Homeschooling - A Calling or a Choice

No not me!!  That was my answer when it came to homeschooling.  I wanted to be the mother who prepaired cute snacks for the kids to enjoy after a long day of school while I sat by listening to all the adventures of their day.

 I wanted to be Martha Stewart.  The mom with the perfectly clean house, creative fruits and vegetables my kids would love to eat, and of course have the title "Cool Mom."  Well, this was my idea of life with children, but God had a different plan.  He started working on my heart  the summer before our oldest son started 3K.

That year, our oldest had attended Mommy's Day Out 3 days a week.  I noticed after the year was over, that he had picked up some bad habits and forgot some of the things I had taught him.
For instance: I taught him to say "Yes and no ma'am, yes and no sir."  However, his teacher did not reinforce this during school hours.  She acceped Yep and Nope from her students.  Rather than maintaining our plan for him, our son began using what his teacher allowed in school.  This was the first of many eye opening events that took place.

During this same time period, I ran across a book called The Socialization Trap.


 I love to read and consider books a great resource.  This book is written by a Christian conservative father of 14 children.  They made the decision to homeschool, when homeschool was a new thing.  They are pioneers of homeschooling.  This book helped me realized that the reasons I wanted to send our kids to school were the same reasons I disliked school when I was young.  What I learned from other kids my age (socialization) was bad habits, bad language, disrespect for my parents, sexual content, and the "Me" or "I" syndrome.  I learned the way of others rather than the way of my parents.  What more can a parent expect, however, when they leave the largest waking hours of their childs day in the care of someone that may or may not hold the same values.  This book helped me reevaluate what our goals should be for our children and how to achieve those goals.  Homeschooling was the way for us to achieve what we wanted for our family.  This was God's calling on my life.

Let me take a minute to state that God calls people in different ways to do different things.  We are all not alike nor does God want us to be.  So it is ok if God has called you to send your children to school.  This was just my experience and the way God was able to use it to show me His will for my life and the life of our children. 
  
 If this book interest you or you would like more info, I have provided the link to this family's website.  They are a great resource to our family.  The father and mother write books and also sell products that have worked for them.  They have 14 children, 7 of which have graduated already. 
 www.thelearningparent.com