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sunnyviewmom
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A homeschool bumper sticker and Christian radio!
I had been a school teacher when DH and I married but hoped to be a stay at home mom. I had barely heard of homeschooling, but had a vague notion that it was odd.
About a week before I gave birth to our first child, DH and I were driving to my doc appointment. I saw a bumper sticker about homeschooling and that started our first conversation about it. It turns out that DH had been listening to discussions about homeschooling on Christian radio and had come to believe that it was a great idea. I was definitely interested but had more immediate concerns on my mind (like giving birth for the first time).
On my first trip to the library after our son was born, I checked out a couple of books on homeschooling. After reading just a few pages, I thought that this made so much sense! The things that I wished I could do in the classroom could be done in homeschooling! (Basically, the real learning stuff.) After this, homeschooling became a real option for us.
To make a long story short, we did put our oldest in school K-3 before realizing that homeschooling really was the right path for us. He will be homeschooling high school next year. Our youngest son (2nd grade) has always homeschooled.
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Shari in NY
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Great thread, Erin. I'm pleasantly surprised to see all the moms who either were homeschooled themselves or their younger siblings were. Very interesting.
I was introduced to the concept of homeschooling when I was a very young bride and I saw Nancy Wallace (Better than School and Child's Play) and her family interviewed on the Phil Donohue show. I though to myself,"When I have kids, THAT'S what I'm going to do!"
Wow! That was 1980 and I started homeschooling ten years later!
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DominaCaeli
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I love reading everyone's stories!
I first heard about homeschooling about six years ago. My husband and I were newly married, and I was in grad school, studying to be an English professor. I was very, very torn over what God wanted me to do with my life. I had planned to combine motherhood with a career in academia; I had several professors who were doing so and were encouraging to me in this. But they only had a few children, and I became convicted that my husband and I shouldn't limit our family size based on my career aspirations. I spent the next summer discerning whether I was going to leave the Ph.D. program or continue on.
And then I began to hear about homeschooling. We attended our first TLM, and the priest there told us that most of the families were homeschoolers. I started listening more to Catholic radio, and it seemed most of the hosts' wives homeschooled. I read a few books by Catholic mothers, all of whom happened to homeschool. Coming from a background in education, I was convinced that homeschooling wasn't good for socialization.  But these nudges hit me just as I was trying to see how my teaching and study skills could best be used at home, and they seemed to be the perfect answer, the perfect way to combine my love for all things education and my desire to be a stay-at-home mother.
I presented all this to my husband one evening, and he just sat back and laughed--he had been getting the very same nudges but had hesitated mentioning them to me because he knew I was anti-homeschooling and because he wanted me to make the decision to leave school on my own. Definitely God's work in our lives.
So I announced in the Fall that I would be leaving after Spring quarter to have lots of children and homeschool them. You should have seen the looks I got from my colleagues and advisors! 
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Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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Erin
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Your stories are all so wonderful
I'm also thrilled to see our 2nd generation hsers 
DominaCaeli wrote:
So I announced in the Fall that I would be leaving after Spring quarter to have lots of children and homeschool them. You should have seen the looks I got from my colleagues and advisors! |
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Would have loved to have seen those looks
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Erin
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Teachin'Mine2
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This is a great topic! I'm enjoying reading what everyone has written. Just wish I could remember how it was for me!  I think we saw fliers at our library and thought it was a great idea - husband even more so than me. I brought the subject up with family, and you'd have thought I was planning on doing something atrocious!  So I dropped the idea and proceeded to do what society requires and kept bringing her to pre-school classes which she hated. But by this time I was sure I was doing the right thing and had questioned the sanity of a family friend who was home schooling her two boys. Less than two weeks into first grade, and we were doing the same.
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mom of one 13yo dd
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florasita
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Well I guess I always knew because my mother & hher brother were taught at home until age 9 or so by my grandmother , who was a teacher but back then , the family they were it was an acceptable practice to teach your own at home . I don't even doubt my grandmother would have perhaps been taught at home as well by her parents .
Then my mum also studied gr 11 at home , took her exams and skipped gr. 12 going into nursing straight away .
Then I knew people in our community who did homeschool via oak meadow about 28 yrs ago  what influenced me to have the belief and confidence to school ourselves was travel . That was the actual push . One cannot spend months traveling and attend the same school . After that our children went in and out of public school depending where we lived , situation etc.
Then of course all the traveling people you meet who homeschool . wow ! I had some really good exposure . The most impressionable being a catholic mum of soon to be 8 in Chiapas MX they used oakmeadow as well . Had traveled from India from California but came back after yrs of living there because of cost of living . They ate healthy , had beautiful kids , they appeared to be what ever people would label hippies yet the mum went off to mass everyday , her girls & the baby always went too . Pretty good example for me who would not be a convert for another 12 yrs after that .
I just sort of saw both as an option depending on our circumstances. I read in my grandmothers journal she taught my uncle at home because the new teacher was just not very nice and he wasn't learning anything from the teaching at school anyway . It is interesting to see the views of people . My grandmother came from a very educated family in the sence of university etc. her dh did not come from the same types of education he only had gr3 from school . His family saw school as the it . To make them better , to make them worthy etc. I know my fathers family was also very poor and viewed education in the same way . It is starnge because my father was horribly abused by his teachers labeled retarded because of his speach disability etc. he constantly ran from the school , yet they had this distorted view public education somehow would lift them up to be good people .
Anyway I'm happy to say I seem to have adopted & taken on from my mothers mothers side in regards to view of education & where true knowledge & wisdom come from
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May I rise & rest with words of Gratitude on my Breath
May I have the Heart & Mind of a Child in my Depth
May I forever remember to be a Light
May Peace Love & Hope be My Sight
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Erin
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Fliers at the library intrigues me, I've been thinking of doing something like this on a local level.
florasita wrote:
Well I guess I always knew because my mother & hher brother were taught at home until age 9 or so by my grandmother , who was a teacher but back then , the family they were it was an acceptable practice to teach your own at home . I don't even doubt my grandmother would have perhaps been taught at home as well by her parents .
Then my mum also studied gr 11 at home , took her exams and skipped gr. 12 going into nursing straight away .
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Wow Roxie!
So your children are nearly 3rd/4th generation hsers!!
Ladies, You all have such interesting stories. I'm so enjoying getting to know you all
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Erin
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Nina Murphy
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I first heard about homeschooling at an HLI conference in Northern CA that featured Seton, and Mary Kay Clark as a speaker. That was 1992---18 years ago!
It was totally foreign to me, the concept, actually. That it was even legal. But it made sense to my husband and I immediately on the social level. We both have strong memories of negative socialization in school---mine public for grade school; husband, parochial Catholic.
We both went to single-sex Catholic Prep schools where we had slightly better experiences (mostly on the intellectual, academic level. He thrived in the English department; I thrived in French). But still were exposed to and experienced what we wouldn't want for our own children.
That is what motivated us to consider educational alternatives and still motivates us to consider what to do year to year. Especially the higher years. It is not easy. Foreign language, for instance----there in no substitute for being immersed in that classroom and conversation, with an excellent fluent teacher. Science.....labs....I think the classroom and a trained teacher excels over what I can give. Math: we definitely need tutoring help at the higher levels. BUT.....ultimately: the social, emotional, and spiritual benefits of homeschooling during the teen years can not be substituted for, imho.
There is no reason we should not be raising saints AND scholars, and it is a constant process of discernment about what is the next right step for our teens and young adults, true; but we came to believe, from much contemplation over what makes one "healthy" and "happy", that academics----- do really come second to the matters of the heart in this day and age. AND that the intellectual life and the life of the soul are profoundly tied, that sometimes we shouldn't be seeking to attain knowledge that is too "high" for us (don't have the scriptures at the top of my head, but there are several).
We do have kids in school, and homeschooled now, after life's many curveballs and nine children, proved that we need help and can't function to that capacity at this high-need level; but I will always believe homeschooling is the Ideal for those who have the ability, gift, and grace to do it.
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God bless,
~~Nina
mother of 9 on earth,
and 2 yet-to-be-met
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Angie Mc
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Fun topic, Erin  .
stefoodie wrote:
| Met AngieMc IRL in '01... |
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It really seems like yesterday! My dd was 8? I can remember stef telling me, "You really need to get online. There are these other ladies talking like you." At the time I thought, "Online what?"
I first heard about homeschooling when my first child, dd, was 1 year old and I moved to a very liberal California town where homeschooling was very popular. We met some homeschoolers there via a food buying co-op. They invited us to a large party where children were aged from infants through young adult. My dd was 2 at the time and normally glued to my side, but at this party she blossomed! All the children, especially the olders ones, knew how to *be* with her as well as with each other. I recall one of the older children kindly corrected my super-sensitive dd and I braced myself, expecting her to freak out . Instead, she looked at the older child and obliged...I was sold! My dh and I were able to talk with other adults while my little one happily hung out with a gathering of great, great, children and their families. I thought, "I want my child to be like these children! I want this kind of lifestyle!"
Within days after the party...I started to doubt. Within a few months, I was convinced that I could never do it. When dd was 3, we went out for a walk, a regular walk, nothing special, hadn't thought about homeschooling for some time when...out of the blue...I don't know how to explain it other than I *heard* or *thought*... "We need to homeschool." I was a bit unnerved  . I remember feeling some panic and reluctancy. We weren't practicing Catholics at the time so I couldn't frame this in spiritual terms but in retrospect, this moment was special. None the less, I put "homeschooling" on the back-burner and wouldn't revisit it again until dd was 5, focusing instead on "just mothering." When she was 5 we had moved and were living rural remote and the schools were quite lacking, so I was able to homeschool with confidence in comparison. I met some great homeschooling friends and the rest is history . It all really seems like yesterday...
Love,
__________________
Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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12stars
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God literally had to tell me Himself. I was praying one afternoon and He said, "I would like you to homeschool the children".
So so much was conveyed to me through that statement I didn't even know where to begin or what it was nor knew anyone that did it. Slowly I agreed and pathways opened up for me. Soon after I heard Steve Wood talk about HS and the information just flowed in from everywhere. It was as if I was always at the right place all the time.
My dear husband was dead set against it so I prayed a novena to Maximillian Kolbe and on the last day my DH says, "this is the best idea ever, why didn't we think of it sooner".
The change in our children was dramatic, and it has been such a blessing.
I was a hairdresser by trade and really never went to college. I was so scared but I trusted in the Lord and a lot of the advice I was given. Now I can't imagine ever going back.
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Claudia in Southern California
Wife to George,
Mom to DD 14, DD 10, DD 7, DS 4, DS 2, 1 in heaven, and now due 5/11.
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Barbara C.
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When I was in college I worked at a restaurant. The owners usually hired high schoolers to wash dishes/bus tables during lunch and dinner rush. Well, one boy they hired was about 14 and home-schooled. I didn't really get to know him well, because he usually worked weekday lunches (since he wasn't in regular school) while I worked dinners. That was my first exposure. Looking back he was a nice enough kid; although I wonder just how much he was exposed to working with all us college kids.
When I was pregnant with my first child, a co-worker kept harassing me that I should homeschool my kid. He was my age, unmarried, and with no plans to have kids (he is married now but has no kids and probably won't). I told him my husband and I would assess our situation when the time came between public, private, and homeschooling...although I thought the appeal of homeschooling was slim and none.
My college room mate and I used to write letters back and forth (we couldn't quite get the e-mail to work for some reason); in fact we still do write letters despite e-mail and Facebook.
Anywho, she wrote me a letter around 2005 saying that she and her husband were considering homeschooling her oldest child who was approaching school age. We often engaged in friendly debate, so I went to the library to get books about homeschooling to TALK HER OUT OF IT.
Well, I was converted within the first book, Lisa Whelchel's So You're Thinking About Homeschooling. It just made so much sense. And I have never doubted once since then that it has been the right path for everyone in our family.
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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St. Ann
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Living in Germany, I was never exposed to official homeschooling IRL. Although I was fortunate enough to experience private catholic initiatives in Bavaria that were about as close to Real Learning a la Charlotte Mason as you are going to get within the institutional system.
It was when my oldest was 8 or 9 and I started using the internet and was looking for catholic resources for teaching children about procreation... One thing led to another and I stumbled onto Danielle Bean -bought the book!, Susie Lloyd - bought the book!, Holly Pierlot - bought the book!... These books introduced me to a whole new world. I scoured the internet for more info and began dreaming. I finally met a mother of 3 here who kept her children at home until she had to put them in school in the 1st grade. She is a teacher and very catholic. We share and dream... It is only in the last couple of months that homeschooling has received any positive attention in the german media. We are hopeful for change, even if it is not in our "school life-time".
Now I only have one at home full time. But all the girls feel they belong to the homeschooling crowd across the ocean(s). We do our best with the time we have together. The connections I made in the States and with you on 4real keeps the fire alive.
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Stephanie
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Teachin'Mine2
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Praying for you and all the others in Germany who are home schoolers at heart. May the laws be changed soon.
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mom of one 13yo dd
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Erin
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Stephanie 
An amazing story, and adding my prayers to change. One day it may be your grandchildren who are hsed.
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Erin
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Maddie
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When my oldest was 3 months old, we were living in Alexandria, VA along Route 1. My dh and I were driving into our apartment complex when we saw some rough looking teens getting on the bus with some sweet little children. I announced then and there, my child will never get on one of those, I said, pointing to the yellow school bus. My dh was like, yeah, right, whatever, everyone gets on one of those...I didn't know what I was going to do, but my baby was not getting on that bus and going to those schools. I was only 17 at the time!
Fast forward a year, I was working at a CPC and one of the volunteers had her 7 or 8 year old son with her and he was reading aloud to her as she worked. I asked why he wasn't in school and she told me she homeschooled her children. Light bulb!! Yep, that's what I'm gonna do, homeschool. Whatever that means...
So I investigated it over the next few years, was totally blessed to have some awesome mentors and here we are 17 or so years later, still homeschooling.
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~Maddie~
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Summer
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I was public schooled but had always yearned to go to catholic school. I loved the uniforms and had visions of full habit nuns singing in the halls. Finally my wish was granted and I attended the University of San Diego. No singing nuns though. I met my future husband and earned a teaching credential. Now I really wanted to teach in a Catholic school, but never did. Lutheran was as close as I got.
When my first dd was nearing k age, neighbors started asking me to tutor their kindergartners. I really thought that something had to be wrong for a k to need a tutor! So, we explored the idea of Catholic school for our children. It was much too expensive.  I was discussing my dilemma at Bunco with another teacher friend and she told me that she was pulling her son from ps in order to homeschool him.
It was as if the Holy Spirit had smacked me upside the head. That was the first time I had ever heard of homeschooling. My dd spent one year at the public kindergarten while dh and I researched. Once he was on board, we started hs'ing and have never looked back.
I, too, truly feel that this is God's will for our family. I love hs'ing and cannot imagine life any differently. Although, I do daydream about a mother's helper. 
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God Bless,
Summer
(mom to my littles  dd 11, ds 10, dd 7, dd 4.5, ds 2, & ds 7mo)
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SuzanneG
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Summer wrote:
| I was discussing my dilemma at Bunco with another teacher friend..... |
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Who knew BUNCO could completely alter your family's way-of-life????!!!!!
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Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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guitarnan
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I just love this thread!!!!
I am so amazed that God has done to others what He did to me...drop enough evidence and information my way so I knew that what I'd believed to be impossible could, in fact, happen.
Stephanie, I have great hopes for Germany. My dear German friend (a teacher) completely understands why I homeschool, and I figure that it will be our generation of parents and teachers that will create a national change of heart in Deutschland. My ancestors came from Germany to the U.S., looking for economic opportunity. It is my hope that Germany will find a way, soon, to look at home education opportunities from the U.S. and other countries and create ways to make them German in spirit and concept. I'm sure there are other parents like you, just waiting for the chance to expand the home learning opportunities they have created.
And if you think bunco is an unusual way to learn about homeschooling...I think the Good Lord has a surprise or two waiting for you!
__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Erin
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SuzanneG wrote:
Summer wrote:
| I was discussing my dilemma at Bunco with another teacher friend..... |
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Who knew BUNCO could completely alter your family's way-of-life????!!!!! |
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I've heard Bunco mentioned before, just what is it?
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Erin
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Summer
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Bunco is a silly dice game. Mostly, the ladies in my group just loved to get out, enjoy good food, and drink some wine. Oh, and talk, a lot!
But I shall never forget Bunco now, that's for sure! Homeschooling and Bunco shall be forever linked in my mind.
__________________
God Bless,
Summer
(mom to my littles dd 11, ds 10, dd 7, dd 4.5, ds 2, & ds 7mo)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: How Did You Find Out About Hsing?
