Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Eleven years and going strong

This year marks our 11th year of homeschooling.  What started off as what one might call a fluke, has progressed to a lifestyle of learning for our family.  In 2001, my oldest daughter was about to turn five years old, but a few weeks to late for the school system in our home state of Pennsylvania.  She had already attended our church's preschool program for the last two years and was a sponge for learning.  Even though I had told myself that I would NEVER homeschool my children because I did not have the patients required,  I did not want my daughter to become bored at home waiting for the year to pass so that she could attend public school the following year. 

I told myself that I would only homeschool for a year or two and then I would put her in public school.  Well, that year turned into two and then three and then four.  It was around this time that I found out that I was pregnant again (with baby #4) and that the third and fourth children would only be 20 months apart.  There was no way that I could homeschool.  I would be teaching a 1st grader, 4th grader and have two in diapers.  So I decided to enroll the older two girls in public school.

We lived in a conservative area and most of the teachers and even the principal in the new school were Christians.  During this school year, my husband quit his job, which provided housing for us and we had to move.  We could not find reasonable housing in the same school district, so we decided to move to the town I grew up in and the girls attended the same school that I had attended.  It was during this year that my husband joined the military and we moved only 7 months later. 

Since my husband has to go through 4 months of training, we decided to go back to homeschooling again.  Throughout the following years, we have utilized homeschooling, public school and even online Christian school for our older two girls to further their education. 

Again, I said that I would NEVER homeschool for high school, but this fall my daughter starts her junior year.  You would think by now that I would stop saying NEVER, because every time I do, I end up doing what I said I wouldn't do anyway.

So this year, along with having a newborn, I am homeschooling my girls in 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 11th grades.  We started out this homeschool journey with me wanting my daughter to not just sit at home waiting to turn five so she could start kindergarten and now eleven years later are still at it.

We have had our rough patches and our great years, but I wouldn't trade these years with my kids for anything.  In two years, my oldest will graduate and who knows what will happen after that. 

Take the time to love on your kids and invest in them because the future could be right around the corner and much closer than you think!