Why Am I Homeschooling our girls?!

Just like everything else in our little world I find myself defending myself on why we are homeschooling our girls. I just shrug my shoulders and say hmm, one more war huh?! We are homeschooling the girls for these reasons. First we will be traveling back and forth for possibly the next year depending on Chaz's healing. Second, we finally get to be a family. Third, we're in DC! Fourth, we need control over something in our lives right now.

We do not know what the next year holds. The girls have been attending Clarksville-Montgomery County schools (CMCSS) in TN since they were school age. The CMCSS school year begins Aug 6. We cannot return to TN until August 15th and we are only allowed to stay for up to a month. The Maryland school year begins right after Labor Day, at that time we will still be in TN. We also plan to return to TN for the Christmas season. Since we plan to do so much traveling, Chaz and I cussed and discussed and then talked to several other homeschooling parents and decided it was an option worth looking into. So we began looking. My friend Cassandra has one of the biggest advocates and has been such a blessing in helping us make this decision. She has been homeschooling for going on 5 years and has been through many trials and errors. We are so blessed to have her as our personal adviser. She is full of so much valuable information. It is great to have someone so knowledgeable in our corner.  

My second reason for homeschooling to me is the most important one. Chaz has been coming in and out of the girls lives all of their lives. Poor Deryn and Ryann have only known wars, deployments and separations. We have been given the gift of time together as a family. Chaz will have to go to appointments everyday, but every afternoon he will be with his girls. We get to have dinner together every night. We have only had this sporadically and we never knew how long we would have him. The girls have never had the opportunity to have their dad so often for an indefinite amount of time. It is the best part of this situation. As Ryann said the other day, "I am so happy Daddy's not going back to big work." (That's what she calls deployments). I myself have waited over 12 years to have Chaz in my life every day. I have had to give him up time and time again. But that will never happen again. Of course I am not happy that this is what had to happen so we could have him, but I am just so thankful to have him. He is the love of my life and we can begin enjoying our happily ever after now without interruptions.

Our third reason is that we are in DC. Holy moley we are in one of the most educational locations in America. We have so many resources at our finger tips the girls have a chance to learn so much in such a short time. The funny part is they don't even realize they are learning because they are having so much fun. We have plans for so many adventures. Of course there's the monuments and museums, but we have Mt Vernon, Montpelier, Monticello, Baltimore, Gettysburg, New York and Colonial Williamsburg within a very short driving distance away from us. Chaz and I haven't been to places so it will be a learning experience for our whole family. Of course those who know me best know I am way excited about all of this. But I get even more excited when Chaz and the girls get as excited as I do!

My fourth reason is that we need to have some control over our lives right now. Chaz and I don't know what's coming next. We don't know how long we'll be living here. We don't know when or if the next infection is coming. We don't know if he'll have anymore surgeries. We cannot control the timing of his healing and healing the human body is not something you want to rush. We have so little control over our lives right now that we need a positive place to focus our energy. We can control the girls education. We can spend time learning with them. We can travel to places and have tons of fun with our girls. Since we have something positive to focus on and it helps the days pass a lot more easily.

So there's our main reasons for homeschooling. Honestly we don't care about other peoples' opinions. We know that what we are doing for our girls is the best thing to do. However people keep asking why so here is why. I doubt we'll home-school the girls for the rest of their lives. We are very happy with the CMCSS school system and one day we will finally return to our home in Clarksville. Chaz plans to remain on active duty and we will stay at Ft Campbell so the girls will remain in that school zone. This is what we feel we need to do for our family right now.

Our little family has suffered a hard blow this year. Chaz and I want to enjoy our family right now. We want to spend all the time we can with our little cuties. They will of course still get social interactions. We are not going to lock them up and them only spend time with us. Kids need to be kids. I am currently looking for a gymnastics and /or dance studio for them to get out some of their energy. I am also going to contact the local Girl Scout council. In addition, they have already made several friends here and we'll continue those relationships. Chaz and I may not be perfect parents but we are blessed to be parents and we will celebrate that and enjoy everyday with our girls. Besides before we know it they will be teenagers going a hundred miles an hour and will barely acknowledge us. Time flies and we know that and before we know it, all of this will just be memories and we want it filled with great ones.