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Friday, May 9, 2008

Strangers in society

We are an Eastern Orthodox christian, homeschooling, stay-at-home mom family. To a lot of people, we are strange. Just choose one of those things and we are already different than the majority, now couple them together and, Boy! Do we stand out! People don't always 'get us'. That is not really a problem, for us, but sometimes people are sort of hostile about one or all of those things that we choose to do. Why? We are not forcing anyone else to be like us, we are just trying to live our lives. Jay often brings up to me that for a lot of people to even consider what we are doing, they have to rethink what they are doing and must also consider that what they are doing may be wrong. Somehow we are threatening to their lifestyle through our silent statement of our life choices. I am not saying that anyone is wrong in their choices, we are all on our own journeys and paths, everyone has their own freewill. I suppose I just can't figure why it is so blatantly alarming for people.
We are Orthodox christians and in no way push it in anyone else's face. Whether or not anyone perceives us this way, we will never know.
We homeschool Katherine...well, school as most people think of it is not what we do. We do not sit down at a specified time to do studies of any sort, unless Katherine asks to do it, or we are reading a book. When she is a little bigger, she may have a bit more structure, but for now, she is learning just fine without a regimented day. She is naturally curious, as most kids tend to be, and she asks questions, so we answer her in age appropriate language to her satisfaction. Some days she has TONS of questions and others, not a one, outside of, "Please, could I have a chocolate?" We have routine without being strapped to a clock. She is always learning something new and I hope it stays that way. Our wish is not that she be sheltered from reality and the 'real' world, it is simply that she is able to be a child and grow up to be capable of living in this world, prepared. We just figure that she has already been home 'schooled' for the first few years of her life, why stop now? =)
We have chosen to have me stay at home as the mommy, something that we talked about YEARS ago when we were first dating. Jay always thought it was nice to have a parent at home (his mom) and so did I and I also watched a number of kids over the years and wanted to really be the mommy. For some reason, that is odd to people, as if I am squandering my potential on 'merely' raising our daughter (hope to someday be with more babies)...I am worth SO much more, that is the message out there. I can have my cake and eat it too, what could be better, right? How silly I am being making such a choice! The funny thing is that there are a lot of people who think that way. I am grateful to God (not as often as I should be) that I am married to a man who is not only supportive, but encouraging. He stands up for what we believe and stand for, he is a real man, a man for his family.
So, all in all, we are strange and happy with it. Most certainly, we will never be anything but Orthodox christian and we will have to trust God in the rest of our choices, that His mercy continue. Slava Bogu! Alleluia! Praise God!

3 comments:

johnnyd said...

she did not mention that kat writes at 4 1/2 amongst other things. jay

h west said...

Man, you guys are weird.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you're weird at all :)

It seems quite normal to me for you to want to stay at home with your children and homeschool them. I think it is really wonderful that so many people are able to and willing to homeschool. Any tips on how to "homeschool" a two and a half year old to get him ready for school when he is older?