Never Say Never

Every year about March as re-enrollment comes around Steve & I begin to pray again about what God's will is for our children's education the following year. We absolutely, love, love, love Oakland Christian school, but for whatever reason, be it the Holy Spirit, or other otherwise, we seem to always throw around the idea of homeschooling for a few weeks before putting to rest the idea and signing the papers to send them again to our great school.

This year was a little bit different, as the new year brought in some serious opposition amongst our school administration and many parents & teachers within the school. Satan had a hay day in the school and while we were very on top of things and confident that God was in control and would work through the struggles to bring about His will for OCS. Through that process, Steve & I found ourselves wondering what our other options would be if for some reason things did not iron out like we prayed they would. Once again, homeschooling was brought to the forefront of our thinking.

All the while there was a calm inside of me that things at school would be fine and I talked about it from time to time, but never really thinking it would be necessary. Then, the last weekend of March I attended a conference that Lisa Welchel spoke at. She had a table full of all her books for sale. I had already read many of her books, but one caught my eye: So You're Thinking About Homeschooling?"

The title intrigued me. Why yes, I was thinking about homeschooling. Maybe this would be the book that would set the idea to rest once and for all. Lisa interviewed 15 different families all with different reasons for choosing homeschooling and with different schooling styles. I bought the book.

As I drove nearly three hours home from the retreat with just my thoughts, my music and my God, I found myself filled with a nudge to really give this homeschooling idea a chance. I read the book in two days.

I'm not sure at what point it happened, but before I was even half way done with the book I was talking homeschooling with Steve in a way that I never had before. The completion of the book was also the beginning of our kids Spring Break from school. Time off of school with the kids is always special and this week was no different.

The desire to have this unrushed time with my children on a regular basis became more of a longing. To have more time to implement to them all the things of God I desire to share with them, to travel as a family to desired destinations without having to squeeze it into peek times, to deeply root life skills and to continue to solidify our family closeness, would all be a gift.

I always said I would never home school. And quite frankly, I've never seen a reason to because we live so close to such a fantastic Christian school. But, as I sit back and look across the room at my three little ones, I realize that their littleness is beginning to fade. My time of influence is lessening. There is so much I want to share. So many things we'd like to do. So...why NOT take a year off of traditional schooling and school at home...or on the road! I don't think I would ever regret trying it, but I might surely regret NOT trying it.

And so it stands...Posey's are homeschooling for the 2011-2012 school year. Follow our journey on our family blog.