Looking back on 2012 and Homeschooling.

This post is late. I understand that I have not been blogging for at least 2 months now- if not more.  This blog started as a hobby for me, but I did receive a few followers to date. I am truly grateful for that. Thank you for following along in our Homeschool journey.

Before I begin, I just want to say that I am and always will be pro-Homeschooling.  One the of main events that lead us to homeschooling was when both my husband and I became Born-again Christians. We had our children in a government (DoDDs) school(s) and felt we needed to remove them from that environment for various reasons. Another reason is when I researched about homeschooling, I came across this website:  Exodus Mandate.

The last four years we have been homeschooling all our children, but now we are only homeschooling our freshman and have our preschooler home as well, for now.

To let you in our lives a little, we are a military family and my husband is close to retiring from the military within this year.  He has been a military career man, but now it's becoming closer to the time to end this chapter in our lives. With him getting out of the military soon, our household maintenance came into full question: health care, mortgage, auto, tithing, faith promise, groceries, etc.

 I would have to say, that nothing except God's grace is permanent. 

To make the story short...my husband has decided we needed to change our family circumstances.  Now, I am not hear to bash or degrade my husband, but to follow in his decisions for our family.  Yes, he gave me full support while I was homeschooling our boys overseas in Germany, but now that we are in the States and in a different financial situation --things have changed.

I have a degree that I finished while being stationed overseas; hence a student loan.  Yes, not the best decision one could have made, but that was my only option at the time. We now have a mortgage, and various other debts we didn't have living with on-post housing overseas.

I am not making excuses, but laying out the circumstances.

It was a very emotional day when we put two of our children in school.  I cried the entire time I was registering my 1st grader into school and then my 6th grader as well.  I went to the local high school, but I spoke to my husband about what I saw and felt and we decided not to enroll him there.

The plan is to save money and/or use our tax return in order for them to attend a private Christian School in our local area starting next school year or we are looking into transferring our sons to our church private school for the younger two.

Does God approve of our plan?  I am not sure. I just know that as a wife to my husband, I didn't want to go against my husband's wishes for me to get back into the job market and/or the decision of which education route to have for our children.

I know that we strive to still be Christian parents for our children and like the majority the argument is where we place our children for their education, but it's also the manner of discipling our children for the Glory of Jesus Christ that ultimately is what matters. I know in a government school--is the least reliable for this, but we are saving to change this for next year...by putting them (especially the boys in the higher grades) in a private Christian school of our liking.

Oh how I would love to still be homeschooling all my children, and still after 3 months of this dramatic change, I still am broken-hearted ... but my relationship with my husband is better and this is what matters in God's plan of marriage and family.

I think too many wives forget that our relationship with our husband needs to come first, before our children. I can't be the one to make the final decision for our family, because God makes the husband/father accountable for that.  Why do I think I can change that?

Some here reading this post will probably be upset in our decision, maybe even label us hypocritical, but I have always stated that education (for children) is a decision to be made per family, per circumstance, per situation.

Right now, this is our decision and I know that my husband is a praying man, and has spend more than a year on this decision...I was the one not obeying the decision until now.

I will still keep this blog...because I feel no matter the decision of the educational route, as a mother (and father) we are still accountable for the actions we make as parents to our children and I have the luxury of still keeping a blog as a hobby--no matter if anyone still reads it.

Not all post (in the future) will contain just information about homeschooling, but about raising boys for Christ. Yes, with our situation now, this will be more challenging than before, but Christ didn't say our journey as Christian parents was going to be a piece of cake. In fact, our journey as Christian parents will be the road less traveled and hard.

"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."  Our children know how much we care for their spiritual well-being as much as their school-knowledge; and this is just one or two aspects of what being a parent is about.  I only pray that we are doing right by this decision. Only God knows...