Where's the Breach?

*This article is posted with permission from its author, Brandy Pack, and was originally posted HERE.

If you look up the word "breach" in the dictionary here are some definitions you might find there

1. The act or result of a break; or rupture
2. An infraction or violation of trust, or a promise.
3. A gap made in a wall or fortification; rift or fissure.
4. A severance of friendly relations.
5. The upsetting of the normal and desired state.

I have always know about home schooling, after all my sister has done it for years, but I never thought about doing it myself until a couple of years ago. I didn't think I could home school my kids and give them the education they needed. Jake has always been a very hyper child and people told me that it would be good for him to go to school. My sister told me I didn't have to send them to school, but I was afraid that my smarter than average children needed what the public school could provide. I was ignorant of the many advantages there are for children that home school!


Back in the fall of 2006 my husband and I sent our children to school just like we had done the last 3 years before. Jake was going to third grade and Jordan to second. Emily was three and I had not even thought of doing anything different with her than I had with them. I never did enjoy taking them to school at the end of vacation because I missed them when they were gone. I worried them just like any good mother would, but mostly I missed having them with me.

I began to notice things about my children and what public school was doing to them…to our family. Jake had been labeled as an ADHD child. Different teachers had encouraged us to try medicating him. We did try it but the ones available at the time made him sick. Although Jake was the top reader in the whole 2nd and 3rd grade most of the time (a few times he was second), teachers and students alike mistreated Jake because of his attention and hyperactivity problems. I had never been able to get a lot of information out of Jake about the different things that happened in school. I did eventually learn that Jake had been educated about several things we wouldn't have allowed to be talked about in our home, especially not for such a young child. Jordan, who had always been sweet, kind, and loving, started having a lot of headaches and mood swings. She was easily swayed to be more like the world by the popular children around her. I could see how this might progress into a serious problem. Neither of the school going children had time for baby sister that waited anxious everyday for their home coming.

A few months later it was time to start Christmas shopping. I was having a hard time thinking of things to get them for gifts. It was then I realized we had a small "breach" in our family! I spent so little time with my children I had no idea what they really would love for Christmas. I got to noticing how lacking their education was in comparison to what it should be. As a Christian it was important to me for my children to really know God, yet because of school hours and homework that "had" to be done there wasn't enough time left for bible study. The bond between my children was growing weak. More importantly the bond I had with them wasn't able to grow properly because there was no time for us to be together.

I began to feel I had "breached" my promise to God in bringing up my children in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6;4). Our family bond had gaps in it. It had been breached! The friendly relations between our children were being severed a little at a time. In other words, the normal and desired state of our family was being upset.

I started looking into what could be done to fix the problem. As the mother and home manager I could see what problems we could have in the future because of the breach. As with a breach in a river or fissure in a dam, the cracks just get bigger over time if it isn't fixed. I began looking into what was involved in home school. I read books, I talked to people of all walks of life. I searched the internet for anything that might help. I prayed many times a day that God would help me and my husband find the answer.

I talked with my husband about what I could see happening and how I felt about the direction things were moving. I showed him all the things I had learned and we decided in January of 2007 that we would not send the children back to public school the next year. We decided to take one year off from public school to home school our children. In doing this we had begun to "Repair the Breach"!