Homeschooling today: My Privilege!

I just had a wonderful day homeschooling my children and wanted to share.

Hannah is reading and writing and spelling... at 5. It truly amazes me. And the thing that really blows my mind... I have taught her to do all this!!! Me... Jennifer who couldn't stand school and could never see herself teaching her kids... ME!

I was doing school with Hannah today and it just hit me. I was calling out words and she was spelling them out, and it hit me that I was apart of her being able to do that. (Why now, I don't know) WOW. I wouldn't get this privilege if I sent her to a school where someone else would teach her. And I say privilege. I am very privileged to be able to have my children home and have the ability to teach them. This is something I do not take lightly.
I feel the need to stress that I don't think school's are evil. There are wonderful teachers in the schools. Many of my friends are teachers. I am just plain privileged!
Having this realization today has caused a deeper understanding of why a parent, if they are able, should teach their child. It is our responsibility to teach our children.
That is not to say that if your child is in school, you are an irresponsible parent. There are some cases where public/private school is the option. But I'm speaking of those that are able. Those that can. I think my conviction is on parents of young kids. The early years are so critical to build bonds with your children and teach your values. Not being able to afford the expensive private schooling and knowing that public schooling can't teach my children the values I want them to learn, homeschooling is a privilege I have.
Knowing it is a privilege also stems from a radio broadcast I heard from James Dobson.
This show was about the importance a father's role in homeschooling is, but the last 5 minutes is the part that got me. It was about a Treaty that has not yet been ratified that can drastically change the way we parent our children and the way we home school. This paragraph below is what Michael Farris had to say. You can listen to it here. (I listened to the conversation and wrote out what was said. It is not the entire conversation as one, but only the sentences that pertained to the topic I am writing about. All that to say, they are his words, not mine.)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is a UN Treaty that every country in the world except the United States and Somalia has ratified and our nation signed it when Bill Clinton was in office. If this bill becomes unratified and it becomes the controlling law in our nation it will radically change every aspect of the child and parent relationship according to the law. The education rules will change, the government will have to decide whether the parents educational choices are, in the governments opinion, in the best interest of the child. Because the UN controls the government. We lose family sovereignty, we lose national sovereignty, which is in essence self government, because when a nation's voters lose control of what the law is and what the rules are, we've lost everything. And that is what will happen with the UN Convention and the Rights of the Child. Right now the parents get to decide what is best for their child, but if the UN Convention and the Rights of the Child is adopted then the government gets to decide what is in the best interest of a child. So how does this effect the home schooled child? It's clear from the decisions of the committee on the Rights of the Child that parents making the decisions to opt their children out of the public school will receive special scrutiny. You will not be able to home school your child unless the UN thinks it's a good idea.

Here are some web sites that are about his issue to further your (and mine!) education.
UNICEF - Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Rights of the Child - Preamble
HSLDA - Search for UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Oh Lord I pray! this does not come to be and this extremely joyful experience is not taken away from me or Joshua. Joshua has been teaching the kids music. I need to get more pictures of our schooling days. Here is just a taste.