The other day, however, I had the almost-overwhelming urge to chase her down the street screaming, "Stop! Wait! Come back! Let me go through what I just mailed!". That was the day we mailed in our "letter of intent" to the school district letting them know that Miss Mouse will be schooling at home for first grade. Last year we didn't have to do anything official because kindergarten is not required. This year, though, we needed to send in lots of official info - immunization records, birth certificate, copies of my degrees, and my signature (as "parent overseeing homeschool activities") on the letter of intent.
The past six weeks I've been finalizing curriculums, ordering them, looking eagerly for the UPS, FedEx, or USPS (our aforementioned friendly mail lady), but this packet of papers? This one was scary. I like to imagine, though, that most parents, when making important decisions about their children's lives, feel some degree of anxiety. Honestly, I slept fine that Saturday night after the packet was sent - it was beforehand that I was losing sleep wondering if someone would randomly show up at our door one day to round up our truant daughter! So, I think (think) the momentary panic I felt, that urge to chase down our mail lady, has passed in favor of excitement about our coming academic year. Again, that's probably the process most parents go through - trepidation at sending their little ones off to school for hours a day, followed by excitement for those same little ones at how much they will learn and how much fun they will have. Though our schooling choice might make us seem really "different", at least to some, I'm going to guess we aren't really much different than most families.
What is different, though, as I mentioned earlier and totally acknowledge, is our choice of educational option. Everyone, every family, chooses a way to educate their children. Now, it might have not ever crossed someone's mind to do anything but send his or her child to the public school down the street, but that is still a choice. My parents, for example, had no private school options, and homeschooling, at the time I was in grade school, was just becoming legal in our state. Still, they could have sent me to a boarding school in Fargo; that was still a choice back then. They didn't. Obviously. They wouldn't have. But they chose to live on our family farm (which was great), chose to be farmers (which pretty much rules out private. boarding school - or did in the 1980s anyway! As if they'd have been able to part with me!! Teeheehee!), and, hence, chose to send me off on the bus in first grade at 7:15 a.m. knowing I would return home at about 4:30 p.m., first on, last off. No wonder my poor mother developed shingles my first week of kindergarten! But I digress. What I am trying to say is that almost all families in our country are able to make some sort of decision on where their child will attend school. Our neighbors choose to send their daughter to a different elementary school district than we are in. It makes more work for the mama as she has to transport her daughter farther to school, but it's important to their family that their children go to the same school their father went to as a child. I'm glad they've found it workable. Many people we know choose to send their children to one of the several private schools in town. Some of them have sent them directly, hoping that their children will have a fuller educational experience if faith is something directly discussed in the classroom by teachers who, parents hope, share their family's beliefs and devotion. Some have tried the public schools and, for their own reasons, moved their children to a private school. We know of others who have gone the opposite direction, from private to public. A couple of my longest, most dear friends send their children to their nearby public schools; one has had mixed results, good and bad, and one has had an overwhelmingly positive experience (their children are in different towns completely). What I think is great is that all of these parents are making intentional decisions regarding their children's education. That's what I love, I guess - being part of a community of friends who are all making the best choices they can for their children.
Soon after sending in our paper work, and after having experienced some of the first (perhaps of many) negative reactions from others finding out about our homeschooling (it hasn't been bad so far - just mostly blank stares or a few snippy comments, but nothing horrendous by any means - I'm just a people-pleaser who is realizing that homeschooling definitely does NOT please some people), I went to dinner with one of my friends who happens to send her children to the public school across the street from their house. I'm so happy for them that they have had such a great experience with teachers, assistants, just everything, with their school system. It hasn't been an easy road, but they are totally raising children who are going to love to learn, regardless of what grade they end up achieving. That's our goal, too. What was so great about that night out, other than laughing so hard I snorted, is that my friend completely built up my confidence again about *our* schooling choice. It's pretty incredible to have multiple friends who make different educational choices but who can all support each other. I.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. We women aren't known to be so very good at supporting others' choices when they are different from our own - just think of all the "hot topics" that women all have opinions on - so I wonder if God just blessed me with a really exceptional group of friends? I think so.
Now after saying all that, I'll try to focus on what I intended this post to be: a snippet of an explanation of how we came to our decision to homeschool - or what we see as the advantages to our choice. What I hope the above paragraphs will show, though, is that, though we see some awesome advantages for us in homeschooling, we don't see it as the one and only way to school children! We aren't going to judge others' educational choices! I'm pretty convinced, in fact, that none of us parents really know for sure how our decisions are going to turn out until we have a whole crop of adult children who can tell us where we really messed up and where we really shone out. So, please, if you're going to read the following paragraphs with the idea in mind of how to contradict each benefit I list or reason I mention, then just don't read it. I'm not good with arguments or rejection. That's why this post has been such a long time coming and why I hesitate when anyone asks why we homeschool. My default answer is just that "it works really well for our family" because that is true and it shouldn't offend anyone. I come from a long line of professional teachers; they are amazingly hardworking people, teachers, and they are about the last group of professionals I'd ever want to hurt or insult. So, that said, if you wish to read on......
1. We're happy with the time we are able to spend together. The homeschooling idea took root when we realized that we were not ready to send Miss Mouse away at 3 or 4 for several hours a week to learn things I could mostly teach her at home. Socialization? She had her own built-in-socializer with a sister so close in age. Neither of them remember a time they weren't required to share, to speak kindly to each other, to wait their turns, to settle disagreements healthily. Do they always do those things? Well, no. But they usually do very well for their ages. The time Miss Mouse and Sunny have had to get to know their baby brother, too, has been precious. Miss Mouse would have already been in school most of the day by the time he was born. She knows him - KNOWS him - in ways she could not have if she'd been out the door at 8 and in the door at 2:50, in bed by 7. We are a unit. We grocery shop together; we play together; we learn together. I've had to find a new preschool curriculum (K4, she tells me is what she's in) for Sunny because Sunny went through the preschool curriculum with Miss Mouse two years ago and remembers most of it. I'm perhaps not describing what I mean by being a "unit" well enough, but the kids are learning to sacrifice and give and share and care for each other in ways they would not have to if they were separated into their own "age groups" for most of the day. It's not for everyone, but we love it.
2. We are flexible enough to accommodate the very hectic schedule of Pastor-Daddy and still have some family time and time for extracurricular activities. I honestly don't know how we could manage if we had Daddy working 65-75 hours a week, kids in school all day, and kids in even one extra activity each. As it is, we eat fewer than four family meals together many weeks in the "busy seasons". Due to the obvious occupational hazard, we also don't have the "typical" weekends that many families look forward to. Homeschooling gives us the freedom for the kids to enjoy some hours with Mike on his day off (Friday) when they would otherwise be in school. I see schooling as their biggest "job" right now, so I would never okay them being taken out of school on Fridays to spend playtime with Daddy, but we can certainly work our own schedule around his freetime!
Miss Mouse needs a lot of sleep. If she needed to be at school by 8 or 8:15, we would see a 7 o'clock bedtime for sure just for her to attempt to remain healthy. That would give her very little time to engage in much other than getting home, unwinding, eating, and starting a bedtime routine. Not every child needs that amount of sleep, so please keep in mind I am not giving directions here, just stating why I LOVE our life. Anyway, if she focuses on her schoolwork and projects and gets her responsibilities done, she has hours and hours free for things like: playing with Sunny, teaching Mighty Mouse new "tricks", helping me cook, learning to crochet (what better thing to do on a 96 degree day than make the world's longest chain??? That was an hour of her afternoon today), playing the mandolin (she plays a mean "Ol' Dan Tucker"....and I mean MEAN!), practicing piano, playing outside, practicing her photography skills (she has her Auntie Stephi's old digital camera) - the list could go on and on. Yesterday afternoon Sunny sat down at the piano, Miss Mouse brought up the mandolin, and Mighty Mouse somehow procured a recorder for himself, and they all "jammed". It was hilarious, and I tried as hard as I could to imprint it on my brain so that it never leaves. It also excited me as I saw them, in my mind's eye, twelve years down the road, jamming for real together, loving each other's company, building each other up, just being able to still breathe and enjoy life.
3. We are able to be s.l.o.w. and yet still accomplish amazing amounts of "work". This ties into the above paragraphs a bit. Life is so hectic these days. Can you tell I'm an introvert? Really, though, even extroverts get burned out of running from here to there, I'm sure. The amount of "study" that Miss Mouse has been able to do in preschool, kindergarten, and now starting first grade, is astounding compared to the amount of time we put in. Yes, we are required to put in a certain amount of time (4 hrs/day, 175 days/yr), but what we can DO in that amount of time is what is so fun and exciting. I suppose it's partly similar to teachers who see a difference in classes of 28 compared to classes of 14. It's easier to get more done in the same amount of time with a lower teacher-to-student ratio. The ratio at the school our kids would go to is quite good, I'm told - probably right now the best in our city - but ours is still lower. Teehee.
It's not important to me that the children are "ahead" of their grade levels or that they are academic "super stars". It's important that they are learning to LOVE to LEARN. I was such a people-pleaser, still am, that I focused almost solely on the grade I got on each assignment/paper/test. I was an excellent test-taker, and that skill served me well, earned me a free ride to college which was great since my family was not in a position to pay for higher education. Unfortunately, I sacrificed "love of learning" for "love of test-taking". I didn't want to LEARN; I wanted to get a great grade on the test. Shouldn't that mean the same thing? Nope. Not necessarily. Mike, on the other hand, could not have cared a whole lot less about getting assignments even DONE, let alone getting a great grade on one. He was no slouch; he got decent grades, but in no way did he actually live up to showing off the potential that he had in his mind. Interestingly, though, he loved to learn far more than I did. He just didn't care to show off what he'd learned. My hope, our hope, is to combine our two personalities and turn out children who will have lifelong love affairs with learning - new information, new cultures, new foods, new books, new people, new histories, new languages. It would be totally awesome if they'd be great test-takers and earn their little heads free higher education, too, but above all our academic goals for our children is that they can THINK. No piece of paper anywhere can prove that a person can think. No test score. With that nebulous goal in mind we approach a rigorous homeschool experience for our budding elementary student(s).
4. Our children learn how to live in a household organically. It's quite possible that most other parents out there teach their children this while at the same time working fulltime and having their kiddos in public/private schools, but I'm not sure I would/could. The girls are required to help around the house - quite a bit; Mighty Mouse will be, too, someday. When they complain about something they don't want to do, they know full-well what household tasks I DON'T like to do (dishes, specifically), and it silences a lot of the complaining. If they aren't helping with a cleaning task, they are generally in charge of their brother (in his playpen or bedroom - he's safe!) so that I can get said task done quickly. It goes back to that we function as a unit. They help; I help; we all work together, all day long. I think that used to be more common, but somehow life (culture?) has divided families more now so that those tasks just get done seemingly on their own. I see a benefit for the kids' future in knowing that nothing gets done on its own, knowing that they are an integral part of our family, that they have responsibilities to our family unit. If we were a farm family, the girls would definitely have bottle lambs by now, but, alas, we are not. So, they clear their dishes and put away clean clothes instead. Bummer for them! :) Oh, well, they both have sticker charts, so they are earning "prizes" like candlelit breakfasts by their assisting with cheerful attitudes.
5. This probably should have been higher, but faith is woven throughout our entire curriculum, our entire "school day", our entire life. There are no awkward moments of trying to explain in politically-correct terms the answer to an honest, childlike question. No one, as of yet, has shown me any compelling reason to "bring back" the Ten Commandments into public schools or such things. I could care less if the public schools offered to take breaks for Jewish holidays or Muslim holidays if they served those populations. Totally doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the political-correctness of the "I'm-okay-you're-okay-we're-all-okay" humanistic gobbledygook. One big stickler for some conservative Christian families in public schools in recent years has been the new bullying curricula that are being developed. Now, who wants to advocate FOR bullying? What kind of creeps, jerks, horrible people would be against an anti-bullying curriculum? Right? Hmm. We are teaching our children that it is never okay to make fun of, hurt, insult, or ignore another person - for.any.reason. We are teaching them that others are created in the image of God, just like they are, and that holds true, even if those others don't know it. Because others are God's Creations just as well as we are, we are to show them love and grace in hopes that those we come into contact with will feel Christ's love through us in some small way. Now....put that into an anti-bullying curriculum. Right. It would never, could never, fly, but it is perhaps the only true anti-bullying sentiment there is. It doesn't end there with one specific example; faith informs every aspect of our lives, our decision-making, how we approach failures, how we approach successes, how we approach defeat and disappointment, how we approach others, how we treat ourselves.....
Again, this isn't a time where I'm trying to say that parents who send their children to school cannot impart their faith to their children. What I'm saying is that we see it as a huge benefit to have so much TIME with them to live it. They will know how to confess because they experience it - from me - when I've messed up, yelled out of turn, snipped when I should have snuggled, heaved a sigh when I should have breathed a prayer. They will know how to pray because we do it every day, more than once. They will know their Bible because we have time to read it. Obviously, both Mike's and my parents imparted strong faiths to their children; it can certainly, totally be done. I do, however, think that life has been put on fast-forward since he and I were children, and that fast-forward has had a hard impact on faith formation.
We, in our opinion, are going to be sending these children out into a world that is increasingly hostile to our views on many issues - including the grace of the Gospel. Truly, "t'was grace that taught my heart to fear (because without a Law, there is no need for Grace!) and grace my fears relieved (thank God!)". Rather than sheltering them FROM the world and creating little, shallow, hollow trinkets that will shatter in the first sprinkle of rain, we hope to be building solid, deeply faithful, brave, daring, graceful individuals who will be able to cling to the promise of Christ's resurrection and to SHARE that promise wherever they go and in whatever God calls them to do. To build those characteristics, it doesn't seem necessary, to us, that they have to focus on what so-and-so is wearing, who is the new boyfriend/girlfriend of so-and-so in first grade, etc. We want them to be able to focus on their family system as the most important mirror in life - peers second, but family first - because we know that, fallen as we are, we are trying our best to model faithful, Godly lives. We also have the privilege of introducing other role models to them - swimming instructors (Miss Mouse loved almost all of hers), piano teachers (I will be bossy here - we have THE.BEST.EVER), Sunday School leaders, neighbors, babysitters, family friends, not to mention awesome extended family members that abound - we have a whole army of positive people surrounding these children, and I truly thank God for them.
--If you'd best interested in a better-written explanation of why homeschooling can work for a family, check out this blog post. (click on the highlighted words, and it should take you there..I think....).
I hope this made some sense; I hope you check out the other blog because she writes on some additional points that I couldn't seem to put into words; I hope this helps explain some of why we are continuing on in this homeschooling "experiment" past kindergarten. Thank you for reading and for being interested in our little family!!!!
What is different, though, as I mentioned earlier and totally acknowledge, is our choice of educational option. Everyone, every family, chooses a way to educate their children. Now, it might have not ever crossed someone's mind to do anything but send his or her child to the public school down the street, but that is still a choice. My parents, for example, had no private school options, and homeschooling, at the time I was in grade school, was just becoming legal in our state. Still, they could have sent me to a boarding school in Fargo; that was still a choice back then. They didn't. Obviously. They wouldn't have. But they chose to live on our family farm (which was great), chose to be farmers (which pretty much rules out private. boarding school - or did in the 1980s anyway! As if they'd have been able to part with me!! Teeheehee!), and, hence, chose to send me off on the bus in first grade at 7:15 a.m. knowing I would return home at about 4:30 p.m., first on, last off. No wonder my poor mother developed shingles my first week of kindergarten! But I digress. What I am trying to say is that almost all families in our country are able to make some sort of decision on where their child will attend school. Our neighbors choose to send their daughter to a different elementary school district than we are in. It makes more work for the mama as she has to transport her daughter farther to school, but it's important to their family that their children go to the same school their father went to as a child. I'm glad they've found it workable. Many people we know choose to send their children to one of the several private schools in town. Some of them have sent them directly, hoping that their children will have a fuller educational experience if faith is something directly discussed in the classroom by teachers who, parents hope, share their family's beliefs and devotion. Some have tried the public schools and, for their own reasons, moved their children to a private school. We know of others who have gone the opposite direction, from private to public. A couple of my longest, most dear friends send their children to their nearby public schools; one has had mixed results, good and bad, and one has had an overwhelmingly positive experience (their children are in different towns completely). What I think is great is that all of these parents are making intentional decisions regarding their children's education. That's what I love, I guess - being part of a community of friends who are all making the best choices they can for their children.
Soon after sending in our paper work, and after having experienced some of the first (perhaps of many) negative reactions from others finding out about our homeschooling (it hasn't been bad so far - just mostly blank stares or a few snippy comments, but nothing horrendous by any means - I'm just a people-pleaser who is realizing that homeschooling definitely does NOT please some people), I went to dinner with one of my friends who happens to send her children to the public school across the street from their house. I'm so happy for them that they have had such a great experience with teachers, assistants, just everything, with their school system. It hasn't been an easy road, but they are totally raising children who are going to love to learn, regardless of what grade they end up achieving. That's our goal, too. What was so great about that night out, other than laughing so hard I snorted, is that my friend completely built up my confidence again about *our* schooling choice. It's pretty incredible to have multiple friends who make different educational choices but who can all support each other. I.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. We women aren't known to be so very good at supporting others' choices when they are different from our own - just think of all the "hot topics" that women all have opinions on - so I wonder if God just blessed me with a really exceptional group of friends? I think so.
Now after saying all that, I'll try to focus on what I intended this post to be: a snippet of an explanation of how we came to our decision to homeschool - or what we see as the advantages to our choice. What I hope the above paragraphs will show, though, is that, though we see some awesome advantages for us in homeschooling, we don't see it as the one and only way to school children! We aren't going to judge others' educational choices! I'm pretty convinced, in fact, that none of us parents really know for sure how our decisions are going to turn out until we have a whole crop of adult children who can tell us where we really messed up and where we really shone out. So, please, if you're going to read the following paragraphs with the idea in mind of how to contradict each benefit I list or reason I mention, then just don't read it. I'm not good with arguments or rejection. That's why this post has been such a long time coming and why I hesitate when anyone asks why we homeschool. My default answer is just that "it works really well for our family" because that is true and it shouldn't offend anyone. I come from a long line of professional teachers; they are amazingly hardworking people, teachers, and they are about the last group of professionals I'd ever want to hurt or insult. So, that said, if you wish to read on......
1. We're happy with the time we are able to spend together. The homeschooling idea took root when we realized that we were not ready to send Miss Mouse away at 3 or 4 for several hours a week to learn things I could mostly teach her at home. Socialization? She had her own built-in-socializer with a sister so close in age. Neither of them remember a time they weren't required to share, to speak kindly to each other, to wait their turns, to settle disagreements healthily. Do they always do those things? Well, no. But they usually do very well for their ages. The time Miss Mouse and Sunny have had to get to know their baby brother, too, has been precious. Miss Mouse would have already been in school most of the day by the time he was born. She knows him - KNOWS him - in ways she could not have if she'd been out the door at 8 and in the door at 2:50, in bed by 7. We are a unit. We grocery shop together; we play together; we learn together. I've had to find a new preschool curriculum (K4, she tells me is what she's in) for Sunny because Sunny went through the preschool curriculum with Miss Mouse two years ago and remembers most of it. I'm perhaps not describing what I mean by being a "unit" well enough, but the kids are learning to sacrifice and give and share and care for each other in ways they would not have to if they were separated into their own "age groups" for most of the day. It's not for everyone, but we love it.
2. We are flexible enough to accommodate the very hectic schedule of Pastor-Daddy and still have some family time and time for extracurricular activities. I honestly don't know how we could manage if we had Daddy working 65-75 hours a week, kids in school all day, and kids in even one extra activity each. As it is, we eat fewer than four family meals together many weeks in the "busy seasons". Due to the obvious occupational hazard, we also don't have the "typical" weekends that many families look forward to. Homeschooling gives us the freedom for the kids to enjoy some hours with Mike on his day off (Friday) when they would otherwise be in school. I see schooling as their biggest "job" right now, so I would never okay them being taken out of school on Fridays to spend playtime with Daddy, but we can certainly work our own schedule around his freetime!
Miss Mouse needs a lot of sleep. If she needed to be at school by 8 or 8:15, we would see a 7 o'clock bedtime for sure just for her to attempt to remain healthy. That would give her very little time to engage in much other than getting home, unwinding, eating, and starting a bedtime routine. Not every child needs that amount of sleep, so please keep in mind I am not giving directions here, just stating why I LOVE our life. Anyway, if she focuses on her schoolwork and projects and gets her responsibilities done, she has hours and hours free for things like: playing with Sunny, teaching Mighty Mouse new "tricks", helping me cook, learning to crochet (what better thing to do on a 96 degree day than make the world's longest chain??? That was an hour of her afternoon today), playing the mandolin (she plays a mean "Ol' Dan Tucker"....and I mean MEAN!), practicing piano, playing outside, practicing her photography skills (she has her Auntie Stephi's old digital camera) - the list could go on and on. Yesterday afternoon Sunny sat down at the piano, Miss Mouse brought up the mandolin, and Mighty Mouse somehow procured a recorder for himself, and they all "jammed". It was hilarious, and I tried as hard as I could to imprint it on my brain so that it never leaves. It also excited me as I saw them, in my mind's eye, twelve years down the road, jamming for real together, loving each other's company, building each other up, just being able to still breathe and enjoy life.
3. We are able to be s.l.o.w. and yet still accomplish amazing amounts of "work". This ties into the above paragraphs a bit. Life is so hectic these days. Can you tell I'm an introvert? Really, though, even extroverts get burned out of running from here to there, I'm sure. The amount of "study" that Miss Mouse has been able to do in preschool, kindergarten, and now starting first grade, is astounding compared to the amount of time we put in. Yes, we are required to put in a certain amount of time (4 hrs/day, 175 days/yr), but what we can DO in that amount of time is what is so fun and exciting. I suppose it's partly similar to teachers who see a difference in classes of 28 compared to classes of 14. It's easier to get more done in the same amount of time with a lower teacher-to-student ratio. The ratio at the school our kids would go to is quite good, I'm told - probably right now the best in our city - but ours is still lower. Teehee.
It's not important to me that the children are "ahead" of their grade levels or that they are academic "super stars". It's important that they are learning to LOVE to LEARN. I was such a people-pleaser, still am, that I focused almost solely on the grade I got on each assignment/paper/test. I was an excellent test-taker, and that skill served me well, earned me a free ride to college which was great since my family was not in a position to pay for higher education. Unfortunately, I sacrificed "love of learning" for "love of test-taking". I didn't want to LEARN; I wanted to get a great grade on the test. Shouldn't that mean the same thing? Nope. Not necessarily. Mike, on the other hand, could not have cared a whole lot less about getting assignments even DONE, let alone getting a great grade on one. He was no slouch; he got decent grades, but in no way did he actually live up to showing off the potential that he had in his mind. Interestingly, though, he loved to learn far more than I did. He just didn't care to show off what he'd learned. My hope, our hope, is to combine our two personalities and turn out children who will have lifelong love affairs with learning - new information, new cultures, new foods, new books, new people, new histories, new languages. It would be totally awesome if they'd be great test-takers and earn their little heads free higher education, too, but above all our academic goals for our children is that they can THINK. No piece of paper anywhere can prove that a person can think. No test score. With that nebulous goal in mind we approach a rigorous homeschool experience for our budding elementary student(s).
4. Our children learn how to live in a household organically. It's quite possible that most other parents out there teach their children this while at the same time working fulltime and having their kiddos in public/private schools, but I'm not sure I would/could. The girls are required to help around the house - quite a bit; Mighty Mouse will be, too, someday. When they complain about something they don't want to do, they know full-well what household tasks I DON'T like to do (dishes, specifically), and it silences a lot of the complaining. If they aren't helping with a cleaning task, they are generally in charge of their brother (in his playpen or bedroom - he's safe!) so that I can get said task done quickly. It goes back to that we function as a unit. They help; I help; we all work together, all day long. I think that used to be more common, but somehow life (culture?) has divided families more now so that those tasks just get done seemingly on their own. I see a benefit for the kids' future in knowing that nothing gets done on its own, knowing that they are an integral part of our family, that they have responsibilities to our family unit. If we were a farm family, the girls would definitely have bottle lambs by now, but, alas, we are not. So, they clear their dishes and put away clean clothes instead. Bummer for them! :) Oh, well, they both have sticker charts, so they are earning "prizes" like candlelit breakfasts by their assisting with cheerful attitudes.
5. This probably should have been higher, but faith is woven throughout our entire curriculum, our entire "school day", our entire life. There are no awkward moments of trying to explain in politically-correct terms the answer to an honest, childlike question. No one, as of yet, has shown me any compelling reason to "bring back" the Ten Commandments into public schools or such things. I could care less if the public schools offered to take breaks for Jewish holidays or Muslim holidays if they served those populations. Totally doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the political-correctness of the "I'm-okay-you're-okay-we're-all-okay" humanistic gobbledygook. One big stickler for some conservative Christian families in public schools in recent years has been the new bullying curricula that are being developed. Now, who wants to advocate FOR bullying? What kind of creeps, jerks, horrible people would be against an anti-bullying curriculum? Right? Hmm. We are teaching our children that it is never okay to make fun of, hurt, insult, or ignore another person - for.any.reason. We are teaching them that others are created in the image of God, just like they are, and that holds true, even if those others don't know it. Because others are God's Creations just as well as we are, we are to show them love and grace in hopes that those we come into contact with will feel Christ's love through us in some small way. Now....put that into an anti-bullying curriculum. Right. It would never, could never, fly, but it is perhaps the only true anti-bullying sentiment there is. It doesn't end there with one specific example; faith informs every aspect of our lives, our decision-making, how we approach failures, how we approach successes, how we approach defeat and disappointment, how we approach others, how we treat ourselves.....
Again, this isn't a time where I'm trying to say that parents who send their children to school cannot impart their faith to their children. What I'm saying is that we see it as a huge benefit to have so much TIME with them to live it. They will know how to confess because they experience it - from me - when I've messed up, yelled out of turn, snipped when I should have snuggled, heaved a sigh when I should have breathed a prayer. They will know how to pray because we do it every day, more than once. They will know their Bible because we have time to read it. Obviously, both Mike's and my parents imparted strong faiths to their children; it can certainly, totally be done. I do, however, think that life has been put on fast-forward since he and I were children, and that fast-forward has had a hard impact on faith formation.
We, in our opinion, are going to be sending these children out into a world that is increasingly hostile to our views on many issues - including the grace of the Gospel. Truly, "t'was grace that taught my heart to fear (because without a Law, there is no need for Grace!) and grace my fears relieved (thank God!)". Rather than sheltering them FROM the world and creating little, shallow, hollow trinkets that will shatter in the first sprinkle of rain, we hope to be building solid, deeply faithful, brave, daring, graceful individuals who will be able to cling to the promise of Christ's resurrection and to SHARE that promise wherever they go and in whatever God calls them to do. To build those characteristics, it doesn't seem necessary, to us, that they have to focus on what so-and-so is wearing, who is the new boyfriend/girlfriend of so-and-so in first grade, etc. We want them to be able to focus on their family system as the most important mirror in life - peers second, but family first - because we know that, fallen as we are, we are trying our best to model faithful, Godly lives. We also have the privilege of introducing other role models to them - swimming instructors (Miss Mouse loved almost all of hers), piano teachers (I will be bossy here - we have THE.BEST.EVER), Sunday School leaders, neighbors, babysitters, family friends, not to mention awesome extended family members that abound - we have a whole army of positive people surrounding these children, and I truly thank God for them.
--If you'd best interested in a better-written explanation of why homeschooling can work for a family, check out this blog post. (click on the highlighted words, and it should take you there..I think....).
I hope this made some sense; I hope you check out the other blog because she writes on some additional points that I couldn't seem to put into words; I hope this helps explain some of why we are continuing on in this homeschooling "experiment" past kindergarten. Thank you for reading and for being interested in our little family!!!!
