My Journey To Homeschooling

A few posts ago, I wrote that I would share how I came to start homeschooling, after I declared that I would never do so! My family moved to Ohio from Okinawa when I was in middle school, and one of the first girls I met was a girl named Jennifer. She had 2 sisters, and they were all homeschooled. When you think of homeschool stereotypes, they fit a lot of them--skirt-wearing, long-haired, lived in the country, etc. Our moms were friends and wanted us to be friends too, but to my immature mind, she was a goody-two-shoes (this coming from someone who was probably considered that by many acquaintances!), really prissy, and just odd. She spouted a lot of pro-homeschooling talk like "My mother is my best teacher because she knows me best!" (said in a sugary sweet voice). Blech! "No way!" I thought! "Not ever me!" and when I later learned that she graduated from homeschool and then went on to "midwifery school", well, I just thought that was so weird. Ironically, now I think that is pretty cool, but . . . back to high school, where I was full of big plans.

I went to a wonderful Christian high school, with dedicated teachers that also were committed to discipling us, so I had a great school experience. I went to Cedarville College, which is a Christian college in Ohio, and there were certainly lots of homeschoolers there, even in the early 90's. Some of them were the weird, unsocialized type that get such a bad reputation, and those were the ones that strengthened my resolve to never homeschool!

Bob and I got married after my sophomore year of college, and we moved into a duplex on base, just 5 duplexes away from our friends the L's. They had just started homeschooling their oldest, Anthony. I had a light schedule my last year of college, so I offered to do science with Anthony a couple days a week so Elizabeth could have some time with their 2 younger kids. We had such a great time making volcanoes, looking at things under a microscope, going on nature walks, etc. Hmmm. . . doing stuff one-on-one with kids is pretty fun. A big shift in my thinking!

After I graduated with a degree in biology and math, Bob and I were transferred to Colorado Springs. Two years later, Nathan was born, and a few weeks after that, the L's transferred out to Colorado Springs too. They were trying to sell their (rental) house in Ohio to buy a house in Colorado, so they ended up living in our basement for 8 months while that happened. Slow market back in Ohio! Elizabeth was pregnant with their 4th child this whole time. Now I could really see the nitty-gritty of how homeschooling worked, and to be honest . . . I liked it! People were always amazed that we could all live together for so long, but it was so much fun. The L's kids were so much fun to be around, and such huge helpers. They entertained Nathan when he was fussy--he grew up thinking he had 3 older siblings!--and I never had to unload the dishwasher, vacuum or clean the main floor bathroom while they lived with us. Needless to say, the L's were who we ran to with parenting questions, since we liked their results so much, and it was great to see right in front of us all these great parenting examples!

During this same time, my mom somehow got on the mailing list for Veritas Press. I loved looking through their catalogue, and now I was interested in homeschooling from an academic perspective as well. Although I had had a very good education, I always felt like there was more out there that I didn't know--gaps, if you will. I knew I was weak in ancient history, and there were lots of myths and other literary allusions that I didn't always understand. And I SO wished I could have taken Latin in high school. In Colorado I met another girl about my age who taught Latin, and I was so jealous of her students! So when I considered that I could teach my kids the stuff in the catalogue, and learn it myself at the same time--well, that was a very appealing idea. I decided that I would have to start at the very beginning with Nathan, because I was sure that if I didn't start with kindergarten--no, even preschool!--then I would never be able to jump in. We did fun workbooks and read a lot of books for preschool, and then each year we would add more. Now I hardly do anything for preschool, which was in fact the advice I got from experienced homeschoolers that I knew back then, so I have obviously gotten a lot more relaxed about it all! As I started doing more research on the internet, I came across the Well-Trained Mind website, specifically the message boards, and because of that, I read the book The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer. This book solidified in my mind a lot of my goals for the academic part of our homeschooling, and it gave me ideals to aim for, especially in terms of future years. So now we've been homeschooling for 4 years, and I am still learning. I am actually becoming very interested in a more Latin-centered form of classical education, and so we have made Latin an essential part of each homeschooling day, just like math. I am sure I will post more on this as I learn more! I joined a Latin-centered Yahoo group several weeks ago, so I have enjoyed getting those emails.

As I think back on my journey to considering homeschooling, I realize that God brought the right people into my life at just the right time to answer my questions and be examples to me. Now obviously homeschooling is not for everyone, and I don't even think it should be. But as I heard someone once say, "If you are wondering about it, then be open to it--God might be leading you to do it. But if you never even wonder about it, then He's probably not calling you to that!" I feel like the Lord is blessing our homeschooling journey, and that right now, we are where He wants us to be!