Our Decision

If I've spoken with you at all over the past couple months I'm sure you're aware that Craig and I have recently made a pretty big decision for our boys.

We've decided to Homeschool *gulp* (wait for imminent reaction)

From my short experience I have found that people have one of two reactions after they hear this news; some look at me when I share this information with admiration because they don't think they could ever do it themselves but think that it's great that I'm willing to jump in with both feet, others look at me like I'm crazy to even entertain the idea and think we're doing a terrible thing by educating the boys at home and think (or just start listing) all of the things they'll be missing out on by not attending a traditional school.

I get it, I was there just a few short months ago.

Before we had kids Craig and I were sure that when we did and they were school-age we would send them to a private Christian school.  After all, that's what our parents did and we were happy with the decision to keep them out of a public school.  When Josh was turning 4 and we were discussing our options, we discussed homeschooling but neither one of us had ever had experience with homeschooling and we weren't quite sure how we felt about it so we made the decision to send Josh to a private school and continue on that path until we had some other direction or we could no longer afford it... but which school should we send him to?!

Thus began our search for an "affordable" Christian school option in our area.  After deciding on one we began the process of enrollment.

Things were going great, Josh loved school.  He had a great teacher and was making wonderful friends.

Then God stepped in... and I say he stepped in because he quite literally kept putting people in my path who have/are homeschooling their children and absolutely LOVE it!  I knew the option was always there but, as I said before, Craig and I didn't know much about it and we really weren't sure how we felt about the whole idea.  There was that dreaded question of socialization (come to find out later that this is actually comical to homeschoolers because if we aren't careful with all of our extra-curricular activities our kids won't do anything but socialize!)

Anyway, I foolishly kept on my own path because, after all, that was the decision Craig and I had made    but I did mention to Craig and my Mom a few times that I was feeling a tug in that direction.  

Come the end of his first year of preschool and we started to discuss whether Josh was going to move on to a Pre-K class or Kindergarten.  (He made the age cut off and was physically/emotionally ready for Kindergarten but he could care less about learning the alphabet and with how rigorous our education system is now I didn't want to push him if he wasn't ready.)  We made the decision to give him the "bonus" year and enrolled him in the Pre-K class three days a week instead of two so he could prepare for Kinder.

We went on, had a wonderful summer vacation, added another member to our family and just two short weeks later it was time for school to start again.  A few days before the school year began I attended the parent meeting while Craig stayed home with the boys.  Come to find out that Josh would be doing pretty much the exact same thing he was doing the previous year, just three days a week now instead of two... hmmmm was that really going to prepare him for Kindergarten?!  (I mean, a "learning through play" mentality was fine for preschool but a Pre-K class should be preparing them more for the Kindergarten year to come!)

Let me pull back a minute here, when Josh was around the age of 2 1/2- 3 his Aunt Stephanie came home for a visit from college and had to do some homework while she was hanging out one afternoon. Josh insisted that he needed to do his "homework", too.  So, I pulled out a preschool workbook that I had just purchased and he sat with her at the kitchen table and did his homework while she worked on hers.  From that time on we would do "homework" whenever the mood struck so the idea of teaching him at home was not all that foreign to me... after all, we've been doing it for quite some time now.

Needless to say, I left that parent meeting a little uneasy that night because when I signed him up for this class I was under the impression that they would be preparing him for Kindergarten... the alphabet, letter recognition, etc.

I voiced these concerns to Craig when I got home and we were both unsure what to do at that point except see how he progressed as the year went on.  (Mind you, I was still planning on doing stuff at home with him.)

Suddenly, at the end of September/early October all of the flashcards and alphabet memory games, etc. that we had been playing at home started to click and his handwriting started to improve.  The desire to learn had erupted in this child and the teacher in me was ecstatic!

Craig was seeing a big change in Josh as well, just from what he was learning at home with me and that's when we decided to give homeschooling a chance.  My husband said to me, "if you are feeling a calling for this do some research and we'll discuss it and go from there."

That's all I needed.

I began by sending those wonderful women that I mentioned earlier an email asking questions about homeschooling and went from there.

I received a beautiful response from each of these women, encouraging me and filling my mind with a plethora of information.  It was then that it started, my obsession with homeschooling!  I couldn't get enough information about it!  (Still can't, in fact.)  I was doing countless hours of google, pinterest, and blog searches each night after the boys went to bed... and the afore mentioned mentors were gracious enough to answer countless emails full of questions I had.

It took one weekend of serious research and discussion with myself (I'm one that needs to talk things out... with anyone who'll listen), my husband and my parents (it just so happened that the weekend we decided to open this option up for ourselves was the same weekend I was going on a trip up north to visit family and go to a baby shower... so 5 1/2 hours of homeschool discussion up and 5 1/2 hours of homeschool discussion back down for Mom and Dad, needless to say they were quite sick of listening to and talking about this subject by the time we got home!) for us to make the decision to jump in with both feet because this was DEFINITELY what God was calling me to do!

I say this without a doubt because I have never in my life felt so sure about something.  I kid you not, I grew up in a Bible believing home with God fearing parents who faithfully brought us to church and sacrificed a lot to send my sisters and I to a very good Christian school, and I had heard countless people over the years testify that God was calling them to do something... I always thought, "ya, okay"... but no joke, I have never felt so sure that this is exactly what God is calling me to do.

It was after we made our final decision that a friend of mine steered me in the direction of a family member of theirs in my area who homeschools her children and is involved with a support group.  (I knew if this is what we were going to do I really wanted to be involved with a support group so the boys would have park days, field trips, etc. with other kiddos... and Mommy would have the support she needs to do this day in and day out :)  I am aware that this is by no means going to be easy and I want to have the support I'm going to need on those days when I'm ready to ship them all off to the nearest school!)  I promptly contacted her and she emailed me back later that night with information about the group and told me where they meet and that they were going to be meeting for a park day that friday at a park not too far from our house.  It was then, sitting in my living room nursing the baby, that I got weepy... my poor husband thought something was wrong... but I knew then and there that God had led me to this place and he was laying out his perfect plan for our family right in front of my eyes.

Initially we had every intention of letting Josh finish out the school year in the Pre-K class he started in September but by the end of November we were unsure that was the best decision.  (Partly because he contracted something from school which he passed along to his brothers which ended in pneumonia for both Josh and the baby at only 3 months old.)  I began asking Josh what he thought about continuing to learn at home and not attend his "big school" as he called it after Christmas break.  He was pretty excited about the concept of just learning at home (loving the idea of doing his worksheets in his PJs :)  So I called the preschool office... talk about nerve racking... and told them that he wouldn't be returning after Christmas break (luckily they were very understanding!)

There are so many things that we are still unsure about, like if we'll homeschool through high school or not, but we're sure God will lead the way.

So there you have it.  Our decision and how we came about it.  I have so much more to tell you but I will leave it at that for now.  I give props to anyone who actually read that entire story... as I explained earlier, I'm full of information right now and I love sharing this story with anyone who'll listen!

My goal is to share some of our homeschooling experiences with you all so stay tuned :)