Why I homeschool...still

It takes quite a bit for something to get under my skin and something has recently...people questioning my decision to home school my kids this year. Now the first thing I want to say is I really don't look for approval from everyone to do what I do. My concern is being in God's will and His will only. I'm good with that, I just wish everyone else- friends, family members (mainly one), people who barely know me, would leave me be after my basic brief explanation.

For most people the thought of home schooling scares them. I hear, "You are so brave", "I could never do that", "I can't wait to put my kids in school/summer to be over." Well, it's like most things in life- a leap of faith. One that I took 7 years ago after Leah finished 4th grade and public school wasn't the best fit for her abilities. Since then our reasons have matured  & changed along with our children, and when faced with the decision to home school after becoming a single parent, my reasons have shifted too. But I still know without a shadow of a doubt that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Maybe that's why some of the well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) comments have gotten to me. I feel as though these few people are arguing with God and they just don't get it.

The biggest issue that I think many non-home schoolers don't realize is that it is a LIFESTYLE not just a school choice. Everything we do revolves around learning- sometimes the kids don't even realize it. Little Jon told a friend that stopped by last week that we don't home school anymore, "We just do lapbooks on cool stuff like knights & castles and our next one is on penguins" I taught my daughter to count by 5's and 10's the other night on a mile and a half walk. Learning is fun and I sincerely believe many public school children loose their initial love of learning after the first couple years. I want my kids to embrace their schooling, love to learn, think of what's around them and have the curiosity to know more.

My biggest critic that has killed me with kindness on this topic wonderfully pointed out that now that it's just me I should put the kids in school so I would be able to work all those hours. Said with a perfect smile as if that was the ultimate solution to all my problems. "Look, someone else deals with your kids & you make money." Even after I pointed out my serious issues with sending my kids to a public school this year she followed up with , "But they can do better" WHAT?

I guess I just needed to vent...I'm all for families with traditional school, I've been a part of it myself as well as one of my children for several years. And all this isn't to say that next year will be different for us. But if this is what I've decided for mine, why argue or make me feel bad?

Our Renaissance Adventure

Studying knights & castles has definitely been interesting. I decided to take the kids to the Kentucky Renaissance Festival on June 11th, when I could get Jon in free, along with Trinnie & Jonah, by bringing a canned good. We loaded up the van- see how much Thirty-One I use?

We headed to a campground one exit up from LaGrange and only a few miles from the Festival. It was gorgeous there. Alot of the campground was taken up with people who lived there all the time- or at least enough they felt the need to build decks around their RV's. We were in a tent, that will be important in just a minute. Here's the view from our spot by the lake. Breath taking isn't it?

It was a beautiful evening until about midnight when the wind picked up. Enough to wake me up, which says quite a bit when I have 3 sleeping babies and they aren't moving a muscle. Thank goodness for weather apps! We were in for gusts up to 40 mph and scattered thunderstorms. Well, the wind continued through the night so severely that I had to get up several times to re-stake the tent. That's pretty drastic considering all that we had in there and I had moved most of it around the corners to keep it weighted. All the time the wind is going it's also lightening- no rain, just spectacular lightening. And thunder, which the kids continued to sleep through. Jon is normally afraid of storms so his undisturbed rest is still a mystery to me! Along about 5am I woke up, not even realizing I dozed off. It was calm. Not in good way. I got a bad feeling and decided to act on it. Now have I mentioned that Leah was being a total turd and had slept in the van? Well, she got a rude awakening when I jumped in and started it. I pulled it as close to the tent as I could per Trinnie's suggestion. She had woken up just a few seconds after I did. Once the van was in position I woke the boys and had all 3 make a jump into the van. The heavens burst and the rain just poured! The wind picked up again and the tent started flapping like crazy- I never even stopped- I just started emptying the tent, throwing things like crazy into the van. I figured if it blew away it wasn't taking any of my stuff! Blankets and all were shoved and piled on kids. In about 60 seconds I was done, van doors shut and we sat for the next hour watching the sheets of rain pound the windshield and rock the van. After the storm finally blew over we made a restroom break then headed to McD's- someplace dry and didn't require a camp fire with wet wood.
After breakfast we made it back to the campground, showered and prepared for our day at the festival. It was sunny & beautiful! We browsed the shops, saw a couple shows and the best part~ the jousting! See more...