I wonder what 2am looks like...

when you know you have to rise and shine and teach school the next day?? Our youngest was up last night vomiting and it occured to me, if I home school, I'd have to get up the next day and STILL be ready to teach my kids. Or would I?

You see, some of the appeal of teaching our kids at home is the flexibility offered by setting our own "rules." I've been so engrained by the school schedule that I know I'm going to fight with myself when our days go against the "normal" structure of a school day. I'm prepping myself for that on a daily basis. I want to be flexible with a sense of duty. Does that make sense?

So, last night as I was using our carpet cleaner on my son's bedroom carpet, I was thinking, if we were home schooling I wouldn't have to get everyone out of bed at 6:30am to get them out the door at 7:10am. I could let them sleep in and that way I would feel a bit more rested when the day started. But, instead, I was up at 6:30am staring at my ceiling thinking, "I just want to lay here for another hour."

I'm partially writing these thoughts down for myself to maintain sanity in the future. Marti, when you read this in 9 months, and you've been up all night with a sick kid, and you still feel the need to do a full day of school with the kids...DON'T. I give you permission to take it slow. Breathe. Rest. Look at the day for what it is, a sick day, and don't push it. There...feel better??

Sweaty Armpits

I've been sweating for months. I sweat at night, in the day, my palms are clammy and my feet are wet. Why you ask? It's simple, my husband and I have been contemplating home schooling our three boys for the past several months. Thus...I sweat.

This whole notion came about probably at the start of this past school year. There wasn't one specific reason we started to talk about home schooling as an option. It was more like a compilation of many different reasons. We currently have a 3rd grade son, a kindergarten son and a pre-school aged son.

About two months ago I read the book "Family Driven Faith," by Voddie Baucham, Jr. (highly recommended read for families considering home school). It was at this point, I started more frequently conversations about homeschooling our kids with my husband. He was very supportive from the very beginning and we started to move forward in our investigation of this "educational phenomenon" from there. The sweating began...

When I say sweat, I don't necessarily mean it in the bad way. You know like, "Man I'm really sweating seeing that cop in my rear-view mirror." It's more like, "Man, I'm really sweating as I sit crouched in the blocks at the start of the 4x100 relay at Drake Relays," kind of sweat. You know, a good adrenaline induced sweat. A heart pumping excitement based sweat. A God-given sweat borne of love He's given me for my kids.

Back to my story...

After weeks of calling on good friends who home school, checking out every possible book on homeschooling at the public library, researching home schooling on the internet until my fingers bled and my eyes dried out, messaging all known home school families on facebook, interrogating home school kids in an undercover manner while at Sunday School (kidding!!!...maybe!!??!!) and just generally devouring everything there is to "know" about home school I decided this...I'm still lost.

If I've received one consistent piece of information from EVERYONE I've talked to about being a home school family it's this: You just have to do what works for you (AND, you don't have to wear a denim jumper). :)

So, we're about 95% sure we're jumping into this abyss/adventure and praying ferverntly we'll all come out unscathed on the other side. We will attend a conference in June for home school families where I pray I'll receive divine revelation on which curriculum we should use.

My heart is to post on this blog so you can follow our journey into the land of home schooling. Good, bad, ugly or indifferent...our story is yours to follow. Stay tuned...