Why do we home school?

I never thought I would be a homeschool mom. From kinder through the first week of 3rd grade, I attended public school. After my mom died, I moved in with my aunt and uncle, who tried to homeschool me. My memories of that part of my life are hazy and sometimes non-existent, but homeschooling at that time didn't quite work for me. Shortly after I moved in with them, I was enrolled in a Christian private school. When we moved states because of the military, I switched back and forth between homeschooling and a local Christian private school. Halfway through my junior year of high school, I dual-enrolled at the community college, which really just meant that I took all college classes with high school sports counting as my PE credit. I had experienced it all. As I grew up, I formed no impressions or passions over what I would want to do in the future. 

When I had my first daughter, my husband and I were excited to recoup the financial investment of daycare when she went to public school. My oldest daughter is a beautiful, freckle-faced, wild, feisty little sprite. That's what I'll call her from now on. She struggled in daycare with the structure, so it was no surprise to me that she had the same struggles in kindergarten. Daily, she came home disappointed and sad with negative reports from her teachers. I told my husband in the first year that we needed to homeschool. He was against it, stating that she needed to be able to follow rules and be in a classroom without disrupting others. Even though I agreed, I felt unrest in my heart. The next year was a little better, partly because she was older, but mostly because she had an incredible teacher who was firm but kind. Even with improvements, she was falling further behind academically and even further behind socially. Again, I approached my husband about school. Well, truthfully, I hadn't stopped breaching the subject about homeschool. We talked about her school, development, discipleship, attitude, hopes for her future, needs, and everything in between all the time. We prayed for her, cried over her and because of her and for her, wrenching our hearts for what was best for our little firecracker. 

My husband is a kind, reasonable, generous, intelligent, and wise man. In these conversations, the answer was never just "no". It was chewed, mulled over, prayed over, debated, reasoned with, and beaten around. No decision that will impact our kids is ever made lightly. In the summer after her 1st grade year, we decided that we would try home school. That summer she turned 7, our second daughter turned 1, we bought our first home, moved, and I had to figure out curriculum, schedule, and how to homeschool while working from home full time. 

Shortly after we made this decision, we visited family in Florida. I had a conversation with one of my sisters about homeschool that actually made me nervous. I asked her what grade my nephew was going in because I suspected that Sprite and my nephew might be in the same grade. She hummed and said that he was in 5th grade math, and 3rd grade science, but his writing was on a 1st grade level. Although, I knew I wanted to homeschool her, I also felt very passionate about having the flexibility to step back into school at a later time if that's what we needed to do. Being a first-time homeschool mom, I was nervous that I would mess everything up. I felt wholly inadequate to teach, and honestly didn't know how I was going to balance working from home while also taking care of my toddler. My nephew, then and even more so now, is highly intelligent, thoughtful, well-spoken, funny people. Sprite is getting almost all A's and took three high school classes in the 8th grade last year. All that worry for nothing. 

I don't know if I will be a home school mom forever. What I do know is that God has called me to steward the things in my life. And that if God calls you to something, He will equip you for it because His power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

We have just a few more weeks left of summer, and then we will start a new school year with a 9th grader, a 3rd grader, and a 1st grader. Stay tuned to hear more about the balancing act of snacks, schedules, working from home, extracurriculars, cleaning, and everything in between.