And the Journey Begins...Homeschooling Part 1

Homeschooling. Who would guess that this one (or two, depending on how you write it) word could stir up so many emotions for so many people. But, it does. You need some drama in your life? Just post why you think homeschooling is a better choice than Government Education (or vice-versa) in your FB status and you will have enough "drama" to last you for quite a while! So, why is it so controversial? It's controversial because it is important. How you are going to educate your child is a big, important, life-shaping decision. Caring parents research, pray, and sometimes argue over this very important decision. Do we homeschool?; Do we send them to the public school?; Do we pay for private school?; Can we find a half-day program within a reasonably driving distance? So many choices, so many prayers, and so many tears go into this. Here is this innocent little five year old that we are solely responsible for and this decision could shape their future. Whoa! Yea, that's a lot of pressure.

No matter which of these things a parent chooses they will feel pressure and they will lose sleep over their decision. I think we need to be sensitive to that when we talk about it with each other. I'm not saying we can't have or state an opinion on the matter. Trust me, I have a convicted opinion that the choice that my husband and I have made is best for our children. But, as passionately as I feel about it, I hope that my speech will be graceful and seasoned with salt (Col 4:6) so that I don't alienate those who have made a different choice than I have.

We make a decision. We obviously think that's the best decision, other wise we would have picked something else. Sometimes, we choose what we have to because of our circumstances. Different things are going to work for different people. I, obviously, think that the public school system as a whole is a flawed system. Ask me why one day and I will tell you, but that's not why I'm writing this particular blog post. I'm writing this one to tell you my homeschooling story. To tell you how I began this amazing journey.

Let me start at the beginning. Growing up I went to A LOT of schools. A lot. My wonderful father is a gospel preacher and although one might say that it is a life (the PK life) that comes with some "drawbacks," I loved it. I didn't mind moving quite a bit, and I loved meeting new people. I had (and am blessed to still have) godly parents who loved me and worked hard for me and my brothers and taught us to love God more than anything else. They made our childhood wonderful, no matter what our school situation was. My favorite school experience was Georgia Christian School in Valdosta, GA. I attended that small school from pre-k through half of my second grade year. I loved my teachers, my friends (some of whom I am still in contact with after all these years), and most of all, I loved that my mom taught high school French and English there, just a building over from me. It made me feel like I was home, knowing I could see her anytime. Leaving Valdosta made for a hard transition. After such a great experience came a series of ups and downs. A large public school right outside of Atlanta, a horrible experience, but thanks to my hard working and self-sacrificing parents, it was short lived. A private school called Greater Atlanta Christian was a good experience. Public -schools (elementary school, the sixth grade center, and then the middle school) in Lake City, Florida, no big issues for me, a private school in Prattville Alabama, where I faced more temptation than anywhere else and my brother had a rough time. He ended up graduating from there with a class of 17 students. And last, after a lot of prayer and debate , I ended up at Prattville High School where I graduated in 2000 with a class of almost 400 students,( just in my class). I did it! I survived! Thanks to a small group of good friends at school, a wonderful church family to encourage me, and a strong family waiting at home for me, I survived! That is eight schools from kindergarten through graduation.

I know, I know.. You are getting my whole life story here. But I say all of this to show the experience that I have behind me. Public school, private school, big school, small school, Christian school, non Christian school. Been there, done that. Different schools bring different experiences; there are really good public schools and really awful ones. There are really great private schools and really awful ones. Yet, again, making our decision as parents harder.

Fast forward four years later, 2004. I have graduated college, Tommy and I have been married for almost a year and Tommy is given a blessing of a job at Apologetics Press (where he still works). One of our AP friends tell us that they are planning to homeschool their children. My thoughts? Interesting. I will never homeschool. (Wonder how many times in my lifetime I have eaten my words). But, it did make me curious. I didn't think about it much after that, honestly. Didn't have much of a reason to. But, then in 2006 I was given my first reason to think about it a little harder; my first son was born!

When my son was almost a year old I was given a wonderful opportunity to work with an after school program. I enjoyed it, got paid part time, and got to bring my son to work. It was a blessing in another way, too. It opened my eyes back up to a school-type situation and made me, for the first time ever, truly consider homeschooling. Tommy had already told me that he was seriously considering homeschooling and now, here I was thinking about it, too.

By the time my son was four, the homeschool network in this area had grown substantially. I knew quite a few families around me that homeschooled and I started "picking their brains." What made you decide to homeschool? Is it hard? Are you afraid your kids are going to be weird? Yes, we have all asked that! Ha! One time a friend jokingly said " I guess I would rather have 'weird' kids by the worlds's standards, knowing I did everything to equip them with God's word before sending them into the world, then to just throw them in and hope they survive." There's that word again! Survive. I realized in that moment that survival is exactly what school was for me my middle school and high school years. It had it's good things; I excelled at sports and made decent grades. But, for the most part, I just tried to survive. Survive until the bell rings at 3:00 and I can go home to my family. Survive until the weekend when I would spend time with our youth group; Survive until Christmas break; survive until summer break; survive until graduation. Survive until I can make it home again; my sanctuary. It was in that moment that my heart was convicted. I knew what I needed to do. That scared me to death! I didn't know how to do it, or where to start, but it was happening. I knew I wanted my children to do more than just survive and there was a way to help them do that staring me right in the face!

So, here I am, the "product" of the public school system, at least partially, and I've decided to homeschool? I was blessed enough to have good, Christian parents who spent a lot of time undoing some of the things that we learned at school (more from the other students ,than the teachers. I always had good teachers). Honestly, most people didn't even know that homeschooling was an option at that point in time. You sent your kids to school, it is what you did. I don't know that I had ever heard of such a thing as homeschooling until I was in college. It's weird to have such conflicting feelings. I, honestly, wouldn't change my school experiences. Even the bad ones. I am who I am today because of those experiences. I used to think, well, I don't want to keep my children from having those character building experiences. That was one of those things that kept me from letting myself give in to my desire to homeschool at first. It's also one of those fun accusations, disguised as questions, that people will throw at you when they find out that you are homeschooling. But, I realize now that just because we have chosen to keep our children home for schooling, doesn't mean they won't ever experience things that will help them learn to survive in the world. It just means I'm tipping the scale a little bit. Their feeling of safety vs. feeling the need to survive ratio has been flipped and I'm hoping it will give them the advantage they need when they are adults.

So, that's how the journey started. Stay tuned for what I have learned so far......