In our family, teaching
at home is not a choice
but a calling. During
our twenties, my
husband and I began to
know and love God. We
were compelled to live our life surrendered
to Him. While teaching at an inner-city
public school, God impressed upon my
heart that He wanted us to serve Him
through homeschooling our children.
Fortunately, God saw greater potential in
us then we ever imagined possible. He
used our availability, not our exceptional
abilities.
As a child, I had never been treated with
gentleness or respect. I was not equipped
with the skills I needed to parent. All I
knew was that I wanted my children to
learn about God and His worldview.
Scripture taught me to train my children to
be innocent of evil, and I learned firsthand
that this was impossible to do in a public
school environment.
I quickly learned that life happens and
that we were to embrace learning about
M y well-planned schedule was consist ently interrupted with various events of
l ife. After learning that Jesus’ miracles
o ccurred during interruptions, I wanted to
s ee God’s view and purpose for “
interrupt ions” in our life.
Real life often frustrated me, because it
n ever worked out as planned in books. I
wondered if something was wrong with
me and my ability to follow simple, laid
out directions. It was as though my children had already read the teacher’s
manuals and were determined to respond
exactly opposite to all the carefully
explained, no-fail lessons.
Early on, I was heavily influenced by
Charlotte Mason, Francis Schaeffer, and
the “real book” philosophy to education.
We were going to learn from real books,
not books geared toward specific grade
levels. I filled my home and our day with
as many books as possible.
Initially, I taught separate grammar,
spelling, reading, handwriting, and math
programs for my children according to
their learning levels. Through the years,
we have learned, for my sanity, to school
