The man he's become

When Danny was 4 years old, I met a mom who had 5 kids and homeschooled. I thought she was so.......WEIRD! Then my friend Teri invited me to a school board meeting. The local public schools were starting this thing called Outcome Based Education. Everything I read about it sounded bad. So I went to two meetings, and when I figured out that the parents had no say, and that the school would do exactly what it wanted, I decided to take a second look at homeschooling. I borrowed a big box of old Teaching Home magazines. I went from "These people are weird" to "We can do this with God's help!". I really felt this is what the Lord was leading us to do. Ralph, however, was not convinced. I talked him into letting me try to do a preschool program with Danny and just see if I could teach him anything. So I quickly sent off for the Bob Jones K-4 preschool program and we dug in. Danny probably wasn't ready for all of it, but he did enjoy the one-on-one time with Mom while Cara napped. I was determined and we got through every last part of that program. (I am much more relaxed now with my little ones; poor Danny was the oldest and so he had to put up with my misguided perfectionism). Ok, so when it was time for kindergarten, he wasn't the reading genius I was hoping for, but he did know his letter sounds and was starting to sound out little tiny words. So Ralph and I figured we couldn't hurt him too bad doing kindergarten at home, and if it didn't work out, he could go to school for first grade......

Now that little boy is just about to finish his first year at Folsom Lake College. We homeschooled him all the way through highschool and don't regret one minute of it. There were times when I thought I would mess him up, or that he wouldn't learn enough, or that I would somehow ruin him for life, but God was gracious and He saw us through the work that He began. By the way, Ralph totally came around to homeschooling and wouldn't have it any other way.

I am so proud of the young man that Danny has become. He loves his siblings, he loves his parents, and most importantly, he loves the Lord. He is just a nice guy to be around (and pretty smart too!). So here are my oldest and youngest, just having fun together.

Jackson adores Danny!