Life Before Homeschooling

Dana, over at Principled Discovery, is celebrating Home Education Week and has encouraged fellow bloggers to join in to share some stories. Today's topic is Life Before Homeschooling and here is our story.

We began homeschooling 8 years ago and it has been absolutely amazing...challenging at times, but still amazing. When we started homeschooling Justin was 9, Matthew 5, and Cayla 3. Justin had gone to public school from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. After his 3rd grade year, we moved from Texas to Washington...and that is where it began.

While living in Texas, Tim worked full-time and finished his Bachelor's degree. I worked part-time (Tuesdays and Thursdays) at a Mother's Day Out and babysat the other three days. I also took some college night classes. We had 3 small children and our life was busy. Looking back, we didn't know that life could be different. We lived what we knew.

My days were busy taking care of other people's children. I was hurried, tired, and frustrated. I was giving my time and energy to other children when I should have been giving them to my own. And to be truthfully honest, I don't really like working with other people's children. I know that sounds heartless, but I believe it is a special calling to work with children (other than one's own) and I have never personally experienced that calling. I can love other people's kids all day long, as long as I am not responsible for them.

After some time, God had other plans for us. In 2000, He called our family to move from Marshall, Texas to Randle, Washington. This was when and where we made the transition from public school to homeschool. The first few years were trying, as I had never embarked on such an adventure. I doubted myself and felt very insecure. But as I continued to draw my strength and confidence from the Lord, He began to show me new and glorious things. Homeschooling became easier and I began to feel as though things were being accomplished.

Here we are today. Justin is 17, Matthew 13, Cayla 10, Lucas 6 and Katie 3. Larah (14 months old) is the baby in our homeschool, and she thrives just by being with her brothers and sisters. We by no means have the perfect homeschool but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Our family wakes up together. We spend our days together. We enjoy our evenings together. We are rich with God's treasures.