Week #2 down..well, almost

Two down and plenty more where they came from! ;o) I'm talking about weeks of homeschooling. I'm not really sure how many people actually read my blog, or who they are, but I just have to share. No matter whether you agree with homeschooling or not, we're definitely blessed.

We are blessed to live in a country that allows US to decide what we feel is best for our children. Ok, maybe not totally, there are many governmental rules and regulations, BUT we can decide who teaches our children. We can send them to public schools to be taught by professional educators (for the most part), send them to a private school that we pay for, but that we usually have more input into, or we can homeschool our children ourselves. Either way, we are blessed to have the freedom to choose. So many countries do NOT allow parents to choose who will educate their children or in what ways. We do have a say so, whether it be in electing our government (federal thru local level), PTA at our children's schools, school board at public or private school, IEP's specific to our children, or taking on their entire education ourselves.

We are told by God that we are responsible for the raising of our children, that means educational as well as spiritual, physical and mental. For some families public school is best. They feel it is best able to meet the needs of all of their children. Others feel private school fits the bill. Yet others feel that only they can truly meet the needs of their children. Personally, I feel EACH family must decide for EACH of their children. I don't believe "one size fits all". I know some families that do all three! Several families do two of the three and others are very firm that there is only ONE way. Ultimately it's between you and God, bottom line.

Ok, don't know where all that came from, I guess since we're starting our first official meeting of our co-op tomorrow I started thinking about it and how blessed I am. I also realized a big part of our decision to homeschool is because we feel our children's needs were not being met at the public school level. Other states, school districts, have wonderful programs in place, so maybe the thought of homeschooling may never have come to me, I don't know. I do know that this is where God has me now and I'm so thankful to Him for giving me the desire, strength and wisdom to take this path for my children. I also would like to say I am very blessed by a supportive husband. I do a majority of the academics, but he is always there to help if I need it, helps with Jonathan when I'm busy with Joey, brings Joey ice skating and to hockey and is an all around encouragement to us all.

Oh yeah, Joey's doing great so far, lol, I think that's what started this train of thought...gee...what a mind!