Homeschooling Mom

Life as a mom is full of choices, not the least of which is the choice of how we will educate our kids.

Over the years, I’ve enrolled my six kids in both private school and public school.  They’ve been in schools where they wore uniforms and the police patrolled the neighborhood and they’ve been in schools where the mommies made the morning drop-off clutching a designer coffee while wearing 5” designer heels.  Two of my kids have even been in a public school that is conducted almost entirely online.

But there was one option I swore I’d never try.  Not in a million years and not for a million bucks.  If you’d have offered me a lifetime of shiny hair and effortless abs of steel, I still wouldn’t have tried it.

Homeschooling.

I would have told you that I wasn’t about to narrow my wardrobe down to long, floral skirts and ruffle-neck blouses and besides, my kids were entirely too well-adjusted and normal.

There would be no homeschooling at the Pribyl home.  We liked our education like most parents like their diaper service:  Handled off-site and by someone else.  I thought homeschooling families were awkward, reclusive, fearful and weird.

But here’s the thing:  Years ago, I told God that these kids who run around this house and call me “mom” actually belong to Him.  I told Him I would trust Him with whatever path He chose for us, and I have learned that when you give your kids (or your finances or your husband or your dreams) to God, He takes you seriously.

When you turn your eyes and your heart to Christ, He has a really neat way of making His desires become your own.

I came to the homeschooling  table reluctantly, but I pulled up a chair and gave it a chance.  Soon, to my surprise, I found that my reluctance had turned into a hopeful excitement.

I was even disappointed when I thought that my large family, small house, limited funds and a lacking personal skill set would make it impossible for me to teach my kids at home.  Thankfully, I have some great new friends who helped me see that all the stumbling blocks on my path could be easily kicked to the side of the road.

I was wrong about all homeschooling families being awkward, reclusive, fearful and weird.  After a full year at my new church, being surrounded by a thriving community of truly lovely home educators, my opinion of homeschooling is no longer based on my stereotypes or the arguments of others.

Sure, I was a little scared, but as the time drew nearer to pick up my kids from their very last, last day of school, the excitement completely engulfed the fear and I found myself wishing that my car would completely break down so that I could justify starting to home school them mid-April.

I never thought I’d say this, but come this fall, I’m going to be a Homeschooling Mom.  I’m going to choose my own books, plan my own schedule, call a hike at Annadel, “P.E.“ and go nuts in the school supply section of  Office Depot.
All this without owning even a single item of ruffled, floral clothing.

In his heart a man plans his course,
But the Lord determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9