So we've decided as a family to take the ever so scary first steps into homeschooling. I want to use this page to share, why, how and what we choose to do along the way as I'm sure the how and what will change as we go along.
First off I will start with the "why". Why would we choose to homeschool? Well, I can tell you that if you would have asked us 3 years ago; we would have said a big "NO" to homeschooling. The main reason being the ever so argued topic of "socialization", even though after looking into homeschooling deeper I realize there is no argument to socialization, these days it seems to be the problem that homeschool kids are almost too socialized with all of the activities, groups and co-ops they can be a part of. So that puts that to rest.
My husband was actually homeschooled and didn't really have a negative outlook on it other than his parents had to stop after his 7th grade year. For 8th grade he went to a Christian private school and then for high school he went to public school. He did feel like he had been thrown to the wolves so to speak because he had been very sheltered but of course we hope to not shelter the kids so much but if that's the worst thing that happens then so be it.
What brought us to even start considering homeschool? Well this is going to sound crazy, but it is what it is. We recently watched a movie called Agenda: Grinding America Down and our whole outlook changed. If you have not watched it I suggest you do. That mixed with the things my 12 year old tells me that they are teaching him at school pretty much started this homeschool train rolling. Unfortunately, I cannot pull my 12 year old out of school, long story, but I pray for him all the time, that God is with him and helping him make wise choices. He is God's before he is mine and I give him to God. But I can however control what happens with the next two that will be entering school age before I know it.
As soon as I told my mother-in-law that we were thinking about homeschooling she immediately found a book for me while at Goodwill. It took me a week or so to start reading it and I wish I would have started reading it sooner. The book, The Christian Home School by Gregg Harris was written originally in 1988 and then updated in 1995 and it speaks to everything Agenda: Grinding America Down covered. Let me just say our public school system has an a plan for the future of our children and I don't want my children to be a part of "that" future. As I was reading I just couldn't get over the fact that what he was saying is happening right now in our country before our eyes and then especially the people like Martin Luther who pretty much called the decline of this country through our schools back in the 1800's.
So my main goal for my children is to know God, have a personal relationship with Jesus and get a quality education along with that. Education is very important but knowing Jesus is more important, we're talking their eternal future here. Once I started looking more into homeschooling and what it has turned into these days compared to what it was when my husband was homeschooled, I got very excited. The possibilities are endless. As long as the government continues to allow homeschooling that's what we're going to do. However, I do realize that life changes and sometimes you have to roll with the punches so if something happened to us financially or if I were not able to be at home with the kids anymore and my only option was public school, I would just pray daily for my little ones. But hopefully that doesn't happen.
I want to be a godly woman, wife and mother and I want to raise my children to be godly people. My prayer is that through this decision we will glorify God by keeping our children close to us, teaching them Christian values and character and making their education our responsibility.
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