We put our oldest, Nathan in preschool some years ago because it was what you do. Right? LOL! I was happy to have him out of my hair during the day and to have the opportunity to meet other moms, and have him meet friends. Let's get that whole "socialization" thing going. I tend to be quite a social butterfly (as my dh puts it) at times and really was excited at the fact that I could volunteer my time. I was also convinced he would "learn" something. About a year or so before preschool, we had moved to our first duty station, at Travis AFB, in CA. Our sponsor and his family were Christians, and were planning on homeschooling their DS the following school year. I thought that was sweet, quaint really, but certainly not for me. I thought, “how cute, what a doting mother.” She suggested I look into it, and I told her that I was “not the type to homeschool; not patient enough.” I truly believe the Lord was laughing that day. As the year went by, we would go over to visit them; they would share the ups and downs of homeschooling. I am thankful that she was so open and honest with me, it gave me a real picture that though it was not easy it could be done the Philippians' 4:13 way. She would tell me of her son crying at the table because he would rather play, he saw her as just mom, not teacher, at first. When the time rolled around for preschool for Nathan, I just went and signed him up...that was the way things were, and who was I to question a system that has been in place for umpteen years. I didn't even graduate from high school, I am not "qualified" to teach my own children.

Well at the orientation to school, we were made aware that the children would not be learning phonics, math, writing etc... It was not a place to learn these things, just have them briefly introduced. They would learn, through play...however they needed to know 20 sight words, and how to count prior to kindergarten. It was mom and dads job to teach those concepts at home. HUH?? My dh and I were confused, really confused. Did we just sign up our ds for daycare? There was also to be no holiday celebrations at all as to avoid offending someone. (To be honest I was kind of looking forward to those hand made cute holiday cards etc.) I realized that school was becoming this hyper-politically correct, lets not celebrate anything, nor teach anything to avoid offending someone institution. I for one did not agree. But hey, what do you do? Needless to say the Lord was working on my heart, and I was trying to ignore it. Note to self, “do not ignore God.” As the year went on I became the "President" of the "PTA" and thought by doing that I would feel better about the system. By the end of the year, I saw that my ds just might benefit from a different learning environment, and I was considering homeschool. I even brought it up to his preschool teacher (smooth move.) Why would she, who works for the system, encourage something different? She tried to convince me that he would learn better in school, and that his "socialization" was at risk if we homeschooled. Well, that's the end of that, I suppose.

 When the time came for Kindergarten the next year, I had hoped everything would be better. The year started with, “there will be some homework, learning sight words (my dh and I do not agree with sight words...long story) no running on the hard top (might get hurt), no wearing shorts or sandals because you might stub a toe or bump a knee etc.” Well it seemed to both dh and I that we, almost disagreed with everything the public school system stood for. Again, what do you do? At the first teacher conference she mentioned that our ds was not learning his sight words, I asked when Phonics would be taught, she informed us that to teach reading, phonics were not introduced until third grade. She explained that children score better on the state tests in first and second grade if they are taught sight (picture) word reading first then undo/redo everything in the third grade when their minds and maturity were at a point to handle reading. My dh and I informed her that was backward thinking...she agreed but said, “her hands were tied.” Let me tell you, I was "fit to be tied" after that! She also informed us his grades would reflect the lack of knowledge of these sight words, if we didn't work with him at memorizing them every night.

 We tried, he had at least 2 hours of homework every night, and lots, and lots of tears. By December I was plotting my plan of approaching my dh with the idea. I prayed, researched, talked to other homeschoolers and found different types of curriculum that we could use. When I approached him, I was blown away by the Lord's mercy and grace regarding the whole thing. My dh was 90% on board. At the time, I only wanted to homeschool for a few years until our ds was a proficient reader and more grounded in his relationship with the Lord. There were other aspects of public school I did not like but I was, (at the time), focused on his academics only. We decided that the next school year we would homeschool. As the year went on, I began to see the other things that bothered me, bothered me more. For example, the class was always noisy, there was no discipline, the kids walked all over the teacher, and there was a lot of "boyfriend/girlfriend issues."  Basically I saw no ability for concentration on learning. And about those sight words...we flat out refused to force our ds to memorize those words, only to undo them in a few years to try to teach him phonetically. The teacher actually relented and did not penalize him. She even agreed with us that it just might be better to homeschool.

The following year, I gave up my place in the PTA, and hung up the backpack, to keep him and his sister at home to learn in a nurturing environment; where Godliness, was promoted, and where learning was not hated, but loved. I am not saying that it's been a breeze since then, we've had major growing pains to go through, but the Lord is constant, and patient. Like others I always wanted to be a teacher growing up, as did my dh....I guess we are. All in the Lord's time, I suppose.