Who, me, a homeschooling mom?

from the archives. originally posted 9.27.2012

In the list of things I said I’d never do, homeschooling was most likely at the top of the list. I never had a set reason, it was just one of those things I thought I’d have to see writing in the sky in order to do it! It’s also something I don’t talk a whole lot about on the blog since I know it can divide people into two camps faster than you can say “politics.”

I want to be forthright in saying, I don’t hate public school! At all! That is not our reasoning behind it. There are also those who homeschool to hide from reality; nope, not us either. Others do it so they can wear the awesome homeschool uniform of blue jean jumpers and tennis shoes. Um, most definitely not me.

Here I am, a few weeks into my third homeschooling. It’s all my son, now a second grader, has known, and now my first daughter is in kindergarten and I’m homeschooling her as well.

Our kids on the first day of school this year.

Along with an almost-two-year old and another baby due in 9 weeks, I am not going to lie and say that homeschooling is easy. It’s not. It is without a doubt one of the hardest things I have ever done.

It requires lots of organization, which I don’t normally possess. Great time management, something else at which I  don’t consider myself an expert. Oh, yes, and patience. Lots and lots of patience. If you have extra patience lying around, please throw me some!

But. When God leads you to do something, you either do it or you don’t, and as I am slowly learning over the years, things turn out much better when you do what he says, even if it seems crazy!

The summer before my son started kindergarten, we enrolled him in a great public school. But I had no peace about it. One of the main reasons we started tossing about the idea of homeschooling was our schedule. With hubby as a pastor, we almost never get a full “regular” weekend. If Landon (and now Allie) were on a traditional school schedule, we would never get to see my parents. They live about 3.5 hours away, and time with them is something very important for us. We have to be at church about 49 out of 52 Sundays a year, so when we want to make a weekend trip, we leave Thursday evening and return Saturday afternoon. Homeschooling affords us this flexibility.

There were other reasons as well, but we spent that summer praying about it. One week before school started for the year, God answered our prayers in a definitive way and I was on my way to a (very unorganized) homeschool store. I flew by the seat of my pants that first year, but it was kindergarten after all, and my son definitely learned his numbers, letters and colors. He may have even been socialized a bit. 🙂 We found a great supplemental program that is on Mondays, and he still goes to those classes and my daughter is now attending.

We have actually received very little negative feedback on our decision, which sadly from what I hear, is rare. I am so thankful for a supportive network- if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a metropolis to homeschool one!

We are careful to say that we are taking this homeschooling journey year by year. I am definitely not committing for the long haul- just as any other area of our lives, we are continually praying to be sure we are on the path where God has us. Oh, and the minute I start wearing blue jean jumpers, we’re headed to public school! 😉

Do you homeschool? Have you ever considered it? Any suggestions? 🙂