It was the best of times Part 2

School started and things were going well for the most part. Jacob had an awful time adjusting - to the point of me fighting with him and dragging him down the hallway in the mornings to get him in his classroom. He would do okay the rest of the day - aside from a few tears now and then. Noah had a great teacher and he adjusted like a trooper. He would pace the perimeter of the playground at recess instead of playing with other kids - but that's just part of Noah being Noah. Lucas & Ellie, the two socialites of the group, jumped right in and had friends after the first day. 

The boys took reading level tests the first week of school and they each had the highest reading levels in their classes. They were soaring through the other subjects as well. I was very proud of them.

I guess I started to get concerned when Lucas came home and said "There's a sheriff's deputy in my math class now." Evidently the 5th graders needed a bit more crowd control so they brought in the big guns - literally. He would come home with stories of how disrespectful several of the kids were - talking back to the teachers, refusing to do work they were given, cussing and how often the entire class would be punished for the actions of one student. He said the teachers often had to yell to get the kids under control. That's when I started wondering how much of a positive learning environment this school actually was for him. 

As a teacher I know first hand how hard it is to teach while there are severe discipline issues in the class.  I also know how the well behaved children are often shorted since more time is spent on discipline than it is on actual teaching. 

So I spent the next week wondering whether or not this was actually the best thing. Kyle and I talked and prayed and talked and prayed some more and the only positives we kept coming up with were all social oriented - there were no academic positives for leaving them in school.

To sum it all up - I knew that, even though I had prayed about putting them in school, I had not listened to the answer. My desire to have the day to myself apart from 4 very loud, active kids was put above everything. All I could think about was the quiet. The freedom. The 7 hours of "me time."

All along I was pushing the Spirit's conviction deeper down and passing it off as my anxiousness about sending them to school.

We finally sat down and talked to the kids. They were all in favor of coming back home. Lucas was the most hesitant, but all he said was "I'll miss PE and recess. But I know I'll learn more at home." 

So on Monday they stayed home. We started homeschool back up on Tuesday and things are going splendidly. Jacob - who had been a short tempered, angry little boy since school started, is back to his happy, smiley self. Ellie's even loving sitting down and writing her letters. However backward they may be. (and if you know Ellie, you know how backward that can be!)

When I think back on this whole roller coaster ride of the past 2 1/2 weeks, I laugh. The same people who doubted and were against our decision at the beginning are now joyfully celebrating our return. And the ones who were encouraging and cheering us on are now doubting and left in disbelief that we would want to bring them home. What a lesson in doing what God has called you to do and not trying to please people!

As our family has stated time after time after time - the education of your children is between you and God. There are positives and negatives about everything. Will I miss my days of quiet? YES! Are we done with "school in a building" forever? Probably not.  School is not bad, and I'm sure at some point one or all of our children will be in some school somewhere. Homeschoolers should not castle themselves in their homes away from the world. Christians need to be in the world living out the gospel in all they do so to remove all believers from the school systems would be tragic.

But, for now, for this year, our kids are home. And we're where God wants US to be. And there's no better place than that.