Posted by pathoflife

My friend it sounds as though God is tugging at your heart. Really take a look at the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy means Deutero= Repeat; Nomos=law, a restating of the law.
You see God was trying to bring the Israelites it to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. He had something so much better for them. If only they would listen to His commands, all would go well.God gave them these laws because He knew what they needed to stay close to Him. He knew if He took them the easy route, they would encounter trails they were not ready for and that they would turn their hearts away from God. So He took them through the wilderness, to teach them and train them and prepare them. In turn they were to teach their children the same. Look at this with me:
"O Israel, listen; Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone. You must love Him with all your heart, soul and might. And you must think constantly about these commandments I am giving you today.YOU MUST TEACH THEM TO YOUR CHILDREN and talk about them when you are at home or out for a walk; at bedtime and first thing in the morning. Tie them on your finger, wear them on your forehead, and write them on the door post of your house!" Duet. 6:4-9

You see God has command us to train up our children 24/7. We only have 18 years to train them before we send them out.
You see our children do not belong to us, they belong to God. He has trusted us to train them up.

"And now a word to you parents. Don't keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them angry and resentful. Rather, bring them up with the loving discipline the Lord Himself approves, with suggestions and godly advice." Ephesians 6:4

Would God approve of us "Christians" sending our children off to be trained that His word is not truth. To learn that we evolved, and that homosexuality is a choice and OK? To be surrounded by people who do not know the Lord.
Look at it this way, do we send a 9 year old out on the mission field in Africa and pray God will use him? How about a soldier, does he get sent off to the battlefield the first day he enlists? Of course Not! They need to be prepared and equipped. Soldiers have to complete boot camp, and go through much training. So why would you send your "soldier" off to war (school) each day.
Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." 1 Corinthians 15:33
"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" 2 Corinthians 6:14-15
Then read Psalm 1
We must not allow our children to stand, sit, or walk with those who deny biblical truth or morality.
I am sorry to be so bold, I have had all this on my heart just waiting to share with the right person, when I read your post, I just needed to share. I have such a passion for homeschooling, I worked in childrens ministry for 8 years and have stepped down to train up and help other parents make a stand and Homeschool their children. I live in Southern California and the laws that have passed here are a shame. I do not believe Christian parents should subject their children to the garbage being taught here, we are so conformed to believe our children should go to school, that parents are incapable of teach their own children. If I was incapable God would not have given them to me. We wonder why the youth today are the way they are, think about it, we send them off to be trained by others for 8 hours a day. Parents no longer have a say in their childrens lives. Unless we take a stand, move out from the norm!
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hallow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principals of this world rather than on Christ." Colossians 2:8
You are not wrong at what you are seeing, God is showing you His plan, He is placing His desire for your(HIS) children in your heart!
I know you said you put the kids back in public school to help catch up the others, maybe a different curriculum might help. I homeschool my 5, grades 8, 6, 4, K4 and preschool. I have found that Unit studies make it so much easier on me and the kids actually learn more and do better. I would be glad to help you find something that might work better for you and your family!
I say all this in love to my sister in Christ!
May God Bless You and your Family.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
Loving God with all my heart,
Michele
homeschoolblogger.com/pathoflife

I loved reading this comment and was blessed that Michele took the time to write such a long and impassioned comment. Let me say that I whole-heartedly agree and that Deut. 6 is a favorite of mine. 

Without being dishonoring to my sweet husband I want to explain that the reason any of my children have spent any time in public school is frankly out of fear that the older children are "behind".  I used to be afraid too...  especially before my oldest son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.  (Yes, his diagnosis has made me less fearful b/c now I know I didn't just do something "wrong" and I know have tools with which to reach him better!)

My husband has really been struggling not to feel like the children have to measure up to the world's expectations and that they need to be "at grade level" and such. 

He had told me at the end of this past Summer that if Kaitlyn was not at grade level by the end of the year that he would force me to send her to public high school for the remaining three years.  THAT put me in a panic!  I know my Kaitlyn.  She is smart, tender to the Lord and willing to obey, BUT she is a dreamer and not an exceptionally good student.  Jordan has AS and is a decent student, but is not at "grade level" either.  Ian is at grade level in some subjects, but is still really struggling with reading and that makes a HUGE impact on his progress and it shows up on standardized tests (required here in Washington annually). 

Only my two younger children are AWESOME students!  Noah has mild AS also (we think), but is a remarkable learner.  Hannah is a smarty pants and loves school.  Since we had one previous year experience with our local public school and I thought maybe I could hand pick teachers for Noah and Hannah I decided this might give me three months to work more intensively with the older children. 

Fast forward to now.  I would not say sending the little ones to public school was a mistake, but I hated it!  (Just as I did last time), but it was the least of the evils in my mind.  Better to have the 1st and 3rd graders in one classroom with Christian teachers for 3 months than to send my beautiful 15 year old young lady to the local high school.  She has NEVER been to public school (other than 2-3 days a week of pre-school when she was 4) and academically would be in a nightmare not to mention the drama of "typical teen" life! 

I am NOT justifying my decision.  I am not reccommending this route either!  Avoid public school!  However, I did want to clarify what happened just a bit. 

The good news is that though the road was rocky we have had a good three or four months.  The first few weeks Noah was not settling in at all, but finally did and got a fantastic report card.  Hannah had some attitude issues at home, but we nipped that in the bud too. 

Kaitlyn was flailing like a fish out of water with her highschool curriculum for the first 6 weeks or so, but with a lot of intense attention from me she finally has mastered some improved (not perfect yet) study habits and has gone from 40-60 % on tests to consistent 95-100 % on tests in the past month or so!

Jordan and Ian are completing their work, but some of it sloppily.  We will be focusing on that this Winter!

Noah and Hannah ARE home now and are NOT going back after the break. 

We DO a LOT of our subjects UNIT STUDY style and that is very helpful.  Its the other stuff that makes it hard for me.  There just seems not to be enough hours in the day for all that we need to learn and I still have this underlying pressure from hubby for the children to perform "at grade-level".  That is the hurdle for us!

Please pray that we will not live in fear and that God will calm our hearts and show us the benefits of doing things HIS way even when or especially when He asks us to do things that are contrary to human reasoning.  His ways are NOT like our ways!  (Praise God for that!)

We will continue doing unit studies for Bible, History, Science, Art, Music, some of our Grammar, some of our Literature, Geography, P.E. and probably more!

The children will work independently on Math, Spelling, Composition, Book Reports, Reading Comprehension, some  of their Language Arts lessons, Typing, etc. 

Please keep us in your prayers.  And thank-you to those of you who have been a consistent encouragement to me.  You know who you are!  :)