When you kids say "I am so glad that we are having school tomorrow. Wait, we ARE having school tomorrow right?" Then they smile when your reply is "Yes!" What a blessing that the Lord bestowed upon us. HS is one of the best decisions that I have ever made for my kids. So thankful to be out if PS & for ther Lord's guidance. Blessings!
So glad you are feelin' the love! Hold on to those days so you have something to remember on the days you want to pull your hair out. :lol: When my ds was 7, he asked to homeschool again. We had already been praying over it without him even knowing. He said to us one day in the car that he wanted to homeschool again. We asked him why. His response: Because when I am a teenager I don't want to still be a baby Christian, I want to be a grown-up Christian. Wow. We had not ever discussed that aspect with him--or anyone really. But God's wisdom was spoken through a child that day. That ended up being what sealed the decision for us....until we built our house a couple years ago....whole other story. :roll:
When God led me to this decision, I was SHOCKED. I had never even considered it. Now that I have done all the research and prayed about it, I just honestly feel like it is the right decision for us and we LOVE it. The moment when I realized why God led me here came this week. There was bullying at my child's preschool and I had dinner with other moms and they were telling me about what their kids face in elementary and middle school. There was some scary stuff (and our school is the best in the district). It just made me realize WHY God had led me here and be so thankful for our decision!
When I was led to this option and since reading about it and getting opinions about it, I couldn't imagine sending my son to public or private school. I didn't even think of it at all until I saw it on 19 kids and counting(silly i know) but I did some research and really thought and prayed about it.
I had always wanted to homeschool, but my husband was doubtful because my dd and I constantly butted heads. After 3 years of private school and much frustration, he decided to let me try it a year. Midway through the year my father-in-law said he was skeptical about this home schooling, but that it had been good for our dd. We've been hsing since. My dd still stresses about school work often. I keep myself sane by reminding myself that we're not having to deal with early mornings, long days, home work, teachers, the school system and/or private school fees.
This is an interesting question... For me, I initially knew while dd was still in ps. Last spring, I was teaching her to read. In 2 weeks, she went from reading 5 sight words to 18. I'm not a 'real' teacher in the sense of state certification, so that was the ah-ha moment for me.. when I knew I really COULD do this, and with her I could do it far better than they were. When my ds, burnt out on too much ps, and I could start the day with smiles and hugs instead of huge fights ending in screaming and tears. When my children are feeling off or sniffly and I don't have to make excuses to someone else why I've chosen to let them stay home. When other families I know are suffering from yet ANOTHER illness, or are scared because they put their kids on a cold bus on slippery roads, and we are safetly at home. When my kids snuggle in bed with me in the morning, and there's no huge hurry to be up and out the door, to stand in 0 temps and pray that the bus was neither early or late again this morning. When my kids can turn to me and say, "I feel like I could use another day of practice on this" and I can respect that. When my kids can turn to me and say, "I feel like I need to go back a year on this" and I can respect that. And it's funny to look back and realize how much of a constant failure our school made me feel. I was ALWAYS treading deadlines for something- busy weekend and I didn't get laundry done meant I'd be up late. Kids exhausted on Sunday and no bath- too bad, in the tub you go even if I am afraid you'll fall asleep. Down with the Flu? School doesn't care, get that homework done (I never understood this... if you are home because you have to stay in bed, how the heck do they expect you to do 3 worksheets in math, 4 in social studies, etc etc??). And you were going to burn if you forgot to send in lunch money or the library book. They never admitted when they were at fault, or when they'd failed. It was always YOUR fault or YOUR CHILD'S fault. Good riddance LOL. Every single day- even when it's a 'bad' homeschooling day- reminds me why I do this.
When I heard K'ers gossiping about who has a crush on who, and when I was told my 5yr old was way behind in phonics and needed summer school, and when I heard little bitty kids using words that made me blush, I knew it was time to come home. Since then, I have discovered a million more reasons why I'm glad we do this. I had always wanted to, but I just needed a push to actually commit. God willing, we'll never go back.
I knew when I was pregnant with child number one that there was no way I could send her to public school. When she was 4 1/2 I seriously thought "What am I going to do-I don't have the heart to send her. She's too little/sweet/young/I want to be the one to teach her to read." There were so many reasons to keep her home but I didn't know, really, about homeschool until we moved to a new city and I met a homeschool mom of 5. She gave me the book by Marty Layne and I was sold instantly. Of course, 2 more kids followed and there wasn't a question of whether we would homeschool or not. (I have to admit I did send the kids to school 1/2 a year during my difficult third pregnancy, but that little bit of time did nothing but solidify the fact that we had made the right decision to homeschool in the first place). We absolutely love our choice and see nothing but good things in the past 10 years of homeschooling.
Meghan you took the words right out of my heart!!! It is all so true. My DD11 is type 1 diabetic & bot did we ever have a rough way to go. Diabetes was going great, then we hit 5th grade & WOW! The school made lots of changes in staff & everything that was decent about our little school spiraled down hill quick. My DDs were in ps for 9 weeks of 5th & 7th grades & I had had enough. Ladies, I love all of your passionate posts. I don't really know many ppl that get ALL the things that I go on & on about. Despising PS, loving HS, no that curriculum doesn't work for us, oh my that science book was so terrific, on & on... but you all know what I mean. ALL of those moments that not only make you so glad to be a mother but a mother who gets to spend loads of time with her kids. Watching them learn about the moon's gravitational pull on the ocean or that fractions fianlly make sense, those moments are priceless. HSing requires sacrifices, compared to the sacrifices that a mother & family makes to send their kids to PS, they don't even compare. The HSing scarifices are ones of pleasure. Blessings!
well the Lord just put in on my heart but at the time I was not really spiritually mature and my dh was not a Christan at all, I researched homeschooling and prayed about it and then one day I just had peace about it and told my DH I was going to homeschhool. This took me about 18 months. My dh never questioned me and just took it a given.. Thats the real miracle that he didn't question me giving up my job. He was raised by a "super women" mom and had no respect for "women that don't work" I remember not really asking him but just telling him I feel like God is calling me to do this. He wasn't a Christian but respected my faith. He has gone around the past 6 years bragging and telling everyone homeschooling is wonderful. And if you didn't read another post of mine. He was saved last summer. So homeschooling for us has been a spiritual and family journey Homeschooling has been such a joy and continues to give me such happiness.
Homeschooling has allowed me to see every milestone in my kids life. Like when they read their first book, or even lost their first tooth. It may not seem like a big deal, but I love seeing the little things. Watching them grow, and allowing them the opportunity to learn and explore things, they would never get to do in public school. There really are too many benefits to list for me. Having happy kids, who love to learn, is really the greatest joy.
We knew since Ems was a baby. My sister started homeschooling first and we found it interesting. I really didn't understand how it worked at the time, but we knew sending Ems to a public school wasn't an option.
