Home-schooling??!!!

Home-schooling.... REALLY!!!  God are you serious?!  I can not even believe this word is existing in my vocabulary!  I was always the one that said "No way I could EVER home-school my kids!".  I have learned though that you should never say never, because that is when God will say "Oh yeah, we'll see about that!"  HAA HAA!

Let me start at the beginning... It all started last Monday night, my husband came home from work and here is our conversation:

Me: Hunny I think I have gone and lost my mind!
Hubby:  Why, what happened!? {probably thinking the boys had done something}
Me:  I think I am considering home-schooling next year.
Hubby:  {huge smile creeping onto his face} Oh really?!


After that reaction from my hubby I realized that he has been wanting me to do this for a while.  I have  been really resistant to it though because Big E and I are too much alike and butt heads way too much!  But over the last few weeks I think God has been placing thoughts in my head that maybe I could do it and most of all maybe its what He wants me to do!  While having a conversation with a close friend who is at the beginning of her home-school journey, I was saying something like how well Big E was reading. That he was reading way above his grade level.  Then I proceeded to say that they wouldn't let him get too much further because they wanted to make sure the comprehension was there (sounded reasonable to me at the time).  She just asked me why they wouldn't if he was comprehending it.  Huh?  I don't know, that's a good question.

Then I ran into an old friend while visiting a church who is home-schooling her kids.  She has a 9 year old, a 5 year old and a 3 year old.  They all seemed to be doing well, and she said she is able to do school 3 days a week and have the rest free for other activities.  Wow, that sounds wonderful!!

Then while at a Mary Kay open house, of all places, there was a lady there talking about her home-schooled kids.   One was about to get married, one was taking college classes at the age of 16 and the others were doing great.  How awesome is that to be taking college classes while other 16 year olds are just being immature and getting into trouble!?

All of those interactions built on what was already going through my head.  Also I had not been too pleased with some areas of Big E's schooling.  Like I said he is excelling in reading but not doing great with handwriting.  BUT I am not seeing where they are helping him to have better handwriting.

  So back to the conversation with the hubby, he was all for it!  That began a world wide web search for curriculum and answers as to how much would this cost and what laws are there to follow.  Fortunately we live in a really easy state that has very few home-schooling laws so that is not going to be an issue.  As far as curriculum, we had set aside money to pay for Little N's preschool next year (which by the way we will home-school him as well) and that will be plenty to get curriculum and supplies for the year!  How amazing that God laid all that out just when we needed it!  Not to mention there is a home-schooling convention coming up in our area next month!

I am so excited about this new journey that is being placed before us and I can't wait to get started!!