Jumping off the Deep End

At our house we are jumping off the deep end and treading waters unknown. Some of them may be murky and some may be crystal clear. We are rethinking lots of stuff, which may shock lots of folks. Greg & I are discussing, praying, talking, and praying more.

We are rethinking education, specifically higher than high school education. Homeschooling is still happening at our home, after 14 years, I am not going to quit with the end in sight. The end of my high school days will be in 4 years. Thats right in 2014, I will have graduated from highschool 6 times, once personally myself, then with James, Allen, Katie, Will & Amy. But onto higher than high school education, How many of us actually use the degree we got from college? Could you still do the same job without a degree (thats a yes for alot of people)? Now, I guess its rare Greg & I actually use the degrees we attended school for. His is an engineering degree and he's an engineer with the State. Mine was a 2 year education diploma for being an assistant public school teacher or a lead private school teacher. But, if my goal 30 years ago had been to home school my children, then I didn't need a degree for that. And sometimes, after graduating with a 4 year degree, you can't use it till you get a Masters.

So, we are rethinking the future higher education plans for our 3 youngest children. We know that living on a campus is not going to happen. At least for a couple or more years. We are thinking about online classes (then we can still travel with Greg), taking community classes together, taking some business courses that could help us in our future business/es etc. We just don't know. This would affect Katie first since she graduates this year from high school. We are all leaning toward online or community classes. She is in this decision also. She would like to find some home ec type courses. We have also thought about apprentice opportunities with dance classes or younger grades co-op classes. We would all like to take some culinary classes and learn new kitchen skills..this includes Greg.

Another jump was made today into the sea of "no landline telephone". Yep, we cut it off. It will save us $40 a month and we can still keep the internet. Greg also went a step farther and signed us up for the new AT&T fiberoptic cable service and cut off direct tv. Saves another $40 or so a month. We are serious about finding ways to put more money on the mortgage payoff. Yes, we could have cut off the tv altogether but we aren't that drastic yet. I do remember the days of only 4 channels (in Atlanta it was 2,5,11 & 8) and if the President was on, your night was shot!

We are limiting & restricting internet access in our home. Both for protection of innocence and protection of time. We will have to work out all the kinks on this one. Sometimes the kids need it to research for projects, but cruising for whatever site has come to an end. And some of their subjects are on the computer but that doesn't involve the internet. Katie will need more access if she does online classes and Greg needs it for his Masters classes.

The girls are going to be learning more cooking and homemaking skills. I want them both to learn to sew some items from patterns...pj's/gowns, skirts, etc. We are going to be expanding the garden and canning more. They both want to be stay at home moms and homeschool their children, so we will be investigating skills that will help them in that future. Will is going to be learning some more kitchen skills also. He needs some basic sewing/mending skills such as sewing on a button. He and Greg are going to be working on woodworking projects and one will be building more garden boxes. We are praying the Lord reveals some business possibilities to us so we can tailor some learning around them.

If, in the future, a traditional college education will be needed, then it won't be too late. We are never too old to learn.