1 reason why I homeschool+giveaway*CLOSED*

If you're a follower of my blog then you've probably gotten the impression that I adore Vision Forum. Such great stuff for personal and homeschool use is available on their website and through their catalog. I'm a avid Vision Forum shopper (when money allows of course.) I had ordered the book below to get some inspiration for homeschooling next year. I'll be starting Layton in kindergarten, Timber in preschool and Wyatt in.......9th grade! Yikes!
Wyatt has been attending public school (with 1 year of private school thrown in there around 5th grade) and Gavin and I have decided that next year I will start home schooling him. This has been a decision that I've been praying about for a while. For those of you who don't know already, Wyatt is my stepson. Gavin and I married shortly after his 7th birthday. At that point, I really hadn't given much thought to school. Wyatt went to a public school and that was that. Over the past 4 years though I have begun to think about what I wanted to do for Layton. It has just been a natural progression that I've come to the conclusion that I wanted to homeschool my little kids.

I started to wonder, "What are my little kids going to think about Wyatt going away to school everyday and them staying home?" I guess I just figured I'd have to explain to the little ones that Wyatt had been going there for a long time and there was no sense in pulling him out so late in the game. Then it hit me (don't ask me why it took me so long to realize this) why would I not be willing to send my little kids to government school but I'd feel o.k. sending Wyatt? Why wouldn't I be as vigilant guarding his heart and his mind? I must be crazy!
Of course, it then hit me that I'd be starting homeschooling, beyond preschool, with a high school kid! At that point, fear set in. How am I going to begin in high school?? It sounds much easier to start at kindergarten and work your way up rather than be thrust into a 9th grade curriculum. So I prayed, and prayed and prayed. And Gavin prayed. Was this the right thing to do?

God was so gracious to show me very clearly that homeschooling was indeed what I needed to be doing with Wyatt. From the stories he'd come home with, to the sick to my stomach feeling I'd get when I'd drop him off at school in the morning occasionally. See, Wyatt usually rides the bus to school but once in a while I'll actually drive him there. I realized that not taking him to school directly was making it easier for me. The bus was a crutch. After all, he just got on happy as a lark and then drove away. I wasn't making the direct correlation between him and school. Once I had to actually take him to school, as we drove up and waited in line to drop him off, this heavy knot feeling was welling up in my stomach. I wanted to just keep driving through and not drop him off. I wanted to just say, "You're not going to school there today" as I drove back home.

I am now very excited to be starting high school with him next year. The Lord has really given me a peace about it, a confidence that yes, I can do this!
A terrific little help to me has been the Vision Forum book, "Building a Winning Curriculum." This book puts together ideas and suggestions for you through each subject using the resources available on their web site. I have decided that I will be using this curriculum for Wyatt's history next year and I can't wait to start it!

If you'd like to win a copy of "Building a Winning Curriculum" for yourself, or someone you know that may be new to homeschooling then please follow these rules:

This giveaway is open to everyone!
Giveaway ends February 18th at 8pm PST
For 1 entry, please leave a comment below; any kind of comment is fine.
For a 2nd entry, please Facebook or Tweet about the giveaway and leave another comment telling me that you did
For a 3rd entry, please blog about it and leave another comment telling me that you did
Winner will be drawn randomly by Random.org on or around the 19th.