Why I choose to Homeschool

As of August 12th, 2019, I started something that I always said I would NEVER do. Something that I made fun of (mostly of my sister). Something I thought was way too far out there for me to do.

 

I started my first day of Homeschooling with my five year old daughter. 

Thinking back to three years ago, I now see the making of it all bit by bit but it did not hit me in the face till just three weeks ago. 

 

To be honest, the closer my daughter got to “school time” I began to question if sending her to school was the right thing to do. Near the time of her fifth birthday, I began to get inkblots in my mind, “Is sending her to school the best choice?” 

 

When I would try to debate it within myself, I would come back with questions such as, “What if I don’t listen to this thought that I never had before and something happens? My daughter struggles emotionally, spiritually (yes, even this young, our children can be affected spiritually), or worse?” 

 

Yet this did not convince me. It only urged me to discuss it with my husband. 

 

At this point my husbands’ response was, “If you think you can commit the time, then do it. I support you.”

Which started to make me think, could I spare the time? 

Ugghhh, another thing that made me try to over analyze the situation.

 

Ok, let’s get to the part that made me commit to Homeschooling….

 

My great grandmother came to visit recently. 

She has been suffering from dementia for the a few years. It progressed aggressively last year after my grandfather passed. He was her husband for almost sixty years. My grandfather was her caretaker, prayer warrior, the man that held her hand everyday, and the love of her life. 

 

On her 93rd birthday my mother drove seven hundred miles to our hometown to bring her to Arizona for a visit. Five days out of the three weeks she was here, I had the honor of having this woman of God in my home. She rose up every morning to be served with her coffee and bible. Each morning we had prayer time and listened to sermons for hours on. 

 

The peace of God was here and so was the anointing the Lord blessed her with. 

 

When it came to speaking about the Lord and being an example of the Lord, her memory did not fail her. She took her morning routine with the Lord as a priority and never skipped a beat with it. 

 

Dementia is a hard thing to watch. Several times within the visit, I would have to remind her she had children. She questioned if she ever lost a child, which she did at a very young age and she would ask me tell explain things that I didn’t even know. 

But the peace! It was always there and I am grateful to have seen her service unto the Lord all these years in her life is still taking place during a time of this illness.

 

Here comes the juicy part of how her presence gave a confirmation to Homeschool.

 

On her last evening in Arizona with us, several of us came together as a family to celebrate our time with her and to give the best goodbye we could. 

 

All twelve of the great great grandchildren that live in Arizona were running around the house. My sister, sister in law, and me were sitting next to my grandmother taking in her presence. She watched the children run back and forth. We watched her gently smile and give deep sighs of joy. (Her favorite thing in this world is happy children, truly!) 

Randomly she said, “Are you ready to kneel down to sow the seeds?” 

 

Pointing to the children she continued with, “Right now, they are having fun. No cares in the world but one year or so from now, it will all be different. They will need you. They won’t need their teachers or their friends. All they will need is you to be there and to teach them what is right.” 

 

In suspense from one great granddaughter who is a homeschool mom, to one that is contemplating homeschool, and to the other who is in school education, we all nudged ourselves a bit closer to her. 

 

She went on to tell us a story:

 

“When I was a young mother, the Lord was showing me, this world isn’t about my child going to college. I was sucked into sending my oldest daughter to every good school I could afford. Dancing, ballerina, singing, to the best tutors, anything that could better her and give her a better chance of getting out where we were at as field workers. God showed me, it wasn’t making the difference that was needed for this world. I was supposed to be teaching her the word of God.

Not too long after that revelation, a woman from the school nearby came to me. She had heard I was bilingual which was not common where we were from. There was a small school in the little town we lived in. Back then it was mostly only of Mexican field workers. This teacher was concerned of a few students that she could not translate the school work to. She asked since I was not working at the time if I wanted to take a position to help her teach the few boys within her classroom. I told her I would have to pray about it. At this time I  was not looking for work but that night when I prayed, the Lord told me to take the job.

So I took the job.

I would go in, the teacher would give me the work they were to work on the following day. She would ask me to read it every night then in the morning she would ask me what I read and if I understood it. As she taught the class, I would speak to a table of young boys of what the teacher was speaking about and would teach them in Spanish. One night as I was studying, the Lord told me to stop reading the assignments and read the bible. Before going to bed I finished reading the curriculum.

By morning the Lord told me, teach them the assignments then tell them what you read from the bible. This became something I did everyday for the rest of the school year. I would teach them the assignments then I would speak scriptures to them that would encourage them to become godly men. God showed me, it wasn’t just about books, it was teaching the gospel too. Those boys needed to know who God was.”

 

As she finished her story, she leaned in, looked at each of us directly in the eye and asked the noble Christian question once more;

“Are you willing to kneel down and plant the seeds? Are you willing to toil the soil?”

 

Without even knowing it that night, that was the moment where it all changed for me. 

 

Two days later I was telling my husband the story my great grandmother had told. I was getting teary eye of how much I was going to miss her and all her stories. I expressed that every time she told a story, you can feel the wisdom and the anointing of God on her. Her stories were not just stories, they were anointed for the time. 

 

My husband then made his “hmmmm” sound that included a head nod. 

 

Me: What? What are you thinking?

Husband: I think you now know what’s in your heart to do.

Me: About what? 

Husband: About the kids. You now have your answer and if I were you, I wouldn’t ignore what God is telling you.

Me: (Deep sigh) You are right. I am too fearful to ignore Him on this. I guess I will go today to return all the school uniforms I bought for Mya and start planning for homeschool to start next week.

 

My story of why was not because of fear of schools not being safe enough or of separation anxiety. Nor was it because I do not trust teachers enough or the judgement of school districts but it was because for a time such as this.

It is simply my time to teach my children. 

 

I do not know why. Nor do I know for how long but I do know this is what I am doing for now. 

 

I will no longer be making fun of my sister or think I am not with enough patience. 

 

Truth is, I probably do not have enough patience but I am willing to learn and grow just as much as I hope for my children to do. 

 

This experience is for my children to also learn of the gospel by my actions in our home. and Homeschooling is where I can share the gospel. It is also for me to learn the gospel. 

Learning the gospel is not just text book by reading our bibles daily then studying commentaries and Greek and Hebrew logistics but it is also of us becoming obedient to God in such decisions as this. 

 

Learning the gospel is being the willing vessel to follow the lead. 

 

The disciples never knew what they were about to follow into but they dropped everything to follow Jesus. They learned how to pray, how to speak against the devil, to heal, and to speak the gospel. 

 

I will learn the things I need to pray for my children, how to speak against the devil when it tries to interrupt our home, how to speak life into this home, and I will speak to my children about the Lord by following Jesus in this decision.