{The Start Of It All}

Since this is the beginning of my blog, I'll start at the beginning of our journey.  Our choice to home school-did we feel "called" to it or was it something we always knew was "right" for our family?  Well, really it was neither.  At least in the beginning. When our oldest daughter started school, we were fully prepared to send her to traditional public school.  After all, I had my own long term plans to consider too-teaching at my kids school so we could be close {always a dream of mine}. After a year in a private Christian preschool, an amazing experience, we enrolled her in kindergarten at the public school down the street from our home.  We were excited about this school, a great school in a great district-highly sought after. 

School started and for us, that's when our idealistic bubble was popped!  Every morning, we fought with her to get dressed and head to school. I mean this poor babe was kicking and screaming.  Daddy literally brought her to school once with no shoes on because she flat out refused to put them on {she's sharp as a tack-she knew no shoes, no school} but her teacher said carry her in and she'll sit until she puts those shoes on.  Battle after battle ensued. Finally-worn down Dave and I sat her down to figure out what was going on.  I set up times to observe in the classroom.  I wanted to see how the teacher was working with the students-was it organized chaos or just chaos?  What I found was just sad.  My sweet little shy five year old was figuratively being "left behind".  She was being called names-when I addressed it with the teacher she did nothing. She was not able to hear the teacher because the classroom was so chaotic.  In my honest opinion, the teacher was unqualified for the gig of teaching 28 five year olds.  Children were leaving class in tear on a daily basis-it was awful. 

Now, keep in mind I'm not out to "get" public school teachers.  All my in-laws are teachers, there are some amazing teachers who dedicate time, effort and their lives to this profession but it was just THIS teacher.  She was not cut out to teach these tender hearted sweeties.  She was essentially destroying their first school experience.  Kindergarten's supposed to be fun!  Kiddos are supposed to come home with smiles on their faces and fingerpainted pictures in their hands.  Not the case in this class.  Once we realized what was going on, we were already halfway through the school year and didn't want to cause any more upheaval to our daughter so  instead of transferring her to another class, we left her there.  We knew this was not right for her.  We want our children to LOVE education and with such a long road ahead it was important that we take the reins and re-instill that love for her.  We prayed about the road we needed to take with her. Her being such a introverted, right-brained child we were concerned that she may continue to be "left behind."  The topic of homeschooling came up.  The first thing that struck us about homeschooling was having the control over what our children were going to learn.  That's one thing that bothered us about the public school we had her enrolled at-we felt helpless.  She was being called names and no one did anything about it. She was asking to move her seat so she could hear the lesson and no one did anything about it.  No matter how many times I reached out to the teacher {even the principal} nobody did anything about anything! 

If we made the choice to home school-we could teach them about values, we could take trips and teach them about life, we could teach them about nature and how God designed everything in His image.  Oh, this felt good.  Everything about it felt right.  We continued to pray about it and took the remainder of the school year to research, reach out to cousins who home schooled, research local Charter schools just get grounded in it all.  I was truly overwhelmed and concerned that I was doing her a disservice by even considering being her teacher.  There's NO WAY I would ever be cut out for homeschooling.  God didn't bless me with the patience of a saint, I am REALLY bad at math and I enjoyed my semi-alone time A LOT.  Oh, and going along with the stereotype, I have never made my own clothes, my hair is not down to my booty and I have tattoos.  I'm like the direct opposite of the stereotypical homeschooler {by the way, I have NOT met anyone like that since we started homeschooling three years ago-worst stereotype ever}.  But, it was pretty clear.  One of those moments that God had to slap me across the face and shout "WAKE-UP!"  I wasn't ready for it.  But He had other plans :)  So...this is the time that we truly felt "called." 

We found a Charter school that had everything we were looking for-classes twice a week so the kiddos could make some friends, have some social time {important for our uber shy daughter}, have another teacher who might approach subjects in a different light.  Basically, a good transitional fit for us.  We attended an open house and were informed that there was a long wait list-we could sign her up but the prospect of her getting in for the upcoming school year was pretty slim.  We signed her up anyway and went home and prayed "God, if this is your will please open doors for our daughter."  A few days later, I dropped off the remainder of the registration paperwork.  The school secretary grabbed me "you wanted your daughter on B-track right?" {that's a two day a week on-campus schedule} I replied "yes!"  "One spot just opened up."  My heart started beating faster and faster...how in the world did we by-pass that wait list?  I still have no idea.  Maybe she was higher up than we thought.  Or, maybe it's just God's hand all over it-a blessing, a perfect and true blessing.  Needless to say, we took that spot.  We were overjoyed on so many levels-a new start for her, no curriculum planning for me {the school provides the curriculum for you}, smaller more intimate class sizes and just the close knit school community we were looking for. 

So...this is our journy began.  This is how I learned to trust God and know that His plan is always the right plan, this is how I came to truly know my daughter, this is how I came to know how she learns, this is how I became her teacher.