Know Your Why

I had a visit with a friend yesterday whose kids go to a private catholic school that is very academically challenging and somewhat elite. Their kids "have" to go there--the dad wouldn't have it any other way. I haven't spoken with him personally, but I'm supposing it's because of the education.

Meanwhile she referred another of her good friends to me to ask me questions about homeschooling and why I do it, because she's considering homeschooling, also.

I have to chuckle to myself every time I talk with this friend, becuase everything she says about her PRIVATE super-school gives me every bit more reason to homeschool. Everything she says about why she thinks her other friend SHOULDN'T homeschool is exactly WHY I choose homeschooling.

Stay with me here...I'm about to draw an analogy. We've recently started a home business (hence my fewer posts!) and in the training for this business, they constantly remind us to remember and DRAW ON the WHY of what we are doing. They say things like, "Do you have a dream? You must allow yourselves to dream. Visualize the future and what you want for your family." Running a family business is hard work--let me rephrase that--running a family business is HARD WORK--and requires something of everyone in the house.

Homeschooling is like that--I love the dream that I cling to for my family--that we would spend our days together, learning together, travelling together, worshipping together, and socializing together. I love that my children are exposed to other families whose values mesh with ours, who also enforce things like respect, manners, kindness, and consideration for others. I want the soil of my childrens' hearts to be soft and unpolluted by the world so that they can readily receive the gospel and understand their need for the Lord when the time comes. I love that, now that we've started a home business, they will understand that they can control their own future success, and that SAT scores, school attendance, and the "record" does not determine how successful they will be later on. They will be part of our efforts to grow this business and learn more than any high school civics or economics teachers could hope to teach their classes.

I love this life. When I first started working the business, I didn't see how I could juggle it with the homeschooling. Now I understand, by revisiting my "why" that the two have a synergistic relationship. What a fun adventure this will be! Nevertheless, the going is bound to get tough sometimes, and I know that I will have to revisit these WHYs to keep my head above water. I think I'm going to make a list and post them up here by my computer...