Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Getting Started

I must say, I am not much of a blogger but I am going to give it a try.  If you read my "About Me" section you know that I am a stay at home mom of 2 children and have been married for almost 8 years now.  I work from home creating graphic art for small business owners.  I love my family and my work but most of all I love my God!  I try to put each decision I make in his hands and let him guide me.  I say try because, well, I am human.  I like to have things when I want them.  Sadly, that is not how God works.  It has taken me years to realize that and get to where I am today.  Where am I, you ask?!  Good question!  I am at a great place in my life.  Forget that my husband is laid off, we live in his parents basement and we are in debt up to our eyeballs (really, this is over half the countries populations story right now, I am not saying anything new).  We have recently decided that we want to homeschool our children.  Why, you ask?!   Really we have several reasons but the biggest reason of all is that the social environment that public schools offer children is not the type of social environment I want for my children.  It seems that the classrooms are over-crowded and teachers are burnt out and underpaid.  But it isn't just from the classroom.  Parents today just don't want to fool with their children.  They leave them to their own devices and trust me, when children are left to their own devices they come up with some interesting (for lack of a better word) ideas.  With my children here, at home, I know where they are, who they are with and what they are doing 90% of the time.  Don't start freaking out on me just yet and go on about how they need interaction with other children.  I thought about that too!  Homeschoolers have a great option called co-ops.  It is where we can get together with other homeschool families and let our children take part in different classes while the moms volunteer to teach or help teach the classes.  This is great socialization for not only the children but the moms as well.  We are just now starting down this path so we have yet to go to a co-op but I really look forward to going to one.

Right now we are working on some catch up and PreK work with S and some basic PreK work with N.  We are preparing them (from now and over the summer) for the real school year.  We spend a couple of hours each day doing different activities together.  The kids LOVE it!  On the weekends they seem lost without the structure of the week before.  I love that!  See, I am not usually very organized.  Since we started homeschooling I have become a new person.  I feel as though I am a better wife, mother, friend and Christian.  I find myself wanting to read my Bible each day.  I want to play with my kids all of the time.  I am finding more and more time for my husband and for myself.  I can't say that all of this is because of the decision to homeschool but I can say that the decision to homeschool created a ripple effect that is shaping me into a person I am enjoying being.

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