Out in the Garden

Homeschooling Question

I know that many of you homeschool your children. My wife has just begun homeschooling our 9 year old daughter. She is in the 2nd week of teaching and things are going very well. She is learning much faster and better than she did at public school. We feel that homeschooling her this year is the right decision and that we were lead in that direction by the Holy Spirit. The frustrating part of it all is that some of our family and friends seems to be against our decision. Oddly enough even, the ones that we worried about being against it are supportive, but others are surprising us by their lack of support.

My question to you is this; when you began homeschooling did you have to deal with resistance from your extended family? If so, how did you deal with it?

I know this is supposed to be a blog about our garden, but as I've seen on many of your wonderful blogs, it is good to share part of the other aspects of your life. In a small way even, gardening this summer with our daughter solidified our decision to homeschool her. We saw how excited she was to explore new things in the garden, and how much knowledge she retained about the various plants and insects. In the classroom, she struggled to stay interested.

Anyway, I would appreciate your prayers that by us bettering her education we aren't damaging our relationships with our family members. Also, if you have any thoughts or advice, I'd love to hear from you.

Blessings to all.

Untitled Comment

04:17, Thursday, August 17, 2006 .. Posted by Anonymous

Glad to hear that it has gone well these first two weeks! I think homeschooling is the best option for all parents in most cases, but especially for Christian families. Keep relying on the Holy Spirit for guidance and share with others that you are homeschooling first and foremost because of the Lord\'s leading. It should be difficult for people to argue against that, especially if they are church going folk. We face opposition all the time to our homeschool, partly because we live in a very high performing public school district. We find ourselves saying all the time that we are homeschooling mainly because of the Biblical conviction we have that it is the best thing for our family at this time.



PS

We have really been enjoying your blog!! Maybe I will start one myself some day!

You're Normal!

11:44, Friday, August 18, 2006 .. Posted by MrsBurns

Everyone I know who homeschools experiences some form of opposition at the start. I personally think it stems from departing from the status quo. Who are you, to do it differently from what I do or what was done to you when you were a kid? How come you're different? Does that mean I need to become different? Don't make me think that way!!

In this day and age, every decision someone else makes is taken by a lot of people to mean that you are "judging" their own decisions, and nothing is more personal than our children!

My advice would be to join a homeschool support group, in your case a Christian-based one, so that at least once a month, you are around families that are encouraging you in your journey.

And then rest in knowing you are doing what the Lord has called you to do! I used to be very worried about what our extended families would think, but the more time goes by, and I see how good it is for us, I stop being concerned about what they think. And if they see you aren't jumping to act on their concerns, they might just stop sharing them with you! A win-win for everyone, don't you think?

Have fun!

Thanks for the encouragement

03:56, Friday, August 18, 2006 .. Posted by naturehouse

Thanks to both of you for those encouraging words. It is nice to know that we are not from Mars like some of our family thinks, and that many of you share in our vision of homeschooling. Thanks!

I agree

11:53, Saturday, August 19, 2006 .. Posted by Emily23

Glad to hear things are going well the first 2 weeks.

AFA family/friends, I'm not much help as most of the family/friends haven't thought I was nuts yet...LOL. But then again there's only a handful that I would bother to think about their comments, I have too many family that it just wouldn't matter, BUT not all families are like my extended family.

Just stick with your choice and too be honest if they don't understand they probably never will. Let them just see how well your daughter is doing being homeschooled and that will probably change their tunes, and if not.

Sorry to ramble. Hope I made sense....lol