My Family
I am the daughter of an immigrant mom who came from Greece when she was a teenager, and an American father who captured her heart and kept her here. I’ve been married to “Mr. Right” (ha ha) for 9 years, and we have 3 kids, all spaced 2 years apart. Number 4 will be arriving in Sept or Oct of 2008, 4 years after the last.
My Church
Clear Creek Community Church
We’ve been attending this church since we moved here, a little over 2 years ago. Feel free to check it out…you can even listen to the sermons if you’re so inclined. We love it there. It’s very different from the church we came from, but we’ve enjoyed the freshness of getting back to the core of our faith and really experiencing the simple, yet powerful message of the cross all over again. I serve on the worship team as a back-up singer, and Paul serves as the director of local missions. We lead a mission-minded small group in our home weekly.
Why I Homeschool
I don’t like to be identified as a homeschooler as if it defines me. I hope I am much more, and just homeschool as a part of my life. Others don’t introduce themselves to me as, “My name is Mary Smith and I send my kids to private school.” It’s just a choice they made like many other choices we make for our families each day.
All that said, I get asked frequently why I homeschool. There are many reasons; some are the reasons I started with and some are the reasons I ended up with. When my oldest child was a year away from Kindergarten, we lived in a city with a very poor public school system. An old college friend told us about classical education, and my interest was piqued. I had never thought much about different education methods or philosophies.
The more I learned, the more I became convinced that I wanted my children to have this kind of education. I liked that it was heavy on literature and writing, included logic as a subject, and focused on being able to clearly articulate your thoughts, whether written or verbal. I also liked that it taught our children to be a part of our current culture as discerning Christians, not compromising their beliefs, but not hiding away from the world either. One of the criticisms I had had of the homeschooling movement in the past was that it seems that the kids could easily be out of touch with non-Christians, because many parents homeschool in order to protect their children from any other philosophies or religions.
I have never wanted this for my children. Certainly, I want to protect them, but I also want to teach them about things that I don’t personally believe are true and why. Ultimately, I hope they come to the same conclusions about the things I feel are most important, but I want them to own it themselves. This seemed to fit in with the classical model.
I searched my city, and found only 1 classical private school. After looking at the tuition, I knew we would not be able to afford it, especially for all three children. So, I started throwing around the idea of homeschooling. It was a difficult thing for me, because I was looking forward to “getting my life back” after the kids were old enough to attend school full-time. I was working towards a new career, and was excited about it.
All I can say is, God must have changed my heart about the matter. Once my husband and I settled that we would homeschool for at least one year, I really started to get excited about it. I hear many parents say, “I could never do that.” I was one of them. I’m doing it now, and it’s not so bad. It’s fun, actually. I enjoy learning all over again (even *I* am learning new things from a Kindergarten curriculum), and there is great satisfaction knowing that your child can read because you taught them. I also like to know that I am in control of the depth of their learning. I’m glad that I can put knowledge, history and faith all in the same box–this was not something I had as a child. In school, I believed one thing, at church another. I was an adult before I could put it all together.
I don’t know how long we will homeschool. Maybe the whole way through school, and maybe not. I cannot predict all that will happen in our family, and what the specific needs of my children will be at different stages of their lives. I’m committed to doing what is best for them, which right now, is homeschooling.
(updated 3-28-08) Two years after starting, we have moved away from the classical education that attracted us in the first place, and become more relaxed. For those of you who know the lingo, I’d probably put us in the Charlotte Mason camp. Next year, when our oldest is in 2nd grade, and our middle is in K, we are joining a co-op for all subjects and will be doing whatever they do. It will be a relief not to have to do all the planning with the new baby coming.
