Home Schooling 101: Introduction

In our first post we explained how we came up with the name of our blog. And you know why we're homebrewing (yum). But some of you might like to know why we decided to homeschool. This can be a pretty tricky question to answer, especially because it's usually asked by those who don't homeschool and don't know many people who do. Sometimes I find it hard to not tailor my answer to suit whoever is asking the "why" question; you can't help wanting to impress others. The urge to stress academic excellence among homeschoolers is hard to suppress when an academic type asks why, as is the urge to stress the faith issue when a religious type asks. When confronted by family members and close friends who send/sent their children to school, you worry about offending them in some way...as if when learning of our decision to homeschool, they're really hearing "if you were good parents like us, you wouldn't have sent your kids to school". There's this fear lingering over us that people will look at us as that pretentious little homeschooling family whose kids are too good for school. Then again maybe these concerns of mine are unwarranted. Perhaps they're just the feelings I used to have about homeschoolers before taking the plunge myself.

Not quite a year ago I was asked by my sister-in-law if we were going to homeschool. No way, I said. I was going back to school once the boys were in school (including preschool). We had tossed around the idea of homeschooling and how it seemed like a good thing to do, but I wasn't fit to teach my children. I don't even have a degree. Not long after that conversation with my sister-in-law, my heart grew very heavy. I was looking at a college for organ/sacred music and checking out houses on the market in that town thirty minutes from here. I even loaded the two older boys in the car and drove around the campus and town, and planned on calling the organ professor and discussing options for me and my education there. But my heart grew heavier and I couldn't understand why. For the first time I thought I was finally on the right track moving in the direction that I wanted to go. But this homeschooling thing kept coming up and I kept pushing it aside.

Then I started praying for help with my mothering skills. I was very sick with my third pregnancy and feeling disappointed with the job I was doing as a mother of two small boys, so I prayed and prayed for energy, patience, and the wisdom to be a better mom. I didn't get much energy or patience, but the flood of homeschooling thoughts and ideas wouldn't stop raining down on me. I resisted for a while but finally gave up...then the peace, joy and understanding that only God can give descended on me like the warmth of the sun after a cold rain. I thank God for being patient with me while I walked down my path, and praise Him for leading me down His path!

The answer "because God told me to" probably won't satisfy a lot of people when asking why we're going to homeschool...although I personally can't think of a better reason. But if people keep pressing for other specific reasons, I think the answer I'm going to start using is "why not"? And since this post has exceeded my length-limit that I wanted to abide by on our blog, I'm going to close with an invitation for anyone to comment or ask questions. Remember, you can post a question anonymously if you choose.

For those of you looking for a picture of those adorable boys: So sorry...it won't let me post one and I've tried four different times! Hopefully Brewmaster can get it to work with his next one.