This is why.
We had placed our oldest daughter in public school, just as I thought all parents did – ok, except Private School kids. We never knew about the option of homeschool.
By Kaylee’s 2nd grade year we were having great difficulty communicating with the school district and educational specialists. She had learning differences but the school seemed to ingnore the root of them and just dealt with the topical stuff… the stuff that the teachers saw. What they couldn’t fix they covered up.
Then, one early May morning, I was sitting in Sunday school and a lady I knew asked for a prayer request because she was really struggling with her homeschool situation.. huh? Homeschool?? What is that? Could I do it? About 1 million other questions started racing through my head. My friend later told me as I bombarded her with all these questions to look up some stuff on the internet.
So, I did!
I went to my mother in laws house and printed off about 200 pages of information, advise, lists of catalogs, all I could find that seemed to peek my interest.
How could this very popular, wonderful thing be so hidden from some people.. It was as if my eyes were being opened to a whole new way of parenting. It seemed so natural and right.
Within 2 months I had prayed, picked out a curriculum, prayed, talked to my husband, contacted our school district, prayed, talked to others… and prayed some more. As you can see, this isn’t easy- it is probably even harder if you aren’t in prayer about it~ stay in prayer!
We felt at this point that this was the best decision for our family. I could be more hands on and aware of what Kaylee would be learning and how she would learn it. I could also work with some of her learning differences without making it the object of her daily life. I was tired of hearing she can’t, this isn’t a possibility.. and so on. I can’t imagine how it felt to my sweet little 7 year old.
The 1st year I kind of floated through – as I speak to and with more moms I am realizing that this is not uncommon. You spend most of your time trying to keep up with all the new things in your life plus, as some know too well, pleasing the state and it’s requirements. We reside in Pennsylvania~ need I say more??
If you don’t know how or where to find the state laws see my homeschooling page for the proper sites. You must know your state laws!
The 2nd year I started to enjoy the whole homeschooling process and felt more settled in. This is now our 5th year and I am loving it. We have changed many things and rearranged the “school” time to fit our family. Yes, there are days when I doubt myself, yes, there are days when it all seems like too much, but, if you stay in prayer God gives you strength beyond imagination. He is Good and Faithful~
God has given us a wonderful gift, the opportunity to school our own children. We need to be responsible and honest in our indeavor. We need to rely on God, our Father. He will lead us through this journey as He does every other journey in our life.
Blessings~
There is much more to this story- many of the details I gave are just the basics and I do want to get the whole story written but I have so many things to write about I will just update as I have time.
