I started homeschooling my kids 15 years ago after my huband announced that's what we were going to do. No discussion (at first), he just bought me a book about how to homeschool and said this is what he wants for our family. He was also homeschooled for about four years and saw the value in it. I, did not! At that point, I was a little frustrated that he had dropped this on me and excepted me to take on this huge responsibility. I have to admit that I put up a fight and he even broke down and allowed me to put the kids in a Montessori school for a few years after homeschooling for about 3 years - the easy early years. But in time and after seriously praying about it and doing some homework about homeschooling, I decided I'd go for it again.
It was a very difficult transition for me. I had 5 kids under the age of 9 and I honestly felt like I wasn't qualified to teach my kids. I'd cry to my husband and he was a sweetheart about it but basically said things like...'you know how to read and write, then why not just show the kids what you know'. Well, that was easier said then done. I was becoming completely overwhelmed and wanted to give up. My husband said that he'd rather our kids get no education then put them in public school and in our small town there aren't any private schools that go past the third grade. So, I had to bite the bullet and get serious. I had to stop all the whining and get to work. However, I did take several months and let the kids just play and read while I put together some plans. I also studied a lot from the scriptures and found many references about teaching our children, which I'll share with you in another post.
So to make a long story short... After a lot of prayer, pondering, studying and taking lots of deep breathes I began to homeschool my kids. And now I can say with all honesty... It's the best thing we've done for our children besides helping them develop a relationship with their Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We now have 4 children who are homeschool graduates. Our oldest, Ali, is serving a mission for our church in England, but has only one year left before receiving her Bachelors in History after she returns. Our next oldest, Jon, is also serving a mission in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission for our church. He has one year of college completed. Cassie, next in line, is a sophomore at a University in Utah. Brandon, who is 18 is working at Subway right now but has about one year of college completed. I'm currently homeschooling my two youngest, Melanie (age 15 - 10th grade) has about 15 college credits, and Christian (age 12 - 7th grade).
I will be forever grateful to my dear husband who encouraged me all the way and still does, for putting up with my ranting and whining, and most importantly for not giving up on his vision for our family.
If you are considering homeschooling, I would encourage you to fast, ponder and pray about it. Give it a try and let the results speak for themselves. You will not see changes overnight but you will, in time, see the fruits of your labor and they will be so sweet.
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