We’re a homeschooling family that used funds from a charter school. If you’re not, don’t leave just yet. I think this still might apply to you.
When we first decided to home educate our kids, it was for a couple reasons.
Our oldest son was in first grade, and needed to be more challenged in school. He was doing 3rd grade math, but the teacher couldn’t accommodate him while trying to teach to 20 other students. I totally get that. Our 2nd oldest was in kindergarten, and was getting in trouble nearly every day. He just. wouldn’t. sit. on. his. carpet square! We decided to pull them out for the final semester of that year to try doing school at home. Initially, we signed up with a charter school to be an “umbrella” over us. (They will remain unnamed to protect the {kind of} innocent.) I felt kind of lost, and thought the support would be beneficial.
Along with that came the financial incentives–we would receive about $600/semester for each of one our kids that were currently in school to use for curriculum, extra curricular activities, etc. During the first meeting with our Education Specialist (E.S.), the E.S. noted that our son was adopted, and I mentioned the struggle he had in a traditional school setting. She said with a sympathetic look, “Oh, that is probably because of his background. He’s probably carrying a lot of baggage.”
That just rubbed me the wrong way.
I’m sure she didn’t mean anything offensive by it, but I was a little put-off. She didn’t know anything about his background. Nothing. She did see the color of his skin, however. I decided having a partnership with this lady was not something I wanted. So, we pulled out of the charter school and decided we would be independent for that one semester.
It was fine. We finished out that semester, went through summer, and then found a different charter school to go through. You see, that financial incentive beckoned us. $1200/year per child is a lot of money. We could sign our kids up for music lessons, swim lessons, classes, and still have money for all the curriculum we needed. I felt good with our decision.
I loved our E.S.
She would come visit us once a month, collect some work samples, and do a little writing assignment with the kids, or some other fun, educational game. She was awesome with our kids. For the amount of effort I had to put in, the money was well worth it. Our son even got a drum set through the charter school (on loan, of course).
Then, last year, I started to feel differently. The school was starting to be more rigid about their requirements and re-emphasized that we were not allowed to submit any Christian curriculum or work samples. I felt a very small nudge that maybe it was time to move on. I ignored it. After all, the money. Now, in case you don’t know, Superman (my husband) is a public school teacher, and I stay at home. We don’t have loads of extra cash rolling around, even with the best money making apps we use for extra income, and I knew if we left the charter school, there would be no way to continue music lessons, history classes, online classes, and we would have to pay for all their curriculum.
Each time I met with our E.S. (again, I adore her), I felt more and more strongly that there was a conflict brewing somewhere in me. I casually mentioned to Superman that I was thinking maybe we should leave the charter school. He said he would think about it, but that in order for our kids to do everything they were doing at the time, we needed that money. There just wasn’t any wiggle room in our budget.
One night things changed:
Then, one night, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, and I felt as if I heard God audibly say to me, “Do you trust me, or do you trust the charter school to provide for your needs?” Ouch. That was some good truth spoken right there. I turned over and told Superman I really felt strongly that God wanted us to step out in faith on this one. It was almost like God was challenging me to see if I would step up to the plate.
The next day, we sat down with our kids and told them. We said for the time being, we would have to halt all extra curricular activities. No music lessons, no swim, no online classes. I felt the worst for our 2nd son who absolutely adores music and knew he would have to give back his drum set. We’re planning to enroll him in a music making course soon.
I told them: “This is an opportunity for us to allow God to work. If we continue to allow the charter school to pay for everything, how is God ever going to show how awesome He is?” I told them I was excited…getting back to schooling the way I loved instead of having to constantly think, “How am I going to make a work sample out of this?” was freeing. I couldn’t wait to enjoy my kids again instead of just being their teacher and trying to model the traditional way of schooling at home.
That was 6 months ago.
You know what? God has miraculously provided. I’m not even sure how, and when we look at our budget, I’m still not exactly sure how we will provide the things we want for our children. But I know He will.
Music is a high priority for us. Our 2nd oldest has wanted to be a worship leader since he was 3 years old. THREE. Now, will he grow up to be a worship leader? I have no idea. But God has put music on his heart, and it is our job to help guide him in his gifts and talents and hopefully help him draw nearer to God through those talents. If my boy would rather listen to our church’s worship pastor instead of some other crazy music with questionable lyrics, I’m gonna seize that opportunity!
Music provides structure and connection for our kids. We’ve found two incredible young adults at this page who are willing to invest into our kids by doing guitar, piano and music class with them. And you know what we told our kids? God dropped these two teachers into our laps. He knew this was important to us, and He provided it.
It’s time to wait on God.
There are a lot of things we’d like our kids to be involved in, but we are waiting on God to provide for those things. It’s teaching our kids that patience is a learned trait. We can’t have everything we want, right when we want it. Sometimes, God will provide with a resounding “yes!” Other times, we might get a gentle “no.”
Leaving the charter school was the single best decision we’ve made in our homeschooling journey.
It has opened up a world of possibilities, and given us the blessing of allowing our kids to see God work when we make room for Him to do so.
I’m not saying there should be a mass exodus from charter schools. Obviously, we were with a charter for 4 years, and I never had a problem with it. However, if God is prompting you, talking to you, asking you to allow Him to work, you may want to pause and listen. Living in comfort isn’t always the best decision. Living by faith is always the best decision. We’re not all called to do the same thing, but we’re all called to do something. What is it you are being called to do?
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