I've shared before about my oldest dd's desire to go to school, any school anywhere, as long as it's not homeschool. Well, this week she went to a 4H camp that was offered by the state. Last year she had a buddy from the county that she knew and she had a blast. However this year, she went on her own as none of her friends could make it. When she got home one of the first things she shared was that there were a couple of girls who swore like sailors almost constantly, except when the adults were around. She was horrified and spent much of the 3 days she was there trying to avoid them. She was also a bit taken aback by the dress choices of many of the other girls. She told me "I feel like I spent 3 solid days at a public school and I didn't like it. I don't want to get to the place where I don't have the swearing bother me. I don't want to get to where I am not conscious of it. Please mom, don't ever put me in public school. I never want to have to go there. " (this is a disclaimer: We are not super picky about dress. My dd wears modest, but stylish clothes, jeans, capris, tees, longer shorts, etc. We also are not super picky about language. I mean we don't swear, but we do use slang. We also have a variety of friends many of whom are in schools, public and private.) I think the scales kind of fell off my dd's eyes. She found out that in school settings, many of the kids are not like the girls that she knows from church that go to school. There are some nice ones, but some that bug you, some that offend you and some you cannot stand. And you can't always avoid those you don't want to be around. Although I hate that my dd had to be in that kind of an atmosphere for 3 days, I am praising God that 1. She is the kind of kid that will choose not to be around it, and 2. He used it to open her eyes as to what she would be exposed to in a school setting. Just thought I would share that. In the past, my dh and I were concerned about sending her to those kinds of events that were not monitored by a "christian" organization, but I am thinking that this time, more good came out of it than I ever imagined.
So glad she was able to get the eye-opening experience in such a short period of time. This is one of the times you feel guilty for having such thoughts, but you are glad that things were not perfect. It helps in the long run.
wow, she showed a lot of maturity in this situation. You must be so proud of her! That kind of rock-solid conviction is what I want for my kids. Thank you so much for sharing. God sometimes uses the most unlikely settings for speaking to us.
Woo-hoo! Isn't that what we live for??? To see our kids grow into their own convictions and ultimately see the 'why' behind our choices for their education??? Way to go!
Glad she had some eye opening experience before you enrolled her in school. because that was only a hand full of kids........... there are so many other types of kids that wouldn't even bother to go to a 4 H camp.....
Thank you for sharing what happened! I am glad for you and yours and your story encouraged my heart! God is good.
You know, I've always worried htat she would just grow up believing that mom jsut never wanted her to have any fun, that mom was just a control freak, that mom kept her home and ruined her life....I am so happy that she sees that mom (for once) actually knew what she was talking about!
