Okay, I admit it. I did not want to homeschool my kids. In fact, I said emphatically to my friend Anne one day, with my hands on my hips, at her announcement that she was going to homeschool, “I will never homeschool my kids!” Did you catch that “never”? I did. I caught it and ate it because just six weeks after my proud display of assertiveness, I was ready to give it a go. Why? I was forced to, sort of,–by the hand of God. So, it was not a desire, but rather a calling. Call me crazy; call me obedient. The point is when God dialed my number, I answered–for better and for worse. Okay, as long as I’m confessing, I am going to disclose one more thing. After ten years of homeschooling, I still don’t want to do it. Not very much anyway. It’s not easy, and a lot of the time it isn’t that fun. It’s one of those hard things where the effort is worth it, but the task seems daunting. I tend to shy away from the hard stuff. So, I have been, let’s say, “creative”–some call it “lazy”–in the way I homeschool. I make my kids do the work. My excuse: I’ve already been to “x” grade, and I don’t want to do it again. I never was much of a student. You know, the kind of person who managed to be graduated from high school with a good enough grade point to get into college. The kind who sped through my undergrad program in four years just to earn the teaching certificate. Ironic, isn’t it? I did not like being a student, but my life long desire was to make everyone else one in my classroom. Go figure. So, how is it that I get my kids to do the work? Well, it goes like this. I teach them each to read in first grade. Fortunate thing for me, all our children were ready for that task. Then during the summer months, I sit on my screened-in porch sipping iced tea, while I write out all the lessons plans for the whole year–yes, I said ALL the plans for the whole year!-- in one of those handy little teacher plan books. I purchase the text books and school supplies, and I set them each up with a crate of their own on something that resembles a desk, and say, “There you are. Come to me when you have problems.” “So you never engage in lessons with your children?” you ask. Of course, I do. Whenever they come to me with questions or problems, I go to great length to help them figure it out--on their own. On rare occasion, I have to lead them step by step and feed them a little homeschool baby food to increase their confidence and help them like it a little more. Case in point: When we cover prepositions, I take a chair and move it or myself all around to demonstrate how prepositions work and enhance a sentence. See, Mom is on the chair; Mom is beside the chair; Mom is under the chair; Mom jumped over the chair; etc. Isn’t that way more fun than memorizing 40 prepositions? I think so, and prepositions have never created a problem in our home. You might wish to inquire now whether all the children actually do the work as prescribed to them. The answer is: more or less. Just like every other kid. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they try to fudge it a little. Sooner or later, they do figure out that I am at least a little wiser than they and can tell if they’re cheating. Occasionally, I have had to hide answer keys. What homeschooler hasn’t? The big picture in life isn’t about academics anyway. I don’t know who originally gave homeschoolers the following motto but I like it and use it: “Heaven before Harvard.” That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! The result: So far three honors students at the high school level, one a current tenth grader and two who have gone on to enjoy honor status at the college level, and one seventh grader still in training. So, even though I didn’t want to, I am so blessed that I tried it. It’s been an interesting way of life and a marvelous journey. And I think I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided that I do want to homeschool. So, remember: It’ll be okay if you have to eat your words. And don’t be afraid to go to Confession!

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