I {used to} Oppose Homeschooling

Want to know something interesting about me? Not so many years ago I was completely opposed to homeschooling.

{Did that grab your attention??}

My mom homeschooled my two brothers and wanted to homeschool me, but I refused. Call me the stubborn oldest child. The obstinate senior who wasn’t about to be yanked from the school I’d known for years just to sit at home.

Besides. I’d seen homeschoolers. They were weird. VERY weird ~ and I wasn’t about to become one of them. Homeschooling was still pretty new at that point and the examples I had of homeschooling were a far cry from the vision of how I pictured myself socially and academically.

My irritation only grew as the years progressed. I mocked. I scoffed. In debate class in college I gave wonderful tirade vehemently against homeschooling, point by crushing point. My debate teacher later approached me and thanked me for the great information, because he and his wife were considering homeschooling.

{It’s here that I insert my formal apology to both my professor and his wife – please forgive me!}

When exactly did my opinion change? I don’t know if I can put my finger on a specific moment in time. I think I would say it was more of a gradual change. I worked in our local school system, knew the ins and outs of it and was prepared to continue teaching once our kids were old enough to go back to school.

Then I had one little girl…and another. A little boy…and another. Life started changing faster than I knew was even possible.

The year Laurianna was ready to go to school there were a number of different reasons that pushed us in the direction to homeschool, the main one being I just KNEW that was what I {we} was supposed to do. Even though I was scared to death, I figured I really couldn’t do much to mess up kindergarten, right?

Now, here I am four years later…grateful for the amazing opportunity that I have with my children, but sometimes wondering how exactly I got to this point. Especially in light of my firm opposition to homeschooling and the promise that I would never put my kids through ‘that’.

God has such a great sense of humor, doesn’t He?