September 2004 Well, after homeschooling for nine years we now have four of our children in public school. Lydia 31/2 is in a Christian preschool- five days a week from 8am 'til noon. We made this decision last school year. We had put Sarah (17) in public high school when she was in the 9th grade and we had just moved in our house (2001). In 2002 we started Teddy who was in the 7th grade at that time. They are now both at Peach County High School. Teddy is in the 9th grade and in the gifted program. Sarah is a senior and has taken many honors courses. She is preparing to go to a local college next year. Now Ian (11)is in the 5th grade at Byron Elementary and Claire (8) is in 2nd grade. They are also doing well.

We made this decision mostly because of not finishing our school-work the past few years of this homeschooling/house building adventure- I was too easy on them, letting them sleep in and talk me out of school work they should have done. I am still a firm believer in homeschooling and could possibly go back to it in the future. However, I do not think all Christians with children are called to homeschooling. Some are, some are not. Some believe all Christians have to have a large family and homeschool all their children… to me these "religious leaders" bear a strong resemblance to those "self-righteous" Pharisees Jesus reprimanded in the New Testament. Homeschooling is certainly not something to enter into lightly- pray about it, you must be willing to devote much of your time to it (I didn't devote enough), your spouse must be in agreement with you about it and willing to help and support you. Don't homeschool just because someone tells you to or out of fear of public school. Check your motivation and realize as I did : God is in control and watching over our children wherever they learn. And finally, Christianity is taught in the home and day to day life with your children, whether they go to school or not, they're always watching. My favorite homeschooling bumper sticker reads: Every home is a school.What do you teach?

Check out the homeschool group that we were members of for nine years: Central Georgia Christian Home Educators
Also the Home School Legal Defense Association
© copyright Susan E. Story 2000-2003