3 Questions I get asked a lot

1) Do you miss teaching?

I hate answering this question because my answer is not what I feel like it should be. The truth is, No, I don't miss teaching. I taught for 9 years, and I loved it. There were so many hard, hard parts about it, but so many incredible moments that made up for the hard stuff. I had days where I felt so defeated and thought, Am I really making any difference at all to these students or to anyone for that matter? But I had many more days where the passion for teaching filled me up and encouraged me to the brim so that I had the courage to deal with the hard things.
BUT, the desire that drove me even more than being a teacher was to be a mom. It felt so right for me to make the choice to be home with my daughter, and thankfully I have a husband who fully supported that choice. So my days now are completely different than they were in my teaching days. I have less encouragement (just because when you're working with 25 students and twice as many parents, there are many moments of encouragement), but less discouragement (for the same reason), more time (some days), but less "me" time (every day), and such an incredibly strong heart tug for my 1 student that is more than the heart tug I felt for all my hundreds of students combined.

So, while I wish my answer was Yes, I miss it terribly, that wouldn't be accurate. God prepared me perfectly for being ready for this next stage, and I am so thankful that He gave me many full years of teaching so that I left my career (for a time) without feeling that it came too soon.

2) Will you go back to teaching someday?

Maybe. Well, probably, but most likely it won't be in the same way that I did it before. Since I have a Master's in Gifted Education, I would like to use that again in a part-time career. But my hope is to get all our kids (however many God blesses us with) into school first and then see if a door opens up for me to work in schools again. My only concern with that is that I don't want to work with kids so much that by the time I get home I have no energy for my own children. So, we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it.

3) Will you homeschool your children?

Probably not. That answer is very different from my answer years ago which would have been Definitely Not! Growing up, I wasn't around kids who had been homeschooled, so therefore I only knew of the stereotypes. That gave me an utter distaste for homeschooling. Even when I was teaching I still didn't think it was a great idea. But then I started hanging around more families who either had homeschooled or were currently homeschooling their children, and amazingly, their kids were fun, socially alert, involved in their communities, smart, well-dressed, and put-together (I always pictured homeschool kids as wearing skirts all the time with really long hair). And I started to become more intrigued about how they did that. The fact is that there are so many more options today with homeschooling and a huge supportive community around many of the families that choose to do that. So these kids are not isolated and seem to be thriving in that setting.

It has become a more attractive idea to me, however, I'm not sure that it'll work for our family. The one big reason is because- I Loved School! I loved having someone beyond my parents to please. I loved shopping for back-to-school supplies. I loved taking the school bus and packing a lunch. I loved competing with other students in academics. I loved having all my friends around me everyday. So, if our children are anything like me as a child, then I would hate to deprive them of that. But if life circumstances show us that it might be the best option for our family then I will definitely NOT go into it kicking and screaming like I would have a few years ago.