We love our public school. The kids have excelled there both academically and socially. They have experienced a joy for learning through plants and animals and have been blessed with wonderful teachers who have cared deeply for each of them. We love dropping them off at the big yellow bus as watching as three children climb aboard smiling happily heading for a school they love. They come home excited as they talk about the animals and plants they have cared for that day. Now don't get me wrong, we have had an occasional disagreement with a teacher or struggled with another child in each of their classes but for the most part our experience has been very positive. Our choice of a small rural school for Bentley and each child who has come after has been a good one. So, why would we take all of this away from them??
Honestly...here's the deal. The discussion of home school has come up before but we never really entertained it. As our family grew, so did our responsibility. I started following and enjoying reading some large family blogs for tips on organization and just plain getting from here to there in one piece and efficiently. Most of these families home schooled but I didn't even look at the home school portion of their blogs. Until one day something caught my eye. One of the ladies spoke of having your children's hearts and that their relationship with you as their parent was practice for their relationship with their Heavenly Father. Now this concerned me. I only have about four hours with our children after they come home from school. Four hours of homework, chores, supper, riding lessons, sports activities, church, free play time, getting ready for bed and whatever else happens in our evenings. Four hours if I am lucky.
We know from experience that time spent with your children right along side of you works. Payton made the choice for us when at age one and a half he refused to attend daycare. I was teaching at the time and tearfully endured an entire school year of him crying his way through each and every day. I cried the entire 30 mile drive to work and rushed home to rescue him at the end of the day (him and I both still in tears). That year I made the choice not to return to teaching. The next years Payton grew up at the shop right alongside of all of us. To this day I still have his heart (most of the time). He wants to be obedient to us and to Christ.
Now, as thoughts of home school entered my mind, I dove into these blogs and into scripture and I became anxious. What calmed my heart in that moment was the fact that I knew that Monte would have to be on the same page and there is no way that he would be. He is typically my voice of reason. Well...I was wrong. I brought up my crazy thoughts fully expecting him to shoot down the idea. Instead he said "well that has always seemed interesting to me." He was open and wanted to explore the idea of homeschooling for our family. We talked and prayed went through pros and cons and decided we would once again follow where God appeared to be leading (it seemed to be working for us lately so why not).
In our hearts we knew it was true. We needed to be more intentional about what we are teaching our children. "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deuteronomy 11:19 When our days on earth are over we want to know that we have done everything we could have possibly done to ensure that our children know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and that they are living for him. We long for them to join us in Heaven some day. For us, and with this many children, that is just not possible in the midst of the busyness of life and in the four hours a day that we are with them (if we are lucky). Our wisdom and our children's wisdom needs to come from God and from his word. This is one thing that public school cannot offer and lets face it even if they did they couldn't possibly do it correctly, meeting the spiritual needs of each family. No, it is our responsibility not theirs.
The responses have varied... From "You must have a lot of patience," "I could never be home with my children 24/7," "I am worried that you will get burned out" to "I am jealous...maybe someday I will join you" (this one made me smile dear friend :), "I will bring you a sonic coke" (this one made me smile too:), "Homeschooling is very trendy right now," "If anyone can do this you can," "You need to do what is right for these kids and if God is telling you to...do it." I know that all of these were given in love and believe me none of them are things we haven't thought about ourselves. We have treasured the good (and bad) comments and you all have been heard and your thoughts contemplated dear friends.
*We know that there is a steep three year learning curve to homeschooling.
*We know that my education degree will not necessarily be helpful to homeschooling.
*We know that we do NOT have lots of patience.
*We know that there will be days when we are super burned out and would love to see our precious children climb onto that big yellow school bus.
*We know that God will mold us and teach us patience (along with many other things I am sure).
*We know that our children will benefit from learning at home both spiritually and academically.
*We know that God has placed this on our hearts for a reason.
God has been gracious enough to allow me the opportunity to be at home with my children and I look forward to learning alongside of them. I do not posses any special gifts or abilities and don't believe that I am any more equipped than any of you. We are just making what we believe to be the right choice for our family right now. One day our children may rejoin public school, alongside yours, but for now we are bringing our children home.
***We do NOT believe that this choice is or should be for everyone. There are many public school families, that we greatly admire, who do a wonderful job of meeting their child's spiritual needs. We have many friends who teach in the public school and bring Christ to their students and families in very creative ways. We love you all and would never want to offend any of you by our choice.
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