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with her two children in the public school system. I looked at my own family: Just by being the mom I thought I should be, and loving my children they way I did, my oldest daughter(Alexa) was 3 1/2 and reading, writing, adding and subtracting, and navigating herself on the computer and Internet. It was then; I decided I would not allow any institution to hold my children back from their full potential.

We played together, read together, and talked all the time. Soon her younger sister joined us. Just by being there when her sister was playing or reading, Taylor developed a love for learning and acquiring new information. She struggled with reading, however, her fine-motor development, and social skills, advanced far beyond my expectations.

Over the next 4 years, gradually, I lost that initial instinct I had. As Alexa approached the age most kids start attending school, my mind became weighed down with overwhelming thoughts. I worried about how much time she spent "doing school", and the subjects she was learning, her grades, and where she stood alongside her peers. Taylor had also begun struggling in many areas. "School time" became an overwhelming chore in our house, and was almost always accompanied with some sort of conflict. We had also added two more children to our family by that time, and I started to re-evaluate why I began homeschooling in the first place.

During the spring of 2007, I decided to take our first ever summer break. We would do NOTHING that we thought to be "schooly". I decided to do this after reading, "Just Enough Light for The Step I'm On", by Stormie Omartian. In it, she wrote about goals and dreams, and surrendering EVERYTHING to God. While in the process of surrendering your hopes, plans, and dreams; she suggested you submit yourself to the guidance of our Lord. Also, that you stop pursuing those dreams during the time, and not focus on them at all.

So, while I submitted myself, and my children, to God's care and wisdom, we took a break from forced learning. Over the summer I noticed that little light coming from my kids. They often chose learning type things to do over play type things. They started to love life, each other, and learning; again. They chose to read, write, draw, and ask questions-on a regular basis.

I started to look around on the Internet, into different ways to home-school, different teaching philosophies, and learning styles. I came across an article on un-schooling. It sounded exactly like what I had done with Alexa.

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