We Home School our children and it has been the best decision we have ever made.

I think the turning point for me was watching my wife, after a full day teaching other peoples kids, spend 2 hours a night with our son on homework, only to have him fail.

The school had placed him in a specialized class for most of his subjects and he was still failing. On more than one occasion his teacher, with tears in her eyes, would tell us about her concern for our son. The class was full of trouble makers and his heart was turning. He saw strength in those other kids, and was starting to become like them.

Even with all the work at home, he was failing, and he knew it. To add insult to injury, the school required all students, no matter what level they were at in each class, to take and pass the Standards Of Learning test. These kids had never even seen the material and were expected to pass. Of course the failed, driving home the message even deeper that they were stupid.

The last straw was the recommendation to place our son in “Special Ed” with the kids that can’t even control their own bodies. To this day I can’t grasp how they arrived at placing our son in that class because he simply learns differently? That was it for me, and we stopped the pressure at home to achieve standards that made absolutely no sense.

It was at that point we started seriously considering teaching our kids at home and made adjustments in our life to do it. Our son wasn’t stupid, he wasn’t out of control, he just couldn’t achieve with institutional instruction and frankly, I was glad he was an individual thinker.

What sealed the deal however was picking my son up to take him to the emergency room after being assaulted after choir practice. This was the second time in as many years, but this one required stitches. He was calling a friend of his “Brooky” and she didn’t like it, so she hit him over the head with her purse. The purse contained a glass bottle of perfume and split his head open. I still remember walking in to pick up my son, humiliated, bleeding, and sitting alone in the hall way. I knew at that moment this place was bent on destroying what was precious in him, and we had to rescue him.

We have never looked back.

My heart broke many more times down the road, as he started to share with us what his life at school was like. From the kids in the lunch room calling him a “fagot” because he sang in the choir, to being laughed at in gym class, the bus ride, the teachers. We were sending him to hell every moring, demanding he endure it, only to fail.

Today, today everything is different. Both our children have consistently achieved above their grade level since we took over their education without stigma, without ridicule, and without stitches. Our son plays guitar and sings as does our daughter on our worship team at church. They both have many close home school and public school friends and socialize just fine. In fact, our children have friends of all ages, not just their peer group, and our son has time to work part time at church. He has more money in the bank at 16 than I do at almost 40, and is thinking about starting his own business this year. I keep telling him the kids that ridiculed him one day will work for him.

School is still difficult, math is always a struggle, but we have our son and daughters hearts. I hate to think what kind of man my boy would have turned out to be had we left him in that environment. I do know the anger and rage that was bottled up in him is now finally gone.

Home Schooling is hard work, but you can do it!

It requires sacrifices and there are many months we feel that sacrifice as we try to compete with double income lifestyles around us. I can live with not giving my kids the latest new iPod, but I can’t live with someone else teaching them.

Virginia is an excellent place to Home School. Home Educator Association of Virginia has all the information you need to get started. I am sure there are other sites for other states, and if you look you can get what you need.

Finally, I believe that the responsibility to teach children is ours, not our governments. I see no value, and great trepidation in placing our kids in the hands of government to mold and shape into what suits them. You know your child. They were given to you by a loving God to raise because you know what is best for them.

You can do it!