Why on this good green earth CONTINUED

Sorry about the cliff hanger on the last post. Not my intent. But then again, neither was starting a blog  randomly out of the blue, in the middle of the day, when I have a to-do list a mile long. But I'm kind of a swing by the seat of my pants kinda girl. And besides, the laundry can wait.

Ahem. Where was I...

Oh yes, Why, WHY would anyone choose to homeschool! Yes I thought my friend was straight up cray cray. I proudly sent my little first born off to public school and finally had a little freedom! Ok, so not really that much more freedom because he actually entertained the littles during the day. But still. It was what I was looking forward to for years.

And before I start giving myself a guilt trip for writing that I couldn't wait to pawn off my kids on the government, i'm going to acknowledge that mutual feeling among us moms. I hear it EVERY YEAR, moms freaking out that summer is here and their kids are going to drive them crazy. The bitter sweet of having time to actually do stuff together as a family and yet, counting down the days for school to start again. I get it, you get it, we have all done it.

ok, back to the story. School was awesome. But, when he got home, he wanted to play with friends, and then we had soccer or baseball and sister had dance and I suddenly felt busier than ever before. I felt like I never saw my son. I was competing for some quality time.

It was rush to school in the morning, come home, snack, unwind, play with a friend, time to start dinner, homework, bath, and bedtime. Rushing from one thing to the next. Our family time just went out the window. Plus, if they are in school ALL DAY, why do they have homework? They are 5 years old! Thats another topic for later.

Then we throw a couple practices in there and I felt more overwhelmed then I was with 3 littles at home all day.

But thats ok. This is what was expected. This is just how things are right?

Kinder was a success, but mid way through 1st I started to see Lockes little light start to dim. All of a sudden it was push push push at school. He had to be where they said he needed to be academically. I pushed him so hard to read when he just wasn't quite ready. We both were in tears every night. I was frustrated. He was exhausted and overwhelmed. His poor little 6 year old brain just wasn't ready. But the school didn't care. They wanted him to fit in the box with all the other 6 year olds and that was that.

I hated that he was starting to not like school. I wondered what I could do to help. My husband and I discussed options and when I mentioned homeschool his response was "HECK NO!" "I know, I don't want him to be weird and unsocialized" I added. But it was too late, the seed was planted.

What if homeschool was the answer?
What if it could give us more time together as a family?
What if he didn't end up weird?... no, he would definitely end up weird, all home school kids are weird.
What if he could work at his own pace and start loving school again?
Nope. not happening.

We thought about other options but it kept coming back to homeschool. I checked out a couple books from the library, I dove in head first, reading and studying every night.

This was our answer. Homeschool. It felt right. We were going to make the jaws of everyone we knew drop to the freaking floor when we told them. They would all think we had lost our minds!!!

Pretty soon I was panicking. I can't teach my kids to read and write and do math and become responsible adults in society! I don't have a college degree! I can't homeschool.

And then comes the part where my husband becomes the driving force in the story. We laid out the pros and cons of public and home school. Home school won by a land slide. He was like "look, this is the best option for our kids hands down, lets do it!".

WOW. This was really happening. Dan was on board. I was building my confidence slowly. We were really going to do this. We prayed about it and felt like this was the path that God would have us take with our family. It all just came together pretty perfectly.

The crazy thing is, we had never really thought about how to educate our kids before this point. We had never made it a topic to pray over and study and consider our options. We just did what everyone else did. We did the only thing we knew.

Well it just so happened that my best gal pal in Texas had decided to homeschool her son that year too! What are the chances? I took the opportunity to let her research curriculum and then I just piggybacked on her efforts to get started. Thanks Miss Molly!

The homeschool world is BIG! Way bigger than I realized and it was overwhelming to start, so I'm grateful I had a little help that first little bit.

So there you have it. Several things added up into our initial decision to homeschool, but our real reason is that it feels right for our family. It feels like we are on the right path and thats what matters. If public school feels good to you then by all means take advantage of it. But I would challenge you to question if it is the right path, or if it's just the easy path. Because there is a big difference my friends.

Several of you have mentioned that you have interest in homeschooling and have thought about it. I challenge to pray and ask God for guidance on the matter. It's a big decision.

If you have had the thought come to your mind about homeschooling,  I invite you to consider that it might not just be your thought or your idea, but perhaps the Lord is providing you with ideas for something better for you and your family.

PS for the record, Locke is now an avid reader and LOVES school. And, my husband is still my biggest cheerleader and supporter.

xo, Stephanie