I've Got Some News (that's for you Olivia!)

I've started and stopped this post at least half a dozen times. I've written, re-written, edited, and in the end, deleted all of my attempts to share this news.

We will be homeschooling.

I wanted to find the right words to explain just how we arrived at this decision. I wanted every paragraph, every sentence, every comma to be so perfectly placed that all of you- our faithful readers, our closest friends, our family members- would jump for joy (as we have) and shout, "Hooray! What a fun adventure!" (As we belive it will be.)

But this homeschooling journey of ours has been such a short, unexpected, sudden change of events that I know it would be unrealistic for everyone to easily and spontaneously see what we see, feel what we feel.

So, I'll start from the beginning. Terry and I pretty much agree that the first seeds of the homeschooling decision began three years ago when we read Bringing Up Boys by Dr. James Dobson. I was very pregnant with Micah (was that only 3 years ago?) and my dad gave us the book as a gift. The always eloquent Dr. Dobson is a proponent of homeschooling and his chapter on Boys and School was eye-opening for us.

Eye-opening, yes. Convincing, no. We didn't close the book and say, "By golly, this is the way to go!" In fact, if we were honest, we'd probably have to admit that all this book did was convince us that homeschooling wasn't just the option of overly-sensitive, overly-protective parents.

The next thing that played a part in all of this was discovering the blog of a friend of a friend. (My cousins are homeschooled, but since I was a child when they were actually being homeschooled, I didn't pay much attention to their schooling and so I can't really consider their lifestyle an influencing factor. Although their individual, productive lives are a great testament to their unique, educational upbringing.) Mary Grace, who writes the Books and Bairns blog was humorous, poignant, and poetic when talking about the day-to-day life of a homeschooling family. I've been reading her blog off and on for about a year now. And while I still didn't think homeschooling was for us, I enjoyed her perspective on it.

Where our homeschooling journey really begins is about seven weeks ago at a Women's Convention when God kept bringing up homeschooling during my prayer time. When I'd begun praying I had no idea that when I next opened my eyes I would be seeing the world through the eyes of a homeschooling mom. When I felt God laying the issue on my heart, I had a lot of doubts. Most looming, at the time, was the idea of never getting a break from my kids. Caleb was being especially difficult during those weeks and more often than not I'd found myself daydreaming about what it would be like when they were in school and I had some precious moments to myself. I had other thoughts against homeschooling as well. Could I really teach? Would others be supportive? Would my kids still be able to carve out a life? But God was faithful and He didn't just point me in the right direction and abandon me. He gave me such peace and strength during that prayer time that when I stood up, there was no doubt in my mind about our educational route. There was no fear. Only peace and excitement!

And the excitment was only compounded when not thirty minutes later I found myself seated next to a woman who had been homeschooled herself and was now homeschooling her own children. Her excitement and enthusiasm over her choice to homeschool was infectious (I'll get to the ever-popular issue of socialization later, but y'all- this woman was so confident, talkative, bubbly that there can be no doubt that she's had plenty of opportunities to socialize!) and soon the whole table was chatting about homeschooling.

I wondered all the way home from that convention if Terry would agree to h.s. We'd talked about it before, but only in casual terms. I knew he thought it was a respectable choice for others, I just didn't know what he'd think about us joining their ranks. When I got home, I didn't have to give a speech, present my case, or even explain what I'd felt in my prayer time. I said, 'Homeschool?' Terry said, 'Yes!'

And the rest is history. I started to compile research and investigate specific options. That's the stage I'm in right now. I've researched so many facts, pros, cons, groups, tutors, curricula, etc that it would make your head spin! I've also been speaking to anyone I can about their personal homeschool experiences. And it turns out I've got many more people to turn to than I thought! Besides my aunt, I've discovered there is a large group of women at church and in my MOPS group who also homeschool. And I've been slowly gathering information from them. Who knew there were so many homeschoolers in the Houston area?

Actually there are around two million families in America who homeschool.

Er, make that two million and one.