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Posted in Home Educating
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I thought I'd take a blog or two to retrace our journery into homeschooling and the ups and downs we've faced within. We all have a story to tell. So this is mine:
I remember an old prospective "suitor" once asking me during some car ride sometime around 1994, "Would you ever consider homeschooling?" I inwardly scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Ha!" I thought, "NOT LIKELY!" And the Lord was probably sitting in heaven chuckling with an amused twinkle in his eye right at that moment. Some people know from the outset these days that they're going to homeschool. I was wary and God seemed to put little things in my path all along the way that would slowly get me geared and primed for it. I guess I've always loved children. Back when I at age 16 had entertained lofty dreams of becoming the Amelia Earhardt of missions aviation, my father reeled me in by saying, "Let's go work on the car engine together." "Huh?" I looked at him like he was crazy. I had two brothers. So why on earth was he asking ME? Oil? Grease? The Car?? He continued: "Well, you know, missionary aviators can't rely on someone else to fix their planes in the bush. You have to be your own mechanic. Don't you like to work on engines?" Now, my father knew me. I'd never once expressed interest in that. I was his flute and piano playing, twinkle toeing daughter who loved art, drawing, music and, way back, my dolls. Sure I could play war with my brothers and get muddy as a kid, play baseball. But I was sure no thoroughbred tomboy. "What is it that you really love doing?" I glanced forlornly at my catalogs on LeTourneau and Moody's flying programs. He wisely could tell I was riding the wave of my boyfriend's vision for MAF. "Well...I love children, writing stories, reading great books...you know." "Well, honey, why don't you list all those you really love and find a field that combines those things?" Hmm! What a novel idea. So the seed was planted for a future in education. While at Wheaton, I became aquainted with a friend who had been homeschooled. There was automatic intrique. This person knew all about chivalry, jousting, knighthood, making chainmail and had read more books than I'd ever heard of. I respected him as one of the keenest thinkers and articulate writers I knew throughout my college years. Anyway, at the time he was the only homeschooler I'd ever known (though my mother tried homeschooling for a year in the 80's with my brother--Virginia's law was pretty tough at the time...) and it seemed quite radical to me that he had been home/self taught up to college! I took all the educational classes at school to earn a degree in Education and in English lit/writing as well. Those were followed by student teaching in an Illinois public high school. Finally I graduated at age 21 and was offered a job at a Christian School in Annapolis. I loved the community there. I totally enjoyed being in front of a class diagramming sentences on the overhead projector and taking my students to Shakespeare plays in DC. But after meeting the man of my dreams, I felt that I'd "been there and done that" in the classroom quite enough for the time being. I'd gotten to be a single working gal in a fun town, sharing a cute condo with the kindergarten teacher. But I felt ready to leave and cleave...my restless spirit eager for a new chapter in life. After we married I worked for a short time for Xerox corp. A little glimpse into corporate business world was fascinating for a while. I had fun with the "glamour" of wearing business suits. (I could only afford one at the time! They're expensive!!) But it didn't take long to feel some of the shortcomings of the lucrative sales world. By the time I left, pregnant with our first child, I came to the conclusion that that world didn't hold a candle to the rewards of teaching. Not by a longshot. It's still one of my big beefs that teacher's salaries are the lowest on the totem pole in the professional world. But that's another topic for another blog... Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Journey into Home Education.... |
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