Making Decisions

We have decided to homeschool our kids. There are many decisions that just keep coming. We are also constantly evaluating what works best for our kids. When it comes to other people judging our choices, I'm not a fan. This is a response I wrote to a question about homeschooling and associating with others was posted in a group that I'm part of currently. (I decided that as long as I'm sharing some thoughts - I might as well keep track of them - especially since there are times I comment and it's the first time I'm putting the thoughts together in that way.)

First of all - anyone who is LDS should understand the answer of 'This is what Heavenly Father wants us to do with our family.'. (Although, I get when they don't - we've had 'members' think we're odd and a family member that is against it.) People are afraid of what they don't understand. They might just need some questions answered. As for being able to share the gospel - most of the non-members we know are homeschoolers. (We live in Salt Lake.) We have a couple of groups we participate with in our area. I love that we are able to have close friendships with these families. The two main things from that sentence - 1. friendship and 2. families. It takes a friendship to share the gospel (not just someone you sit across the aisle from in class) - reality is that no one considers every other student in the school their close friends. The other thing I love is that we associate with families - not just the peers that are all the same age as my children. Families are the basic unit of the church - you want to share the gospel with families. It's also easier to share it with them if they've had a chance to get to know your family and can see your example. They're more comfortable asking questions. When you know the whole family it's easier to invite them to an event/meeting or to have the missionaries teach them. If it's someone your child knows from school - it's an adult contacting another adult they don't know (or don't know very well) in order to get permission for an invitation to happen. It just doesn't feel quite as friendly. The invitation tends to not go as well if it's awkward. One last thing - community involvement. I think it's easier to work community service in when we are the ones in charge of the schedule. When our kids were at school from essentially 8-4, it didn't leave much time for anything else. That would be my two cents. (Sorry it ended up a bit lengthy.)