by Janel Thompson

My husband and I never set out to homeschool and in many ways we were against it. We both attended public school and saw no reason for it to be different for our children.

As young adults, my husband and I worked in youth ministry and loved teenagers. A couple students were homeschooled and although they were polite, helpful teens, at times they experienced difficulty relating to their peers. High school kids have a tendency to be absorbed in what’s going on in their world, a world that evolves around school activities (dances, band practice, teachers). I felt for them because they were good kids, but occasionally struggled to make friends at a time when, as a teenager, friends seem vital.

Being a military family, we move at least every three years, sometimes more. In eleven years of marriage, we have lived in five different states, a foreign country, eight homes, and have spent nine out of the eleven years separated at some point during that year. Sometimes the separation was only a total of four months, other times over seven months. Currently we are going through our longest separation of 15 months.

It was during our move from Spain back to the United States that we started thinking about schooling for our boys. Our oldest was five and could have entered kindergarten but all the change was causing a lot of anxiety on my part and as a result, we decided to wait and just enroll him in the fall. He would be an older kindergartener and there was peace in the idea of waiting.

As it came closer to the time to enroll him in school, a number of events happened that led both my husband and I to be uncomfortable with the school he would be attending. We explored private schools in the area and toyed with a cross town transfer but after many weeks of talking and trying to just be at peace with the neighborhood school, my husband suggested, “Maybe we’re supposed to just homeschool this year.”

In our marriage, God has taken many of the areas that we said, “I’d never want to …” and changed our hearts to embrace those very things we were set against. As we both considered the idea of homeschooling, we prayed, we sought counsel from teachers, talked with other parents who homeschooled, and started searching the Internet. When the decision was made, I jumped in with two shaky feet.

Scared that I would ruin my son, I decided to call another military wife that I respected. I had met this woman at chapel in Spain and now I am convinced that God let our paths cross so my husband and I could see a successful family homeschool. The children in this family were the kind of children that you want your kids to play with. They were bright, friendly, kind, well behaved, and polite. As a young mom, I watched this Christian woman and asked God to help me be like her in her devotion to God and her family.

So as we launched into the homeschool unknown, I called her and asked her for information on the Why’s and How’s of homeschooling. She calmed my fears, gave me some direction, and opened my eyes to some benefits that I had not considered. As the days went on, we decided on curriculum, came up with a plan, and set out to homeschool – but just for that year.

It’s been four years and now I have three school age boys, a two-year old daughter, and I’m still homeschooling. We are convinced this has happened only because God changed our desires to match His desires for our family.

It is easy to look from the outside and say, “How do you do that?” “Isn’t it overwhelming?” “Don’t you want a break?” The big picture can be overwhelming, but I’m learning and I constantly remind myself that it’s just one day at a time. Each year I come close to the end of the school year and wonder whether to continue and for now, I believe that God continues to direct us along the path we are traveling. It’s the times that I try to have all the answers, consider all the “what if’s,” and stay in control of all the craziness around me that I think, I can’t do this!

Over the years, we have experienced so much joy in watching and being a part of our boys learning. From walking beside them and teaching them to read and write to helping them learn and understand simple algebra, it has been quite a challenge and at the same time incredibly rewarding.

One of the benefits that we never considered when we set off on this journey is the flexibility to do school wherever we are. I am a structured person and I like to have a plan to follow, so we chose a curriculum that breaks down each subject into lessons for the entire year. The beauty of homeschooling is that we can work for weeks straight on the same sort of schedule as a child that attends public or private school. If my husband is home, we can spend time as a family or if he’s at sea, we can travel home and be supported by extended family when he is gone. We can even travel with him if it’s permitted.

We’ve had times that we traveled out of state or even locally and taken some or all of our schoolwork with us. We have had school in hotel rooms, done reading in the car, and had the boys work independently on class work as we fly. We have used vacation time for field trips as the boys learned to kayak and fish. One of my favorite class activities was touring the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory to learn how they make ice cream. When traveling, we’ve been able to incorporate visiting historical sites and the boys experienced history hands on. Even trips to the beach or the mountains can contain some sort of science lesson.

Before you get the idea that we are constantly working and teaching, please note that our trips don’t have forced teaching times. Natural learning opportunities arise and we monopolize on them and we sometimes use free time to work on school lessons, but for the most part our travels are for enrichment and pleasure, times to be a family. Our field trips and vacations have been able to make bookwork become real and alive, but we rely on our curriculum to make sure all of our learning objectives are covered. This releases us from the pressure to make teaching situations happen and gives us the flexibility to travel as a family and enjoy our times together. It also has made learning and discovery a natural part of our family time together. If we don’t do any written work the entire time we are away then we have the freedom to go back to our lesson books to pick up where we left off. It’s a way for us to be a family and accomplish school at the same time.

With the unpredictability of the military, our family has used homeschooling to help create security, consistency, and predictability. In this last year, the boys finished their allotted lessons; but we were able to drive cross-country and take in the vast landscapes of the United States. We experienced the flare of Spring in New England and the hospitality of the South, we took a trip through California to experience its history and culture, and we discovered the beauty of the Washington coast. All of these events were possible without having to be concerned with matching school schedules or missing classes.

In the year to come, there remains the possibility that we may take our family and travel to the Middle East to live with my husband for a month while he is between deployments. So, other than the hoops that any parent traveling out of the country has to jump through, I can just pack our bags and schoolwork and go.

After saying goodbye to her husband for a 15-month tour, Janel packed all her possessions and relocated the family from the east coast to the west coast to be closer to relatives and receive family support for herself and the children. Janel has also written an article for Decision Magazine and may be contacted at j_j_thompson@hotmail.com.