The Homeschool Village~What is my History?

The Homeschool Village is asking “What is your history?  When did you first hear about homeschooling” 

I first heard about homeschooling when I was pregnant with my first child, Mackenzie, back in 2000.  I had joined an online message board with a group of women all expecting February 2001 babies.  We starting sharing our pregnancy experience and eventually we all became really close.  I’ve met a great many of them
“in real life” since then.

There was one lady, Dini, who was homeschooling her three oldest children.  Homeschooling?  I had NEVER heard of this before.  Or if I had, I hadn’t let it sink in.  I mean, at the time, I was the public school teacher.  I loved my job and had always imagined my child’s first day of school.

At any rate, she was often sharing things about the kids were learning and reading.  And reading they were.  She would talk about their books, literature not text books,  and I’d sit there thinking, “Wow!  I wish I could’ve learned about {insert any period of history here} like that instead of that boring, old history book I suffered through.”   They were Sonlighters, which is a literature-based curriculum as opposed to a traditional text and workbook based curriculum.

I devoured every post she wrote.

  Little did I know, that this message board would be a catalyst for some major changes in my life.  God had some plans for our family that I wasn’t expecting.

Fast forward a couple years, I meet an IRL homeschooler at church.  Her son is amazing, still dealing with typical teenage behavior but not at the level you see in the "general population."   For 8th grade she enrolled him in public school for the first time (long story short, she has a young daughter who is very ill and couldn't devote enough time to schooling.)

I thought for sure he'd have a hard time entering school. "Socialization" and all.  But nope, he did amazing.  He had been home with his family for so long, and was so grounded and sure of his faith and beliefs that he was a shining light for Christ in that school.  He befriended a boy with a bit of a troubled background and was such a positive influence on him.  Peer pressure didn't cause a problem for him as he was firmly rooted in his faith.  Something much easier to do when you're not surrounded by 25 other little "monsters" telling you to do this and that.

Fast forward another year and a half...It's time to pick new orders. (My husband was career Navy. ) Kevin mentioned Guam.  Guam?  Where in the world is Guam?  So I started researching it.  After I got over my initial freak out over brown tree snakes (google it, you'll understand LOL), I was interested.  What an opportunity.  Beautiful island, totally different lifestyle, lots of diving and traveling.  So I said okay. We were moving to Guam.

Now with my research I learned that Guam schools were not very good.  About 20% of the students were at the national average.  But hey, we'd be using the DOD schools because we're military.  Come to learn that they're not all that great either.  Homeschooling has been in the back of my mind since I first ran across my friend, Dini, online.

So I casually mention homeschooling to my husband, figuring he'd call me a freak and let out a great, big "no way."

Here's where God stepped in people.  He knows that I need obvious guidance regarding His will or I will miss what He's telling me entirely.  He was blunt with me.  A fact for which I'm very grateful!

Kevin  didn't freak.  He was interested.  He thought it was a great idea.

At first we figured, just while we're in Guam.  Then God led us to know that He'd like us to try it longer.

And so here we are, in our sixth year of homeschooling, happily plugging along with no thought to ever putting them into traditional institutions.

I could go into the whys about that, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.