My Mother took me and my sister out of school in the winter of 1984, at the start of the home school "movement". I had just finished one semester of 1st grade and I had skipped kindergarten, so school was nothing that I was attached to.I was excited to be able to stay at home instead of go to school. So began my journey.....

  My Mother was definitely an "unschooler". We had for are use, plenty of literature ( I had learned to read when I was 3), Ray's Arithmetic books, McGuffey Readers and a few Rod and Staff books. She never "made" us do school work, we did it whenever we felt like it ( which wasn't very often). However we did read ALL the time. I was constantly reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. I also loved doing art , I made my own books and art projects galore.

  When I was a little older I started using Christian Light Paces, I think I did complete a couple  grades of those ( all with my own motivation). I was very involved with caring for my younger sisters, changing their diapers, bathing them, getting them dressed, etc. I also learned how to cook and bake at a very young age. I loved cooking!! My mother taught me to sew when I was 12 or 13. I sewed matching dresses for my sisters, sewed myself some some dresses and several skirts, I even had a friend pay me to make her a dress.

  Well when I was about 15 years old some home circumstances prompted me to want to move with my Dad (my Mom had divorced him when I was 3). My Step-mother had deceived me into thinking that when I moved in with them I would be attending a christian school with my best friend. However, I was very disappointed to find out that I would actually be attending the local public school. I was VERY upset and scared. This was not what I had bargained for. But it was too late I had to go.

 I proceeded to take some placement tests, surprise, surprise, I tested above average in everything except math.(never was my favorite subject)LOL.

  When I first started going it seemed o.k. I was just auditing classes to see what it was like and I was put with a group of nice girls to show me around. I became friends with them pretty quickly. ***I need to give a little background here- The church I was attending with my family was a Pentecostal church, where woman had to wear long skirts, could not cut their hair , no make-up,etc. At the time I had always adhered to these standards***

  So being dressed the way I was  people started talking about me saying I was strange for always wearing dresses, for being so quiet, etc. When people started asking me why I wore dresses, I only had the courage to blame it on the church that I HAD to go to. Yes, my friends, I was not the salt and light. I was intimidated, embarrassed and absolutely not strong enough to stand up for what I believed.

  As quickly as I could I borrowed pants from my older sister and wore them everyday. Whew!! At least people stopped saying I was that "weird" girl that always wore dresses. I also tried to be as loud and outgoing as possible. Yes, it worked I was finally fitting in with everyone else. I proceeded to fit in more and more. Yes, I had successfully lost the sweet, quiet spirit I had and replaced it with a loud, boisterous outgoing one. This was just the beginning for me. I graduated high school. And went on to do several very foolish things, that I will not go into detail about, but they changed me forever and not for the good. During those years I always retained and held on to my beliefs about God and prayed and read my Bible. But it was never reflected on the outside, I always remained a "good" person and never did anything the world would deem as "bad". But I had lost somethings along the way. People always used to tell me I was such a sweet, kind person, that I had such a meek and quiet spirit. I had lost that. Essentially I lost more than I will ever be able to regain.

  Why am I sharing this??? Because I am hoping that some one will read this and perhaps think twice about sending their child into the lions den. Yes, there  are children out there who can endure and share their faith, but there are many more who can't. If you can save them from what I had to endure and what has taken me years to get back to where I am today. Please, please spare them that.

  Thank God that He is a forgiving God, He has forgiven me. But there is so much that can never be fixed from the mistakes that I made. That meek and quiet spirit; much easier to lose then to get back, I struggle with it everyday. Some of the mistakes are ones that my children  are paying for, and that is not fair.  As I write this, it makes me cry. It makes me cry for what I lost by going to public school and it also makes me cry for the many christian parents that think their children will be "the salt and the light" because  they just might not.

In the words of Gena , TOS publisher, "Keep them home where they belong"