions came first.
If you have children, you know exactly the kind of questions we mean. They arrive without warning, usually mid-bite: "Dad, why does that commercial say we need this?" "Mom, my friend told me the planet is dying — is that true?" "Why does everyone keep saying I can be whatever I want?"
Big questions deserve real answers. And we noticed something uncomfortable about ourselves: too often, our answers fell into one of two traps. Either we dodged — "we'll talk about that when you're older" — or we handed down a verdict without showing our work: "because that's wrong, that's why."
Neither of those raises a discerning kid. Dodging teaches children that the Bible has nothing to say about the real world. Verdicts-without-reasons teach them that faith is something you inherit instead of something you own. We knew both failure modes personally, because we both came from broken childhoods where the big questions went unanswered altogether. When we got married, we promised each other our home would be different: full of laughter, joy, and biblical truth — the kind that gets talked about out loud, not just assumed.
The resource we couldn't find
So we went looking for something to read with our kids. What we found mostly fell into three piles:
- Content so sanitized it said nothing. Lovely pictures, zero contact with the actual world our kids live in.
- Content that engaged culture but did the thinking for the child. Here's the issue, here's your opinion, memorize it.
- Content for adults that we'd have to translate down on the fly — which, with six kids, is a lot of live translation.
What we wanted was simple to describe and apparently impossible to buy: honest writing about the real world, explained at a level kids can grasp, that consistently ends in the same place — open the Bible and let's reason together. Something that respects a child's mind enough to teach them how to think, not just what to think.
So we made it.
What Freedom Kids actually is
Freedom Kids is a magazine built around four pillars: Biblical Discernment, True Freedom, Stewardship, and Creative Engagement. Every article, activity, and puzzle hangs on one of those four hooks. And the most important pages in the issue aren't articles at all — they're the discussion prompt cards for parents. Because the goal of every issue is that it ends with the magazine closed and the conversation open.
Why "Freedom"?
Because it's the most hijacked word our kids will ever hear. The culture defines freedom as the absence of limits — do what you want, be what you want, define your own truth. Scripture tells a better story: freedom isn't the absence of limits, it's the presence of the right ones.
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." — John 8:36
We want our kids — and yours — to be able to hear the world's version of freedom, hold it up next to the real thing, and tell the difference. That's the whole mission, printed and stapled.
Where this is going
Issue No. 1 is out now as a digital download, with a print + digital bundle and an annual subscription on the way. We'll be honest with you the way we're honest in the magazine: we're not a media company. We're a family with a mission, a borrowed dose of courage, and a healthy fear of God. Some homeschool days in our house end in worship; some end in tears over a math page. We'll write about both here on the blog.
If that sounds like your kind of people, we'd love to have you along. Start with the free sample pages, or just grab Issue No. 1 — it's the price of two coffees, and it might just start the best conversation your kitchen table has heard in a while.
— Alex & Marisol