Home School Revelation

As a home school Mom for the last 6 years I have learned so much!  But this year has exceeded all the rest.  Why you ask?  Why after 6 years of working with my children teaching, training, shaping, learning and growing is this year so different?

Well this year I discovered it really is a calling to home school my children.  It's not just second best because we couldn't afford to send 4 children to private school.  It's because we have been called to raise our children up in the way they should go.  And for our family that translates into home school.  How did I learn that this year?  Let me take you back to the beginning.....

Six years ago we pulled our children out of private school for a few reasons....financially it was so expensive to send 3 kids to school and both my husband and I were working full time, we were struggling with Ethan falling behind in math and reading, Austin as a kindergartner was in the principals office for bad behavior and Issac was getting lost in the mix.  At that time our kids we're in daycare, then to school, back to daycare, then we would pick them up, feed them dinner, do homework, go to sylvan for tutoring, then off to bed.  Just to repeat the next day.  The cycle was driving us all apart.  We had no clue how our kids were doing and we had no time to help them.  Life tends to fall apart when your fighting God's plan for your family.  And that's what it was doing to our family, we were falling apart at the seams.  About 9 months into this cycle we hit a wall and I quit my job and removed our kids from daycare, private school and sylvan. 

Going back to being a stay at home, home school mom.  It was incredibly intimidating and scary at first.  Then I realized that I had taken my kids out of the "school" system and now we could work on what they were struggling in until they got it.  We could study things that they loved to learn about.  School could be what we made of it.  Now that first year was rough! (understatement)  many days I wondered if I'd gone crazy.  I wasn't a teacher!  I didn't go to college for this!  You name it...any doubt and I considered it's validity.  Looking back I can see how looking at my viewed inadequacies was in the wrong light.  It's good to know things your not great at because then you can look outside your home for help.  But to focus on those things really undermines what your good at.

We survived that first year with the attitude that for us pubic school was not an option, so home schooling was second best to private school.  I have believed that for 6 years now.
Each year I would review our finances to see if we could begin sending our children back to school for a more structured learning environment with teachers.  What a small view I've had.

Well this year 2010 that year came.  We decided to send Ethan, our oldest, back to school for 8th grade.  We found a great school just around the corner from our home.  Excellent teachers, school programs, and they used most of the same curriculum I was already using.  It seemed a perfect fit.  He's been in school since September 1st and we will be bringing him home this month (November). Back to home schooling.  Now I need to add that we really love the school.  The families are great, as are the teachers.  We are not removing him because of any inadequacies of the school.

We have created a culture in our family of mastery.  And I've discovered that in a school environment mastery is difficult to achieve as each child learns at their own rate.  But I also discovered that I can and have been doing what the classroom teachers do everyday.  I've been teaching my children!  Now they may not finish all their books (what school does?) but by the end of the year my children have mastered what we've been working on.  They are able to learn about what interest them and what they feel God is calling them to be as they grow up.  We are able to work on character and heart issues as they arise.  They are growing to be men that know and love their Creator and God.  Our lives are enriched by living, working and playing together.

It's been interesting to Jason and I that Ethan's biggest complaint about school is not the work, it's that he doesn't get to spend more time with the family.  He genuinely misses spending time with his siblings and Jason and I.  It's pretty special to us that our kids are all friends.  Even thought we have such a large age span they love to be together and I think that is a testimony to the last 6 years of learn and growing together.

We have been called to home school and the rewards of obeying that call can never be measured here on earth.  Our time of being a part of a traditional school has taught us that.  Ethan has been praised over and over during the last few months in school of how mature, respectful and articulate he is.  He has been chosen as student of the month of September for compassion.  He has had full weeks of school, crew, and homework with a good attitude.  Now it's time to have him return home to master math and to dive back into the subjects he loves.  While having good family time.  He'll be able to be well rested for crew so he can do his best.

I'm so thankful for the things I have learned from his school.  They have opened my eyes to the truth.  Am I a perfect teacher? No.  Are my weaknesses in subjects gone? No.  Am I called to train up my children at home? Yes.  Will God direct me to people and programs that can fill my deficiencies? Yes.  Will my children get a good education?  You bet they will!  And it will happen at home.