In July of 2010, I registered my second born, my baby, for Kindergarten and bought school supplies for him and for my (just about to be) second-grader. We toured a freshly-built school, located less than a mile from our house. It was so shiny and new—a dream come true! But not my dream. Not me.  Me?  I couldn’t sleep.

God was calling me to do something I never wanted to do. I was one of those moms that always said, “It’s great for you…but I could never homeschool.”

All that summer, I’d had a stomach ache. for a variety of reason (including military moves), I knew that not homeschooling would mean five schools in five years for my sweet girl…my shy, quiet, and overlooked-by-her-first-grade-teacher girl.

So in August, just two weeks before the opening of the new carpet/new paint/fancy computers school, I ordered my first big white box from Sonlight Homeschool. I *might* have broken out in a cold sweat when it arrived.

That year was a doozy. Our first day went from 8am till 5:30 pm and we all cried. It was a long slow adjustment because I was a perfectionistic schedule diva. Then about a month after we started, my husband got terribly ill. My mother came to help us for two weeks, went home, and came back for another two weeks.  It was pancreatitis and he was just so sick…for so long. It took him over a year to get *mostly* better. This sickness changed our family. We didn’t know if we were coming or going, but whatever we did, we did together.

It’s pretty much been the bottom line about our homeschool journey:

whatever we do, we do together.

I didn’t plan to homeschool, but I can’t imagine what our family would be like if we hadn’t done it.

I really don’t believe everyone is called to homeschool

I see some intolerance online between moms, but I think God’s plan is different for each of us. Some moms homeschool, some don’t. Some moms work, some don’t. Some moms feed their kids homemade organic only, some drive thru for dinner. Some moms sleep train, letting their babies cry it out, some co-sleep. Some moms breastfeed, some bottle feed.

Isn’t it wonderful that the Lord allows us to demonstrate such diversity in our parenting? Isn’t it just as amazing that He allows these differences to exist between Christian mothers, giving us great opportunity to show grace to one another?

This year, after five happy years with our Sonlight curriculum, we are moving into a new phase in homeschooling. This year the kids are enrolled in Veritas Press Scholars Academy (VPSA) with a combination of homeschool graded, online self-paced, and live online classes.

VPSA live classes meet Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday and students participate in class via webcam, chat boxes, and/or microphones. This is our high-tech, new normal. And this is the beginning of a two-year transition, working toward enrolling in traditional school for high-school (Gracie) and junior high (Josh). In the end, we will have been a private/public/home schooled family.

How about you? Has God called you to do something unexpected? Have you ever found yourself at odds with other moms, who parent differently? Please share your story in the comments 🙂

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