Homeschooling

All right. I'm coming out. We're homeschooling this year. I've kept it kind of quiet because I've not always been very supportive of homeschoolers and I still think there are some real concerns w/ homeschooling. I'm afraid homeschooled kids sometimes aren't getting as much and as varied academic content and opportunities as they should and that they're not always learning healthy interaction and having a testimony with others. But there are concerns w/ public (potentially poor academics and bad influences)and private schools (sheltered and limited environment) too. This summer I just sensed (and I'm not usually into sensing things either but God can lead in inexplicable ways) I was to homeschool this year. It's been a refuge and an adventure for us. I do at times feel insecure about what I can provide for my kids and how many extraneous programs I should have them in nor do I know if this choice will be the best one for us in the future as well. It is hard to deal w/ the expectations and stereotypes I sense people have about homeschoolers, that they should be mousy, perfectly well-behaved, that their parents are crazy and the kids don't have a chance coping with the real world. Still, again, I'm so glad we're learning at home this year. God has repeatedly confirmed for me that this choice was a good one, that His hand is in it. I want my children to learn to read and write well, to know the language of mathematics, to understand a great deal about the world around them and what has gone on before them. Most of all, I want them to know God at work in their lives. I want them to be conduits of His grace. So intimately seeing them succeed and fail has given me so many opportunities to point them toward the God from whom springs all our abilities and who gifts us w/ trials that work great things in us. So, yes, I'm homeschooling this year. Yes, I'm probably weird. No, my kids are not even close to being angels and I'm an extremely flawed parent. Yes, I believe God is in this. I do not believe homeschooling is mandated by God or that parents who choose to homeschool are more spiritual than those who do not and I think parental involvement is essential, makes the difference, no matter where kids go to school. But if God moves you and gifts you to homeschool, I do believe you will find it a challenge, yes,--and also a very real blessing. I have.