"Homeschool? I could never..."

"Homeschool? I could never..."

Yes, that is a sentence that I have actually said with my own mouth. I love my kids, I would die for them, but the thought of being in charge of their education, on top of keeping them alive DAY AFTER DAY was more than I could actually comprehend at one point. “The women, (who homeschool), have a lot more capacity than I do,” I said! They must have more patience, more help, no outside job, a better faith…etc. They must not have this many kids. They must have a spouse around to help. THEY MUST BECAUSE HOW!? HOW DOES IT WORK?

For my whole (public) education, I never really thought about school choices or the fact that I might do it differently one day. Sure, to me homeschoolers were the super religious and sheltered kids back then. Maybe some were, but I think I was very wrong. To be honest, I have heard more about homeschool in the last couple years than I have my entire life, and guess what, they are super normal. I think when that sentence, “I could never”, came out of my mouth, it was mostly a confidence issue, but also a social issue. WHAT WILL PEOPLE THINK OF ME? Will we be the weird ones? The ones who are talked about? What will our family say? What will the teachers think?

The moment that I stopped forcing myself to fit into a box thats makes other people comfortable was the day that I started living for what was best for my family. All of a sudden, I took this God given nudge and acted on it. I had this peace and confidence to know that MAYBE, just MAYBE, this might actually work. The confidence happened quickly, and to my surprise, the support was resounding. Family and friends really chose to support us, at least to our face! HA!

So to recap, I got to a point of desperation with three kids and balancing our daily life. I asked God for help. He nudged me to homeschool. I said no. He nudged me to homeschool, I said no. He nudged me to homeschool….well, you get the point. Finally I agreed to step out in faith and obedience, we left our school, and now we are in YEAR 2 of our journey of homeschooling with confidence and abundant blessings. The end.

BUT SERIOUSLY. That is how it went. No covid, no masks, no death of a loved one. No moves. This all happened PRIOR to 2020. I had no idea what was in store. If that is not a God move to protect our family, I don’t know what is. You may not believe in God, but I do with my whole heart, and he spoke to me in 2019 with this direction for my life before we even knew that 2020 was going to be a dumpster fire. I could chalk that up to luck after coincidence, sure, but I know in my heart it wasn’t. :)

-Emily

(You may also note, in this blog, I will make grammar and spelling errors. I will for sure add a comma where it shouldn’t be and have run on sentences. I unapologetically write the way that I talk, and I promise you my kids are learning proper English and spelling. HA)