Our Journey into Homeschooling

So, why are you homeschooling?  I have to say, though I am often asked this question, I honestly do not tell people the full answer that you'll read here.  Why?  Because quite frankly, most of the time people are not really interested in your answer, they are just making conversation.  So for their sake and mine, I keep it brief.  For my kindred homeschoolers who visit my blog, here is how our homeschool journey started ;-) 

In 2001 our first child, a son, was born. Sometime before Joel's third birthday there was pressure from our social circles to send him to play school.  I had a deep sense of sadness about this, and wanted to keep Joel at home.  I was surprised that other parents were so keen to send their children off to school at such a young age.  Already I was the only one left who had not returned to work.  But I was loving my time at home, enjoying every moment of learning alongside my little one. 

Everyday, whilst I nursed his sister, my son and I would read books.  Then we would go for walks in the veld, and discover new birds and plants.  I really learned a lot more than I had ever learned because my little guy asked so many questions.  We did crafts, and also just "mucked about" in mud or sand or water ;-) it was glorious.  My daughter was a most obliging baby, always willing to join in. 

Around this time, my husband read a book, in which Dr. James Dobson called for parents incertain states of the United States to pull their children out of school, and home educate them. The books is called Bringing up Boys.  When my husband suggested that we homeschool our child, I thought it was a ridiculous idea.  Surely, only weird people and those living in the sticks homeschooled?  And, in any case, was homeschooling in South Africa even legal?

Well, the Lord certainly had a lot to teach me. Because of my husband’s insistence that I at least look into homeschooling, I began a season of intense research. This endeavour was less fruitful than I had hoped- I had expected there would be some sort of National Council for homeschoolers’ and of course books. 

Despite the lack of information, by the end of 2004 my husband and I both reached a place where we knew the Lord was calling us to homeschool.  And so we stepped out in faith and began.

From our first days of parenting, this verse from Deuteronomy 6 was laid on our hearts:

⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 

We had often wondered why, but now we felt  this was precisely the type of homeschooling we were being called to, a complete way of life, a walk with our children, workingalongside our children, from sunrise to sunset, so that we could impart our beliefs on our children.

Though we have tried many things over the years we are back to what the Lord led us to initally and we regret the time spent (and money wasted) in curriculum searching.  We use the Weaver curriculum, a Bible based unit study which teaches multiple levels, with hands-on methods to teach all three children at once.  The older two children use Christian Light Education Maths, Reading and Language Arts.  And my preschooler does a little Rod and Staff Preschool and a lot of playing.