Thought I would share our story in how we came to homeschool.  Dreaming that I had homeschooled from the beginning but also realizing this is the journey God put us on and He has used it to grow me and my faith so much! I can’t have regrets or be disappointed in myself, I can only look ahead and see where He wants to grow me next!  Also, hoping and praying that our journey might help someone else!

Adam needed to be pulled from public school the middle of his 4th grade year.  It was a tough thing for this Mama to do. The reason it was tough, is because at the time I was a pretty firm believer in PUBLIC school for Christian families! I’ve always felt it was good to be that light and example as a family.  For Adam though, he was struggling physically and mentally and we needed to help him. We pulled Adam from public school to help him with his OCD and ADD.  We prayed a lot and I kept pushing that voice down inside that tried to get me to think just a tad about homeschool.

Christian Academy

Prior to any attempt at home school, we started with FCA. The Fillmore Christian Acadmey was great for Adam. FCA was a great non-public school option for Adam. The small class size, great staff, and friends were all benefits. He made some nice friends and enjoyed it but the school part was still really hard for him. This was especially true when he reached the sixth grade. When he reached the sixth grade, he had gone there for two years. I was still having to do so much to keep him up to date with his school assignments.  As a mom I would spend a lot of time texting teachers and calling them to discuss his work. He regularly forgot so much of what he learned and he wasn’t paying attention. His grades were suffering because of school work that he did complete, but then forgot to turn in. It was becoming very stressful, and especially so, considering the amount of money we were spending monthly.

K12 (Public School online)

During the time Adam attended FCA, the K12 program kept coming to mind.  After all…. it wasn’t really homeschooling, it was public school at home! Surely I could do that. I still was refusing to listen to that small voice telling me to try homeschooling.  K12 was basically public school at home on the computer. We pulled Adam from FCA, ordered all the books & computer and gave it a try.

The result was that it was hard! We quickly learned that K12 wasn’t the answer.  God knew that.  He knew he had to let me figure it out though.

I think God has a sense of humor!

Really I do.

He likes to have me do the “nevers”.  All the things I have said I would never do ends up being a reality for me. Funny though, all those seem to be ways that God has really blessed me and shown me that His ways are much better than those that I have in my own small mind!

Never getting married (best thing I did)
Never having kids (2nd best thing)
Never getting a mini van (with kids, its really a good thing)
Never going to church outside my hometown (one of the greatest things for our family for 15 years was traveling outside of town)
Never homeschooling

Teaching from Rest

While struggling with the K12 program, one day I stumbled upon a video online…. and I listened to Teaching From Rest….. my eyes were really opened.

Through some friends that I had, and the new friend I met online, I was guided to things that Adam could use as learning resources instead of K12.  They showed me that learning (most of it) should be more fun and not so dreaded!  It was alright for me to stop K12 (just stop in the middle of it?!? and take a break for a while from school things all together! Really? That was ok?) and make the change. So we “de-schooled” for a time. It was great!

I realized that its okay to keep things at a slower, easy going pace. I don’t have to be a rubber band and making sure he’s checking E.V.E.R.Y S.I.N.G.L.E thing off the list!! We can move slower, we can pick things he’s interested in, we can get to things that I think are needed and important for him to learn and not only things he was learning in public school!

So, I’m sure God is just laughing….. “Spring , Spring…. when will you realize that my plans are better”…..

As I went through this time God placed sermons with amazing reminders to me:

1. I can POUR OUT my heart to God…..I don’t have to HOLD in my frustrations.  I can pour my heart out to God.  He’s gonna hear me.

2.  I need to realize that my choices are impacting others.  The things I say, do and think are impacting my family.

3.  Realize that God is way bigger.  He’s got the BIG picture.  I can only see a little bit of it, or what has already been done.  I need to PRAY that God will open my eyes to see what I can’t see.  That God will show me how possibly this homeschool decision will impact those around me.  Focus on God’s attributes. He’s much bigger!  Be in the WORD daily.

Lessons

“WHAT IF THE HARDEST THING I’VE GONE THROUGH (or going through), ENDS UP BEING THE BEST”? (Pastor Mike).

That hit me!

God had been speaking to my heart. What I was thinking about was much more than whether to homeschool or not to homeschool. I was contemplating more about my attitude. Hard things can be the best things! I needed to step out of the way and allow God to transform my mind so that I could be the wife and mother and teacher that God wanted me to be.  To live my life for His Glory.  After all we are only here for a little while. I want my kids to grow up and leave with fond memories of their childhood. I want my children to know that we love them, and raised them to know and love Christ above all else.

So, all this to say… I humbly realized that God truly knows what He’s doing and has the plan.  I resolved to move out of the way and instead, strive to LET GO and LET GOD have it all and direct us on this journey.

I took the rest of that year doing homeschool with Adam. Titus and Annie Mae would join in the fun too.  As far as the rest…. well…. Gideon was in his special Ed preschool and Luke and Gregory were still going to Public School at the time.

California Laws

In California we have a law that states you have to be vaccinated to attend school.  We had made the decision not to vaccinate Gideon or any of our children anymore, since Gideon had the adverse reaction to them which caused him many delays and changes in him.  Gideon was getting the age of Kindergarten and we realized that we couldn’t send him to school.

2017-2018 First homeschool year with all

After much prayer, I truly believe that God led us to homeschool the kids that following school year! We pulled Luke out in April 2017 to do a trial of homeschool and it was a beautiful thing! In July 2017 I was getting everything prepared! I remember going over the top in prepping things and trying to get organized! I didn’t know everything I know now and really wish I had known more!  I was so excited to see what the Lord would do though! So, that August would be the start of us homeschooling all our our kids (except Gregory).  Looking back I kinda wished we had pulled Gregory as well.  However, he was pretty established in sports and that would be hard to pull him away from!

Unhurried Homeschooler

In September of 2018 I took a class with Durenda Wilson.

She wrote “The Unhurried Homeschooler” and “Four Hour homeschool day” and a devotional called “Unhurried Grace for a Mom’s heart” She also has a weekly podcast.  This “class” was a 12 week class.  She posted a new video each week and we got the chance to listen on our own time, and then we were able to interact with her in a “group session” online.  She’s was awesome ! I took so many notes and gleaned so much from Durenda!

God grew me in so many ways that first year. I’m amazed at how He is working on my heart and causing me to see things differently each year. Durenda explained about how its so important to have MARGIN in our day, and to slow down so we can work through conflict as it arises. It is also important that our kids can have opportunities to see a sinful nature and how we can work through those issues.  Jesus disciples us as we disciple our kids! Its so true…. God is working on me as I’m working on on helping my kids grow in the grace of God.

She shared something I never even knew! There are two different methods of homeschooling.  GREEK METHOD, which is information based.  Feed the kids information and have them learn that stuff and the HEBREW METHOD, this method is rooted in relationship.  The teacher learns to understand when to turn right or left or stop.  I liked the idea of building relationship and discipling my kids, not just a bunch of facts to learn and see if they retain the information.

She went on to share about how we as Mom’s are naturally NURTURERS! God made us this way! It is one of the greatest gifts, to have that nurture instinct.   He created us to know our kids best and to look out for them in that loving way.  I loved how she brought in James 1, if we lack wisdom, ASK and God will give it.  We have to stop doubting, and have faith and trust that God is going to give us what we need!

The story of Mary and Martha was brought up and I just love how she brought that in to homeschooling.   I’ve always been a “list checker offer”.  ha ha…..  Durenda said “Nothing is wrong with a check list, but when it takes the place of relationship we’ve lost the heart of discipleship”.  I need to remember to work at home (tending to kids, housework, or homeschool) from a place of rest and peace.  Slowing down helps my kids be self directed and life long learners.  I need to remember these things and not get hung up on checking things off the list!

There to Now

We’ve been at this now for 6 years and each year I learn more and love each year more and more! We are at a place now of teaching from rest and using a very unhurried approach and enjoying it so much!  We read a lot of good books and use a notebook!  Its always fun for me to make a plan for our new school year (in which I have done here) but I know in the end there are more important things to life than the “school things”.  Education is a way of life in reality and getting hung up on all the things really gets in the way! I’m constantly checking myself that I don’t let that happen!