I drove Jake and a friend to a soccer game yesterday afternoon. I jammed to my Chris Tomlin Pandora station as the two of them chatted and joked in the backseat. I tuned in and out of what they were talking about, but some random giggling really caught my attention. "It's so funny," my son laughed. "I can't believe people are actually doing that," his friend replied. Start the inquisition- apparently, students in their 5th grade class had been enjoying doodling phallic shapes and scribbling PENIS in large letters across their divider folders for testing.
Now, thinking about homeschooling didn't start in that initial moment. It's always been at the back of my mind as I have been a teacher of other people's kids, but never my own. I enjoyed the money I was making by working outside of the home, but I was always highly critical of the way my own child was learning. Jake is smart by nature. He's quick-witted and speeds through most concepts ready for the next thing. Public school education was not allowing that. He was getting in trouble because his work was done, but he had nothing else to do but become a distraction in class. In math and science particularly, he'd complete his work then become a tutor to other students. This piqued my curiosity as I considered how much extra learning he could be doing on his own if he didn't have to wait for others in his class.
Aside from academics, I kept coming back to my son's childhood and innocence. When Jake was born, he was a blank slate. First, we as his parents added to that slate. We see ourselves mirrored in him today, just as we did in those first signs of his individualism. Other members of our family added to his malleable mind. Then, he started school and new teachers and peers started to add to his slate. That's where the curve balls started coming in. By the 3rd grade, Jake was coming home saying things friends' older brothers had shared like "that's what she said" or "Oh man, I can't believe you want to be a Texas A&M faggy!" Jake only uttered one of those, but a classmate uttered the other right in front of me. Slowly and surely, that precious, innocent childhood started to carry the stains of the outside world.
I'm still working outside of the home now. I am an educational specialist at a local high school. Jake is in 5th grade at our local public school. But, I'm in serious prayer, walking in serious faith that God would provide the opportunities that would allow us to be financially stable enough for me to stay home and homeschool this precious little life that God has entrusted to me. I can't wait to see the adventure and journey we will take in these endeavors.
