An Introduction

My adventures in homeschooling began twenty-two years ago. No, I am not about to graduate my last student. My oldest is in third grade. My adventure began when my parents told me that I would not be going back to my beloved school for third grade but that my mother would be teaching me at home. Of course, I was mortified at the the thought of not being able to see my friends every day. That September we started and soon after we joined a homeschool choir, and then a homeschool swim class, and then a homeschool sports team, and so on and so on. We were doing it and we were dedicated. We trucked on through, straight on to those dreaded high school years.

Now I know what you have heard about homeschooled teenagers, that they are reclusive, anti-social nerds. I don't like to refer to myself as a nerd but as eccentric. I did like to design and sew my own clothes but there were no long skirts and bonnets for me. No. My favorite outfit was a pair of tight pink and purple plaid pants with a pair of white go-go boots. Like I said, eccentric. In response to the anti-social claim, I was heavily involved with my youth group at church and had a close group of friends in my homeschool group. And as far as being reclusive, as soon as our school work was done my brother, sister and I were out of the house. You couldn't keep us indoors. When I turned sixteen I got a part-time job and when I turned seventeen I got my first car. The second semester of my senior year of high school I was enrolled in Missouri Baptist College and started taking college courses. So no, I do not think that I was reclusive, anti-social or a nerd. My experience was very similar to most of my homeschooled friends as well.

When it came time for this boy-crazy girl to find a man to marry and start a family with, guess who I picked. A homeschooler of course. We met through our homeschool group but fell in love while working together at a local bookstore. When the subject of children would come up neither one of us had any doubts as to how we wanted those children to be educated.

Fast forward twenty-two years from that fateful day when my parents gave me that dreaded news, here I am teaching my little third grader. The world and education system is very different from what it was when my parents and I began our adventure. Then, homeschooling was a new and crazy idea, only recently becoming legal in our state. Now, homeschooling is not viewed as a religious decision but as an alternative to a failing public education system. This is our story, the story of a second-generation homeschooling family.