Sunday, October 14, 2007

Preparing for the Ride of My Life!


So here's our big news. As fun as it was to watch you all speculate, I guess I should finally share. I just filled out the official affidavit with the state for our new private home school, (Our last name) Academy! We have been talking seriously about home educating our children for about six months, although I have toyed with the idea off and on since I was in college. Over the summer I began to feel better and better about it, yet was scared to make such a big change and commitment. Our plan was to research this year and implement next year, but I think that was mostly because "next year" sounds very far away and less scary somehow. But during the past few weeks I have felt more and more led towards homeschooling our family; the Lord has put people in my path everywhere lately who home school or who were home schooled and I've had so many positive encouraging conversations about it. As we watched General Conference last week, many of the things that were said about families and parenthood supported our long list of reasons why home school would be advantageous for our family. This week I couldn't get it off my mind (remember, I do have a tendency to obsess) and finally spent much of the day Thursday studying about it and praying about it and I just knew that this is what God wants for us. Once I had that confirmation, I changed my prayers to, "Lord, take away my fear and help me have faith." He has done that for me.
We choose to do this for a number of reasons; naturally, the fact that we have a special needs child got the conversation going but the more that we have researched, the more we feel that this will bless our entire family. We truly believe that we will be led to do this successfully, although I am not naive enough to believe that it will be easy or that we will have a seamless transition.
We had a family council today and told the kids. They were enthusiastic. We explained that we would choose a date for Kimball's last day in public school. Henry will home school with us in the morning but will finish afternoon kindergarten before we remove him from public school. Kimball knew exactly how long he wanted to stay for--his class has a "Pumpkin Day" scheduled in two weeks that he wants to participate in. We chose a school name, a mascot, and a few units that we will study first (polar bears and sharks. Did I mention that I already know more than I care to about those two creatures because I live in this house? But we wanted them to have a role in choosing our curriculum, and I'm sure that we can find more to learn about.)
So, wish us luck! We are excited, nervous, and gearing up for negative feedback from the public school when we break the news to them. But we are armed with the confidence that comes from knowing we are doing what God means for us to do. I know that He will help us to do it well. Thank goodness for personal revelation. I am so grateful that He is mindful enough of our little family to lead us in our lives.

13 comments:

Suldog said...

I think this is magnificent! It is my personal belief that if more parents chose to homeschool, society as a whole would be much more sane. Good for you!

Scrappy said...

How exciting! I envy your confidence and courage. I look forward to hearing about all the blessings that come from this. Good luck, my prayers are with you and your family that the transition will be as smooth as possible.

Anonymous said...

Full speed ahead!

Love,
Papa

david mcmahon said...

That's a big occasion, Michal

Have faith, have confidence - and have fun.

Keep us posted ....

mahina said...

wow! i wish you the best in this! i've toyed with the idea, but have come to realize that it would not be good for my relationship with the girls. i don't have the patience it takes to do it. also, i enjoy the time when they are away at school.

i admire you for being able to do this!

Anonymous said...

Kudos to you! I think that's a WONDERFUL decision! You can do it!!

Michal said...

suldog,
thanks for the encouragement. it means a lot. hopefully we will contribute to a better society!

Michal said...

scrappy,
the confidence and courage all comes because i know it's right. it's so much easier to feel that way when you know. and thanks for the prayers--i'm sure we'll need them!

Michal said...

david,
having fun is one of my goals in this endeavor. in order for it to be successful, i need to relax and enjoy my kids more and have fun learning with them. if i can accomplish that, both i and our family will be better off because of it.

Michal said...

mahina,
thanks for being supportive. i recognize all the reasons you gave for not homeschooling, because i've felt that way myself--not to say that you are wrong for feeling that way. i just know that if your kids really needed you to homeschool them, you could do it too. with god, nothing is impossible!:)

Michal said...

morgan,
don't you want to come help me? i really need a homeschool buddy who likes to do crafty things. my kids love that kind of "project" stuff, as they call it,and i am terrible at it. i don't even like having it out in my house. you are welcome to come join me any old time!

Deborah Gamble said...

Michal,

You are Wonder Woman Super Mom! Have you looked into Saxon Math and Core Knowledge? Those are two of my favorite curriculums. But you probably already know what you are doing. Good job!! I'm excited for you!

Rebecca said...

An amazing endeavor...so many moms are taking to it lately. Noah's school uses the Saxon Math and we love it...as well as Spalding Reading/Writing. There are so many resources for homeschoolers. I'm sure you will find what you need. Out here in AZ many moms are choosing to use AZVA (Arizona Virtual Academy) which is an online homeschooling program. They give you everything you need from a home computer, pay for your internet service and send you science experiment packets...among other things. A teacher is also assigned to your student who calls to keep up with your progress. But, it's a way to get the academics in but with also having the ease to provide the enriching activities as a family. You can do the academics much more quickly at home than you can at school, or so I've heard. We're not at a homeschooling place in our family, but it's always in the back of my mind. Not sure how long I will be able to tolerate the influences my kids pick up from going in school, but at our charter school we are very pleased so far. Best of luck!