When our son turned 4, we decided to give homeschooling a try. My reasoning in starting so young, was that if it didn't go well, he could start Kindergarten when he was 5 and no one would know the difference and he wouldn't be behind.
Once I got started, I never looked back! I loved teaching my son! I love sitting by him while he was learning. He enjoyed math, and learning to read, and we both loved our read aloud time together. He didn't seem to mind sitting at his little desk through all of those lessons...looking back I would have done it very differently. Little boys don't always do well at sitting still for long periods of time, and the all those lessons in math and phonics stretch out for long periods of time, but I didn't know any better, and he didn't seem to mind.
We started out with a fairly structured schedule in those early years... Up early, chores, school.
Whenever we were doing school, my sweet little 2 year old daughter was right by our side. In fact whenever J left his desk, even for just a moment, M would hop in his seat and start writing on his papers, he would get so mad at her. :)
Well once we decided homeschooling was for us, we decided to become a part of our local homeschool group. They always had a meal at the park to start the school year, and at that time would choose leaders, for the following year, from those present. Well that first evening, I and 3 others were chosen to plan the activities, and put together to new directory of homeschoolers in the area. They chose me and 2 other new homeschoolers, along with a sweet lady who had been homeschooling for a couple of years. I was a little hesitant, because I felt like I really didn't know what I was doing, but we had a great time working together that year. It was so much fun to be closely involved with others who were just starting out on this journey!
The group consisted of around 50 families (although there were probably closer to 20 that participated regularly), who got together a few times each month for field trips, craft time, and social activities. This was such a fun group to be a part of. Most of the families were from our community, people that I already knew of, but didn't really know. We made some good connections, and enjoyed the fellowship as fellow homeschoolers.
By that time we had three little ones 4 and under. I felt that I had my hands full, and I did, but looking back, those were the easy years. :) Caring for small children is physically challenging, but I later realized that those years were not near as stretching as when your children get older and you need to not only teach, but be a good example in your actions. You need to live your faith, if you want them to claim it as their own. Hindsight is 20/20 ya know.
I felt God was calling me to give up things that may cause my children to walk down the wrong path....many would call my actions extreme, but to me, it wasn't worth putting my children at risk, to have any movies, books, tv shows, or activities available to them, that may cause them to become numb and unseeing to the sin around them. I wanted them to have a clear picture of right and wrong, good and evil.
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