Why and How I Homeschool/Roadschool

I don't know when I first heard about homeschooling but I always wished I could homeschool. I loved public school growing up, so it's not that I had an aversion to public school. I also grew up to become a teacher. After teaching for 10 years in public schools, I REALLY wished I could homeschool my children; however, I was a single mom and had to bring home the bacon and needed an all-day babysitter while my children also needed an education.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Psalm 127:3
All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13

I started my oldest daughter in Catholic school, as religion was always important to me. Once I had three children, that became too expensive for me. My oldest two girls seemed to do well in public schools. Honor roll. Straight A's. Friendly. Involved in extracurricular activities. My third child, on the other hand, was on the autistic spectrum and had learning difficulties. Schools didn't meet his needs. He was suspended often. By default, I began homeschooling him when I could in order to make up for all the educational time he was missing. We moved and he was placed in a special education classroom with a few awesome teachers, although he struggled like crazy socially. He also had a sleep disorder and had a hard time waking on time for school, often arriving by noon most days! It was a nightmare. I tried homeschooling him at one point but his oppositional nature caused him to sit on the sofa, arms folded, refusing to do anything I asked of him! To give you an idea of the extent of his nature, I'll share a *now* funny story: Once this boy, as a young man, asked to borrow my GPS so he could get somewhere he'd never been. I lent it and, when he returned, I asked how he liked it, as I've always LOVED my GPS. He said, "I don't like it telling me what to do. It's too commanding." LOL. Do they make a GPS that mearly suggests which way a person should go? Or maybe gives two options to choose from at each turn? That boy cracks me up. He muddled through public schools,but  not without a lot of heartache. He was pushed through high school by the system then he blamed ME when his high school guidance counselor told him he'd never be accepted into any 4-year college with his math levels and grades even though he was the one who refused to put forth more effort.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Timothy 5:8

Once I began adopting older children from foster care, and you can read about part of that experience here and here, I realized they also had special needs the schools couldn't always address. No Child Left Behind didn't leave my children behind in grade but it sure left them behind academically and skill-wise. Common Core isn't any better for children who struggle already. Most of my 9 adopted and 2 fostered children joined my family unable to read or write. At. All. A few could read and write minimally but they were years behind the average academic levels of same-aged peers. Most of my adopted children were severely behind academically and socially due to the lack of education when they lived with their birth families, the effects of trauma on their early learning (which continues to affect them even after they are removed from traumatic experiences), the effects of grief after the loss of their birth families and others close to them, the effects of moving around in foster care and attachment issues, and the effects of pervasive disorders such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome which affect everything a child does. All. Day. Long. You can read about the effects of many different things on the development of foster children here. Given the low self-esteem, anger, depression, FAS/D, PTSD autistic spectrum disorders, and academic and developmental delays my adopted children dealt with daily, I knew public schools weren't going to do them any good and, even though they were attending public school, I was homeschooling them for hours each evening just so they had the basic skills to do the homework sent home with them each day. It was chaos and school work dominated so much of our time. We didn't have time for anything else. It was the main reason I got rid of all TV and video games. The children kept lying or skimping on school work to get the bare minimum done in order to get time on the TV or video games. Removing those was another blessing and it didn't take too long for the family to adjust to the loss.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

I felt God had been telling me to quit my teaching job and stay home with my adopted children for 2-3 years as we battled the special education system in public schools. It was an exhausting battle but I could not see quitting my job. I mean, we had to eat and have a place to live! I felt trapped. I had no idea what God had planned and had no faith or trust in Him at the time but I definitely knew that's what He was calling me to do, just as sure as I was that He had called me to each child placed in my home. Fear prevented obedience. God had His way, however, when I lost my job. I was anxious and fearful about living expenses, about destroying my children's lives with my inadequate homeschooling, but what a blessing that was!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5

My two middle schoolers at the time were beating the heck out of pretty much anyone who looked at them funny so, when my one boy was suspended in March, yet again, I asked if he wanted to be homeschooled. His answer was a resounding, "yes." About a month later, my youngest daughter, 8 years old at the time, was being sent home early from school, yet again, for her unmanageable raging tantrums. When I arrived at the school, I learned she was raging for an hour because she couldn't sit next to her friend in class. =/ She stopped immediately and, since she was manageable, I asked the teacher if he still wanted her to leave, or if he wanted me to stick around and be sure she'd continue on a more pleasant path. He said, "I don't think she should come back at all until she can control herself." Hmmm, ok, well, she controlled herself pretty well under my care so I pulled her out the very next day.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4

The older children were fearful of being homeschooled. They didn't trust that Mom, even though she was a teacher, could homeschool them. That was fine. I started off the end of that year with only two homeschooled students. When I pulled my youngest daughter out of second grade, she couldn't read. Not one word. Within a month, she was reading chapter books and the Bible. Have you ever read the Bible? It's no easy task at times. Once the older children saw that Mom does, in fact, know how to teach and can teach things the public schools were never able to teach, they were on board. I still had one issue left: the boy who was due to graduate elementary school was so psyched to go to the middle school, because the school had sold it well, that I didn't gave the heart to tell him he couldn't. I did let him, even though I felt like I was throwing a baby into a shark tank, but within a month we all knew it wasn't working and he was pulled out. Two of my boys are very thin and consistently lost weight while in school, no matter how much I fed them before and after school so, when my boy lost 2 pounds in the first 3 weeks of school, I pulled him right out. So, one by one, I pulled them out of public school and added them to my homeschool roster. My two oldest boys, who had just started high school, were the last to be pulled. Their grades were always so low that I told them they would not be homeschooled until they brought their grades up. I knew they could do it but their moods and behaviors got in the way. I didn't want to pull them out with bad grades. I felt that would make them look bad. It would seem like they weren't cutting it so I pulled them out. I wanted to pull them out with good grades. It took several months and a lot of work and frustration on their part but they were pulled out by Christmas break the same year I started pulling the first ones out.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

My first year of homeschooling, I didn't push any subject they struggled with and we went on field trips and watched educational TV programs on PBS because I wanted it to be relaxing. I wanted learning to be enjoyable. Fun, even. As I remodeled our home to put it on the market that first year, I unschooled. My only requirement was that they read. Every day. Learn something new and tell me about it. They did this for one year. My two nonreaders worked on letter sounds on Starfall. What I wanted to instill in them was a thirst for knowledge, a reason to read, and to be self-directed learners and thinkers. After being spoon fed in special education classes, they needed to learn how to think for themselves and find information. We did read together as a family each night: a chapter from the Bible and a chapter from some other book. They all enjoyed taking turns reading together, especially the Bible. In the chaos of life, we 'quit' life and spent more and more time reading the Bible. In that first year of unschooling, four children have taught themselves how to play several instruments, my nonreaders started reading, my other children learned how to ask questions and 'google' answers and developed a love of reading and learning, they all are more independent and self-directed, and my 10th graders, who barely passed each year of public school, even with extra tutoring in place, and who rarely passed a standardized test, passed almost all sections of the GED test.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. Psalm 37:5

This is our third school year of homeschooling/unschooling/roadschooling. We do a little of each, depending on our situation. When I have Internet access and we're stationary, we still follow the same curriculum we used in our sticks and bricks house, although I try to incorporate more Charlotte Mason into the curriculum. When we are in travel mode, homeschooling looks more like this, this, or this and this, or even like this and this ... and sometimes we unschool ... and sometimes we do volunteer work. I have no doubt in my mind God led me, kicking and screaming at first, to the decision to homeschool and I have no doubt it has been a huge benefit to my particular children with the needs they have. God is good, He is faithful, and He takes excellent care of His children. Not everyone may feel called to homeschool, and that's OK. I definitely saw a huge opportunity for my children to spread the Good News at school, at sports events, etc. We are all blessed with different gifts and called to do different things in advancing the Kingdom of God. If there's anything I've learned in these past three years is to ask God for wisdom and guidance, listen to what He says, and obey with complete faith that He has everything under control and will do what's best for us, even when things look pretty desperate or bleak

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

If you feel God has placed the plight of orphans on your heart, you might be interested in these statistics. It is not an easy job but it can be quite rewarding and you can save a life and lead someone to Jesus. In my experience, foster children either don't believe God exists or they believe He does but that He is not good or that they are unworthy of His love.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13