Welcome to my Life

I believe God leads us down certain paths for a reason.  I can honestly say as I look back on my girls' educational experiences, they have all been great experiences.  Public, private, and now homeschooling.  Why, you are asking?  Basically, it’s my desire. Homeschooling has been something that has been in my heart since Erika started school. So I’m going with it.
There is not one particular reason for why I'm teaching the girls at home.  I feel like I've always homeschooled whenever I got the chance.  I feel like we’re not embarking on a completely new endeavor as it is that we just want to prolong the good feeling I get when we are home together. Like it or not, we are our children’s teachers. We are just making it official.


We’re not the average family in some ways. Rob needs to travel for his job, and a lot of the responsibility for the girls lies on me. Having the girls home with me, the stress of homework and schedules and carpooling will be greatly reduced. With them always being at three different schools, I never feel like I am really contributing to quality time at their school. Just spending a lot of time and money, and never even seeing my girls. (Ellie is actually going to first grade at Bowman, we love it there, and I want her to experience it just like the girls did).

The world doesn’t embrace the ways we are all different and unique, because our society sometimes glamorizes sameness and homogenized things. But I do love the diversity that is in the world: religiously, politically, racially, geographically. This way, we can embrace the things that make our family different than anyone else’s. It fits us. It may not fit our neighbors, but it will hopefully work for us. I don’t know what the next few years will bring, but change is good, and kids are resilient.


Our girls will be grown and gone soon enough. I want to be with them as much as possible while they are young. If I am blessed enough to be able to be home for our girls, why not have them home with me? So that when Rob is home, the quality of our evenings are so much better.


I am very excited about taking field trips. There is so much out there that we can experience first-hand, right under our noses. Going out and learning about life in the real world is a fantastic way to learn. The girls were able to go on one field trip this year, because PTO was able to pay for it. Who knows about next year? We can go to some really fun and educational places. The field trips can enhance the literature we are reading, a way for them to value learning about life in the real world.


I know the schools are fantastic, filled with caring teachers and lots of awesome programs. If there is one thing I learned from these last years of being home and experiencing the schools as a parent, between public and The Academy, it is that ratios make a huge difference in learning.

So it sounds like I have nothing to lose. Except my sleep and maybe my sanity, but who’s keeping track? I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I certainly don’t believe home schooling is the only way. But it sure seems right to me. Right now. And since that is the case, we're giving it a shot! I have to admit, I’m scared, I don’t feel completely equipped for the job. I am not 100% certain that it is right. I have moments of selfishness where I’d just like to say they will be fine and send them to school during the day so I can that time to get skinny, have a clean house, make dinner, and go out to lunch with my girlfriends. But then I remember what my purpose in life is.


The following quote by Priscilla Shirer, from her book Discerning the Voice of God, is beautiful and as I read it, sums up a lot of what I feel about home schooling. It’s the same thing I feel about life:


“Life isn’t about what I’m going to do, but it is instead about what God wants to accomplish in me.” She says, "When you face two options and each seems to please God, consider the one that displays God’s glory, power and strength. This makes room for god to reveal Himself to you and show Himself through you. God wants us to see the wondrous things He will accomplish in us. Don’t be fearful about the hard road He may ask you to take. Be encouraged and excited about seeing His divine, supernatural activity in and through you. God’s voice commands the option that will display His power. He desires to show Himself strong in you and will encourage you to do things that requires trust and faith.”