Honey, I’m Homeschooling!

Just imagine you are telling someone about a *HUGE* new life decision. Excitement radiates from your face, you deliver the news full of joy, and then you wait for the obvious encouraging response. But instead of excitement, something else happens. You notice your audience slightly cringe, become wide-eyed and then… realize their error before quickly trying to cover it up. This is what it’s like telling “most” people, you are deciding to homeschool. 

[ReviewDisclaimer] 

I am a mom of two children, Risden and Rachel. Risden is five and Rachel is four. Basically since Risden was born, Zach and I have talked, thought and prayed about homeschooling. During that time we also considered public school, private school and charter school.

Homeschooling is something that I’ve always been on board with; I love to teach.

In fact, I almost went back to school to become a teacher. Even when I was in college, “Life Plan A” involved me being married with children and teaching in some form, after I had fulfilled my college degree obligations and became a super successful healthcare exec.

*Spoiler Alert* – Marriage and kids were the only things that ended up happening. But now as a homeschooling mom, I can cross off one more life plan item. 😉

Homeschool was not a foreign concept to me. I had cousins who were homeschooled and two of my sisters were homeschooling their kids at the time. Zach, on the other hand, was not as easily convinced. He definitely suffered from the “homeschoolers are weird and not as smart” stigma. However, over the past few years and several circumstances later, I truly believe God worked on his heart to change his mind.

As of last summer, it became clear to us that we were officially deciding to homeschool. 

We really hadn’t talked about it much to other people until the last few months when I was getting the “Is Risden starting kindergarten?” question.

As I would have these conversations and tell our plans, I would get strange reactions or questioning eyes. People were really unsure of how to respond. At first I was really excited to tell them, but the more people I told, the more uncertain responses I received and the less confident I became in my delivery.

No one was ever mean, just… really cold. It was almost as if this big step in my son’s life wasn’t as important as other kindergarteners going to public school. So from then on, instead of just coming out and saying “Honey, we’re homeschooling,” I would quickly follow up with the reasons why. I guess I was hoping to avoid a negative response. It was almost as if I began to apologize for the decision we made as a family. Well that’s lame—and I’m not lame so…

Just know this decision didn’t come on a whim. I don’t have any beef with the public school system and my kids will likely have a healthy balance of Casting Crowns and Bone Thugs.

I don’t need to explain the reasons why we are deciding to homeschool.

God lead us to this decision and that is enough! Friends, some people aren’t going to be supportive of your dreams because God didn’t place that conviction on their heart. Guess what…it’s okay if they aren’t. But you go ahead and be excited about the plans He has for you!

I have so much peace about our decision and confirmation this is what we are supposed to be doing. I’m only a few weeks into homeschooling but I can already tell it is going to make me a better mom. I am already seeing exponential growth in patience. I’m also even more grateful for my little family and being able to just be there. I get to see first-hand the classroom to real world learning connection. It’s just as exciting as watching them take their first steps.

Oh and by the way…my daughter calls me “Mrs. Trisha” when we’re in class.

Any other homeschool moms know what I’m talking about? Please share your experiences with me!