The adventure begins......

You check your list, making sure you have everything. You have been anticipating this moment for months. A new adventure. You have prepared, studied, and gotten the supplies that you need. The moment has arrived. You review everything again and again, making sure you haven’t missed anything crucial to your survival. The butterflies of anticipation mixed with anxiety stir in your stomach. You lay everything out the night before, so you can get a goodnight sleep hoping and praying you have prepared enough.
(The next morning)
AHHH! Today is the day. You take a long leisurely stretch…. Praying to the pregnancy gods you don’t get a Charlie horse, and then ask God to calm your fears, and to give the wisdom needed for our new adventure. Yep today is the first day of home schooling!!!!
Being completely honest, I hope that I am not screwing my kids up for the rest of their lives. Ben and I have prayed about and sought council about this decision and yet in the back of mind it echo’s….. “Are you going to miss something?” “What if they become social inept?” “What if you loose your mind trying to do everything for everybody?”

Oh the doubts that can assail me but when I pray I feel calm and I know I have to rely on that this is what God wants for our family right now. I AM excited to start this journey.

A little background for those who haven’t heard this before. As parents we are NOT home schooling because we feel that the schools are evil or that our kids will be rotten to the core if we send them to public school. In fact I think the teachers are doing a wonderful job with what they are given and the classroom sizes that they deal with. With that said, Jacob, who is in first grade this year is already reading full chapter books in one night. He loves the box car children series. Reading is all they focus on in first grade fall through February. He is not a genius but many people have commented on how smart he is and we don’t want him to lose his love of learning by being bored. Mic Mac will be Kindergarten this year and she is already spelling, knows all her ABC’s and in doing addition and subtraction. Again we don’t want her bored out of her mind.

Anyways… enough babbling. Today is an exciting day in our house. Jacob is telling everyone that we are going to be home schooled the rest of his life, but we are really taking it year by year. When I told him this, he looked at me and said “WHY?” completely shocked. I told him we wanted to see how it was going to go and if it worked out okay. He turns and with a huge smile says… “It’s going to be GREAT!” This is what I hang onto when I feel inept. God give me the strength, patience and wisdom to handle this new adventure we are embarking upon!

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