Our Homeschooling Decision

I am the proud mother of two very special boys. First there is Matthew, whose name means "Gift of God." Let me tell you, he is a Gift of God to us. Secondly, there is Nikolas, whose name means "Victorious Spirit." He too, is a gift from God, but with an extra ounce of "spirit."

I have always wanted children and dreamt of staying home to raise them. I expected to be the "Block Mom" where my kids would come home from school and bring their friends home to swarm my refrigerator and rampage my home. My kids would hear how neat their mom and dad were to just let them come and crash the place. My kids would feel safe and know their friends were too. Of course, my house would always be fun to be in and clean all the time! O.K. wake up! I don't clean house!

Sometimes, change is hard for me to deal with and hearing constant noise, screaming, loud T.V, well, I don't handle that well either. Ha-ha-ha! I think God knew I wouldn't be able to deal with that kind of a lifestyle. What am I saying??? Of course He knew!! He formed me in my mother's womb, right?!?!

When Matthew turned 5 years old, we put him into public school. He went to preschool and loved it, so, naturally, kindergarten was the next step. Watching him walk to the school around the corner was the hardest thing for me to do. I volunteered what time I could to his classroom, but with Nikolas in Preschool, it was difficult.

During that year, we found that Matthew excelled a lot. He learned to read on his own. He was quick to learn everything. There was no stopping him. The teacher saw what he was doing, and along with two other students, he gained permission to go to the library on his own to get new books while the rest of the class worked on other things. She understood that her class was developing into 3 different levels and she wanted to work with each student to the best of her ability. In my opinion, if every teacher were like her, I would have no trouble sending my boys to public school.

The next year, Matthew went to a different school in the same district. His first grade teacher really didn't know how to deal with above average students. She was excellent with the grade level students, and she knew where to send the below average, but what do you do with above average, but not "gifted and talented?" I did my best, again, to volunteer in his class. She treated me like I didn't know squat about teaching. I was her paper pusher. She would get flustered with Matthew because he would finish his work ahead of everyone else and then distract the other students.

Finally, I got frustrated with it all. So, I went to the Principal and explained to her my frustration. Boy, did I feel like I was talking to a wall! We finally agreed to test Matthew and find out where he actually was, academically. (I pushed for the test.) The school psychologist gave us the report of his scores and told us that Matthew was in the top 18% of the first grade. This was not high enough for the “Gifted & Talented” program; your child has to be the top 2% to qualify. She told us basically not to worry, Matthew would slow down and the rest of his class would catch up to him. So, I looked at her and said, “Why should he slow down? Why should he be bored for whatever amount of time it would take for him to "Slow Down?"” I mean, isn't that how we end up with kids on drugs or with kids in trouble with the law? That was not good enough for us!

During this time, I met a woman with four children. She had a heart for the Lord and, her children, although very high strung, were very well behaved and polite. Her oldest is 6 months older than Matthew, so they were both in the same grade. She convinced me that home schooling was the only way to go, because God gives us as parents a directive. He made our children our responsibility. My friend gave me oodles of scripture to back up the fact that we needed to pray about teaching my own children. So, we prayed! And, believe it or not God answered! My husband, in full support, sent me on a mission to train our children.

Oh Man! This is NOT what I wanted to do either. I mean, I was looking forward to sending both my boys on the school bus and having some ME time! Well, that isn't God's plan for me. That wasn't and still isn't God's plan for my boys either. So, in 2000, I pulled Matthew out of public school and began teaching both our boys at home. It was a hard decision for me because I only have 21 college credits under my belt and a Cosmetology license. I didn't think I could do it. However, God has other plans!