Our Homeschool Journey~Part 1

I never dreamed I would homeschool.

In fact, homeschooling was (to my knowledge) uncommon when I was growing up. I attended public school (albeit a very small school), and then attended a public university. My husband was homeschooled from Kindergarten until 2nd grade before his family moved to a more rural area and put the kids in public school there. He also attended a public technical college. My knowledge of homeschooling was truly limited to the one or two kids in public school who had to be “home bound” for surgeries or medical issues.

When I was a Junior in college, I became friends with a woman who was pursuing a degree in psychology (as was I). She was 26 and I was 20. She was married, had a daughter who was around 5 or 6, and had an infant son. As we had more classes together and got to know each other, I also discovered that she was commuting to school everyday (as was I.) She was pursuing a second degree. She had already become an RN, and worked for a few years before deciding to return to school to major in psychology and eventually attend law school (another plan I originally had for my life).

We became good friends and because we had so much in common, it came as a shock to me to learn that she was homeschooling her daughter. I knew little about homeschooling and could not understand how it could even work! Here’s what they did: her husband was a good deal older than her, and had retired from the military. He drove her to school everyday, and homeschooled their daughter and tended to their son while she was in classes. She used her breaks between classes to nurse her son, visit with her family, and help her daughter with schoolwork.

Honestly, I did not know what to think about it. Again, I had no personal experience with homeschooling so it was very foreign to me. One day after class, she asked me to go with her to one of our psychology professor’s offices. Before teaching, he had been a school psychologist, testing children for disabilities and exceptionalities. She had some drawings her daughter had created and wanted to show them to him. After looking at them for a few minutes, he told her something I remember to this day. He said, “Keep her out of public school as long as possible. They will zap her creativity, and she is operating at a genius level.” I was impressed. And, God had planted the first seed.

Before my husband and I married, we only discussed our kids attending local public schools. Homeschooling was never mentioned. It wasn’t that I was against the idea; it was not even a thought. After we married and had our first child, we continued to discuss him attending public school. But as the time got closer and closer, I was uneasy about sending him.

When my son was three and about to turn four, we enrolled him in a local church preschool where my sister taught. I well remember his very first day. I drove him to preschool, he got out of the car, and I burst into tears. I called my best friend crying and I drove to her office, and she came out to my car while I continued to sob. I was so overwhelmed with the feeling that his childhood was passing entirely too quickly. I did manage to collect myself and was overjoyed when I saw that he had had a wonderful first day!

Just a few weeks after he started preschool, I was home cleaning his bedroom and I began to hear reports on the news of a school shooting….at an Amish school. I was horrified. Shootings, tragedies, and other disasters occurring at schools were beginning to become more and more frequent. God planted another seed of homeschooling in my mind.

A few months later, I joined a ladies Bible study group at an area church and met a couple of ladies who were homeschooling. As I grew to know them and saw how much they loved God and their children, homeschooling began to seem less and less odd to me. I am so very thankful for the ladies He put in my path who encouraged me during my first couple of years homeschooling.

As the time drew closer to put my son in Kindergarten, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feelings I had. My husband and I began discussing homeschooling seriously, and I read every book on the subject I could find. We prayed for guidance on the issue and finally felt that God had given us an answer in homeschooling.

I didn’t know at the time why I felt so much uneasiness about sending my son to school. But, looking back, I realize now that God was setting the stage for what was coming in our future. He saw around every corner and saw the bigger picture that was concealed from our eyes.

I am so very thankful for the seeds of encouragement He planted along our path to homeschooling. I’ll explain more about what I think are the “whys” He led us down this path in the next post.