I'm happy. The kids are happy. Life is good.
I cannot express to you enough how thrilled I am that I stepped out in faith this school year and kept Samantha and Garrett home. God has been present Every. Step. Of. The. Way. and I have never felt closer to him.

I knew the transition to homeschooling would be a hard one for our kids. The public school is all they have ever known. I was so worried they would feel isolated and angry and it would take months for them to come out of their funk.

Well, only 10 weeks into our adventure and I feel like we have all settled in nicely. The kids love their schedule of not starting school until later in the morning and the fact that we don't have to do the morning rush anymore. God has sent them some homeschooling friends who live very near to us that they have already made wonderful bonds and memories with.

I was saying something to Samantha yesterday about how she wouldn't have had all these wonderful experiences if she was still going to "normal school" and she ACTUALLY agreed with me. God is good.

I wanted to write this all down and share it with you as encouragement. If you feel God tapping you on the shoulder in this area I want to encourage you that if I can do it, truly anyone can. My kids are total social butterflies and I was a little concerned about the isolation. However, we have not experienced any isolation. Just the joy of spending time together, learning new things, making new friends, and overall having a great time learning together. I would truly love to have our high school kids home with us also. I am working on that one.

If your kids are in public school I am in no way telling you to take them out. I am not the homeschool police. My kids had a good experience in public school and they were always blessed with Christian teachers.

This post is for those of you who have been thinking about it for a while. You know who you are. I was one of you not to long ago. I loved reading blogs written by homeschooling families and soaked in all the information they were giving out. If you have been feeling lead to homeschool then go ahead and take the leap of faith. I totally believe it is a decision you will not regret.

Garrett started playing basketball for our local Christian homeschool sports organization last week. He had a great time and it was good for him to see all those kids that were homeschooled just like him. Samantha didn't want to play. She is really not a sports girl and has felt kind of discouraged whenever she has tried organized sports. Well, yesterday one of the mom's emailed me that they were starting a new 12 and under girls team and would Samantha want to play? She really didn't want to but I encouraged her to give it a try. Last night was her first practice and she had a blast! All the girls were so nice to her, encouraging her, helping her learn how to play. They made her feel comfortable, like one of them, and I could tell by the spring in her step that she was really happy she had tried.

My kids have had experience after experience like this in the past 10 weeks. I have no doubt God has orchestrated it all.

Tomorrow I will share some of our not so pleasant memories over the past 10 weeks. The good has definitely outweighed the bad, but in the interest of keeping it real, I will share some of the bad with you also.

I'm off to make breakfast, have blessed day my friends.

p.s. Thanks to all of you who prayed for the wildfires to be put out. Our town is no longer in danger and for that I am very thankful. The weather is still in the 90's here so some cooler weather would definitely be appreciated by the fire crews that work this area. Thanks again for all your kind words and concern.

Labels: Home Schooling