School...

I think from the time Mike and I first got married I knew in my heart what I was to do for my children as far as their schooling. Mike and I discussed it many, many times prior to even starting our family. Both of us felt deep in our hearts that homeschooling our children was what we felt we were supposed to do. This coming from my husband was a HUGE decision, seeing as when we were dating he was against homeschooling.

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions when it comes to homeschooling and homeschoolers. I believe it was and still is looked at as a parents way of sheltering their children. In many cases I am sure to some degree this is true. This is one of the reasons my husband was at one time against the idea. That is until he met and got to know two of my older sisters and their children who were homeschooled. After seeing so many of the wonderful reasons why they too, chose to homeschool, his mind began to change. Again, he was under the same mind set as so many others who simply don't know.

Back in the day, our neighbors were a homeschooling family. I became very close friends with their daughter and I will tell you, they were well rounded kids. But I will tell you, it was not an easy journey for them. But now, homeschooling is different. There are so many wonderful options and avenues you can take. And the best part is you can have an active hand in your child's learning.

Last year we chose to go through an eSchool for Camden. We were more than happy and told everyone who would listen about how happy we were. We chose to stay in the program again this year. Once the school year started, immediately I felt differently about the program. There have been some major changes that have taken place and sadly they are not positive changes (though I believe they were intended to be). After several weeks of unorganized lesson plans and lack of communication we made the decision to pull Camden from the program and enroll him in another eSchool. That idea wasn't sitting well with me, as my heart has always wanted to take the traditional homeschooling route but was worried we could not afford it. I finally heard from our original school and was talked into staying in the program a little longer while they work out their kinks. His teacher assured me that we could "make this work".

Fast forwarding to now, we have come to the conclusion that it should not be this difficult. After several conversations with other homeschooling moms we are officially diving into our own curriculum and ended our time with our eSchool. I have found that you can put together your own curriculum, even on a budget.

The excitement is back. The joy has overtaken the doubt and frustration that has been ruling my days since the end of August. I've been thrilled to find curriculum that we can use and even Camden seems to be much happier.

I love it! I'm so happy and even Mike seems much happier about our decision to go this route. It's going to be a journey and I'm happy to be on it with my two little monkeys.

As a matter of fact we are about to head over to our friends house, who also happen to be homeschoolers. We are going to let the kiddos play together and I'm taking over a little craft we are going to do together.

To all those who have prayed for us along this adventure....THANK YOU! And we ask that you continue to pray for us. Homeschooling, like anything in life, has it's ups and downs. But I feel better equipped to meet the challenges.

Until tomorrow my friends...TTFN