Our homeschooling journey is about to begin..

As I am preparing to begin my homeschooling journey on Monday, I started thinking of how I got here. When L was only 4 months old, I returned to teaching full time at a public school and it tore me to shreds. I cried most days on the way to work. Shortly after being there, I knew that I would do everything in my power to keep my children from public school. I saw the lack of values and lack of education first hand and it broke my heart. I figured that I would teach at a good Christian school when L entered kindergarten. God then brought Tampa Christian Community School into my life and I began teaching there after J was born. It was a dream job. I loved my administrator, the environment, and the people but what impressed me more than anything were the families. These were homeschooling families that did life together. They met two days a week for school and home-schooled the other days. Parents were the main influence on the children and for the most part, God was the main influence on the parents. My students weren't "smarter" than my public school students. They were invested in. There was a huge difference. My second graders were reading higher level chapter books like Charlotte's Web, diagramming sentences and mastering square roots. But they were also children that were taught the love of God and the importance of character. They were respectful, innocent and honestly, a pleasure to be around. Being at TCCS is what opened my eyes and heart to homeschooling. When I had E, God,  allowed me to be able to stay home full time and the door to TCCS seemed to close for us. L attended Seffner Christian because after losing my dad, there was no way I could give him what he needed for Kindergarten. I am also thankful for this experience because even though SCA was a great school and he had a great experience, it confirmed in my heart only further that I want to home-school my children. I want to be the main influence on them. I want to go at their pace and give them the individual attention they need. I want us to experience life together. L loves running, with home-school, he can join a running club with an amazing co-op I found called HEAT and it doesn't take over our lives. There are so many benefits.  We also joined Classical Conversations and I am blown away by this program. I'm sure I will have a blog about it later but you can click here for more information. Earlier this week, we had a dance party to the history timeline song. I never thought I'd say that. We are only beginning and I know I have a lot to learn.  By American standards I should be "working" full time...but I have a wonderful, godly, husband, 3 healthy children, food on the table and a roof over my head. I am beyond thankful.

I get to spend each and every day with these 3 cuties!!