Reminiscing About Our Homeschool Journey

It has been a full day. I got up early (for me, anyway) so that I could give the Princess a ride to work. After dropping her off The Bear and I made our way to a McDonald's so that I could fortify myself with a cup of coffee and he could indulge in blue Powerade. Yeah, it seemed strange to me at the time, too, but I didn't ask. Then he dozed in the backseat of the car until co-op started 45 minutes later. After co-op we made our way to his basketball practice and then finally back home where I made dinner and settled in for the night. I'm not complaining, you know. I'm well aware that most women follow a schedule that requires them to absent their home each weekday. It just made me somewhat reflective of the time when I, too, got up every morning and headed out to work. Those were the days when I received a paycheck for teaching other people's children.

This seemed like a good time to tell you how the Lord led us to homeschool. It's a long story, but one that always reinforces my belief that God led me in a certain path. Go back with me 30 years. . .


It had been a difficult school year. Without going into painful details that no one needs to know and that I don't wish to relive, let's just leave it at that.

Complicating things was the fact that two months after being hired as the school's newest teacher I discovered that I was also two months pregnant! After a year of trying to conceive, this news was very welcome indeed, even if it did present a few difficulties.

For one thing, the Christian school administrators were decidedly not happy with the news. It would mean finding a substitute during the last month of my pregnancy which would coincide with the end of the school year. School years are approximately 9 months long, as are pregnancies.

For another, it meant that each day's battle with morning sickness (ha! what a misnomer!) meant that I was not always at my best. "Excuse me, Tom. Could you stop reading for a moment? I'll be right back," I'd say as I bolted out the door heading to the nearest bathroom. Some days were worse than others, I assure you.

Things degenerated at the school and the denoument came when the church that housed the school split. I was not a member of that congregation, but their in-fighting gave me the opportunity that I needed to extricate myself from their turmoil. While it is true that I found myself suddenly unemployed it is also true that I found myself home each day preparing the nest. An added bonus was that we managed to quit going deeper into debt for gasoline. These were those horrible days where high gas prices and long lines at the pump meant that I was barely making enough money to fund my hour-long commute.

Pastor Dad got a substitute teacher certificate which enabled him to work in our local schools. He came home and regaled me with reports of the goings-on in the public elementary school that our child would attend in a few years.

We didn't know what to do. Our Christian school option had dried up. Our public school option was a nightmare. We prayed and asked the Lord to show us what He wanted us to do. We figured He had a little over five years to provide us with directions.

Within weeks the Lord spoke to us. Okay, the Lord used someone else to speak to us. That's the way it's done, you know. His voice didn't actually thunder from the sky, but the answer to our prayer would not have been any more obvious if He had chosen to do so. We were listening to Dr. James Dobson interview someone we had never heard before on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast. It was Dr. Raymond Moore discussing homeschooling. No mistaking it! This was our answer!

We had a few questions, though. Or maybe I did. I'm the type of stubborn individual who rarely does anything without asking questions first.

• Did people actually homeschool their children? We didn't know anyone who did.
• Who had actually ever heard of such a thing? Certainly not us!
• Could we (I?) do it?  I had my doubts about my own abilities, but this was our answer to prayer, after all.

We knew from that moment that we were going to homeschool our child. Pastor Dad and I never argued about it, we never really wavered in the decision, and even though our first child still had several months in utero (yes, that would be our Karen of Candid Diversions), her "school" decision had already been made.

Did people think we were out of our minds when we told them of our decision?  Yes, but then, it probably wasn't the first - and certainly not the last - time that anyone questioned our sanity about something.  But we knew without a doubt that this was what the Lord wanted us to do.  To not do it would've been out-and-out rebellion.  I'm sure of it.

The homeschooling years will soon be coming to an end.  In two more years this journey will be over and I will have completed 27 years of homeschooling. 

As I told The Bear the other day, "In two more years you will be done homeschooling.  You are nervously looking toward the future as you try to determine what it is that the Lord wants you to do.  But guess what?  In two more years I will be done homeschooling.  I am nervously looking toward the future as I try to determine what it is that the Lord wants me to do."  I distinctly heard The Bear's surprised laughter.  And even though I didn't hear the voice of the Lord yet I'm sure I will soon.

Speak Lord, for your servant heareth!