Several years ago, in our B.C. (before children) days, we lived in a cute town outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was helping out in a bilingual school there while finishing up my graduate degree. Since I am bilingual in English/Spanish, this was our dream for our children. To send them to this cute charter school where they would be immersed in the Spanish language everyday.
Well...we have since moved out of Oklahoma [insert sigh : ( ] and had four children. Our discussions and perspectives have changed a lot since then. Through much prayer, observation, thought, research and counsel from seasoned homeschooling families, we have wholeheartedly chosen this path. We are so excited about it, too! However, we know the question will come [just like we questioned others]. Why?
There are many reasons, but it basically boils down to this:
We are not trying to completely shelter our children from the world (that would be difficult to do), but we want to play a larger part in preparing them to live in it!
Even when Jesus prayed for his disciples, he said: "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. " (John 17:15)
It is inevitable. Our children will grow up and they will leave (go out into the world) and they will make choices.... a lot of them! We want to invest in them now and to the best of our ability help them to make good ones.
Are we perfect? No! Do we have all of the answers? No! What we do have is a desire to spend time with our children and pass on our beliefs, values, and standards that we choose to carry in our family. We want to play a bigger role in their up bringing and having an extra 30+ hours a week at home instead of away at school gives us that privilege.
When it comes down to it... our children are our world.
Next Tuesday, I'll get a little more specific as to some of our pros and cons in our thought process in this decision.
1 comment:
Coming from a family of elementary educators, this was such a difficult decision for us! It felt like we were telling all of our school teacher friends and family members we didn't think they could do as good of a job as we could. So many things created this decision. It wasn't just one thing. Now that we are well into our first full year, I know with all my heart it was the best decision. Good luck!
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