Only Freaks Do That

We homeschool. You've probably caught that by now. We started in the Fall of 2000 when our oldest was in 1st grade. Our other 2 sons were almost 3 1/2 and 6 months old. So we were really just schooling one boy at that point. The others were along for the snacks, good stories and occasional fun projects (I am not a very project-y type of homeschooling mom...more on that someday).

Wow, we're just about done with our 10th year of this. Wow.

We've now got kids in 10th, 7th, 4th, and 1st grades. Plus, there is the 2 year old who thinks she is 12 and is seriously studying coloring at the present time. She is very serious about it.

When we decided do the homeschool thing, we only knew one other homeschooling family personally and they lived about 34 hours and 12 minutes away from us, according to mapquest. Surprisingly, this didn't bother me at all. I didn't ever doubt that we could homeschool our kids. We'd done so much praying; we knew this was what God wanted for our family.

I did know myself well enough to make The Big Guy make me commit to homeschooling until our oldest was in 5th grade. I knew there were going to be days, and probably lots of them, when I would want to lock myself in a closet and just rock back and forth while drinking a Pepsi. The 5th grade commitment wasn't any magical age. We figured that since we had been spent so much time praying and discussing the whole idea that we'd better be in it for the long haul and so we chose four long years away. We were well into our 5th year of my tenure as a home educator before I even remembered that we had talked about the end of the 4th year as the time to "get out" if we wanted. It was working for us, I guess.

Wow, we'll be done homeschooling our last kid in the year 2026. Wow.

So, we'd made the decision and we were excited. The calls to the family began. Everyone was supportive, but we knew they had reservations. One family member, whom I love dearly partially because she calls things like she sees them, had a rather abrupt reaction. When I told her that we'd decided to homeschool Nate she said, and I quote, "Wendy! Only freaks do that!" I had to laugh because I know her and love her. "Well, I guess we are freaks then, " I replied.

I've thought about that conversation about once a month since then and I still laugh because it is true. We are freaks. We made a choice for our family that went decidedly against what all the normal, non-freak type of people do. We prayed and prayed and felt God telling us to go for it. We are freaks.

The funny thing is that I know a lot of people who are freaks and they don't homeschool.

The family member who reacted to our announcement is, herself, a freak. She and her husband only let their kids play video games on Friday nights! Can you believe it? What freaks!

I know some people who don't have TV's in their homes. Major freaks!

I know some other folks who take every Sunday morning and spend it at church instead of sleeping or shopping or going to a sporting event. Whoa! Those are some freaks!

I know some people who take their hard earned money and give a sizable chunk away to churches and those who need it each month because they want to do so. Crazy freaks!

When I look at it like that, I am glad to be a freak - homeschooling or otherwise.