Home Schooling

It's always difficult for me to repress the squirm when someone asks me why I home school. I'm not embarrassed about it; I don't feel like we are sub-par because of our choice to educate our children at our dining room table. It's not a sore subject for any of us usually. But when someone who is pro-public education corners me with that question, I find it difficult to answer honestly without coming across undesirably. So I just want to put it out there.

There is a moral code, a system of values, that used to fuel education in this country that has been lost, or rather, obliterated along the way, and replaced with political correctness and moral relativism. I'm not looking for forgiveness on the subject, I just want to set the record straight. We have been given a charge to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and will not take that lightly. That includes not entrusting them for the majority of their day to be molded and shaped by the thinking of someone we don't know, using a system we don't trust, teaching values and theories that are polar opposites of our core beliefs.


This raises eyebrows and tensions, I know. I am taking a risk in expressing my position on this topic because I have good friends that teach and good friends that send their kids to public schools. I am not poo-pooing you. This is about me and us and the whys from where we are on the issue. The time will come to send our children to school, be it private or public, depending on where we land and how they fare. But for now, we have not found a place lauded by those involved enough to consider for our children. It just hasn't happened.

With that said, let me tell you, it is O-VER-WHEL-MING! FOUR SYLLABLES!!!! This, my first year to teach four grades, and my first year of teaching with an on-line academy; it is blowing my hair back. I tend to be a little bit of an over-achiever; if you know me, you know this about me. I want my kids to learn every detail of every lesson that I teach. And if they don't, I want them to get the gist of it. And if they don't, I want them to at least look at me while I'm trying to sound really interesting to keep their attention. And if they don't, well that's where it gets a little fuzzy.

I am not very patient. I am not a great teacher. I am not highly intelligent. And I don't like to be blown off. These things work against me in ways that I have difficulty controlling. Which is why I am thankful for the flexibility of our circumstances, allowing me to drop what we're doing and initiate gym class or music or snack time or nap time or jumping jacks, whatever the situation calls for.

Please pray for me. I am also hormonal, and hungry, and exhausted after eight hours of sleep and mostly I just want to snuggle up on the couch and read stories to the children and call it a day. Can someone call the principle and ask if that's OK? Maybe not for all year, or even all semester, but maybe he could just cut me some slack for a week or two and then we'll, you know, be really good and work hard after that and stuff...

This was delivery day. They were so excited about all the things we would be studying and learning and doing that several times I heard them say, "This is just like Christmas!" and "This is the best school ever!"

It really is. They all have their own little idiosyncrasies and I wonder how they would be addressed in a traditional classroom setting. I also wonder how much they would miss as a result of those things, when here at home, I can hone in on them and correct them a little everyday because I can spot them so easily.

Nothing worth doing is ever without a price, I'm just a little broke in the required toll this week. It'll be better next week, especially if we get the go ahead on the story-time thing. That'll be great.