"Are you going to homeschool your children?"

Because of the fact that I was homeschooled from preschool through 12th grade with my only other education experience being the college classroom, I've fielded a plethora of questions about homeschooling in my quarter of a century on this planet. Luckily, a lot of those questions come from people who are genuinely interested in my experience with homeschooling and can lead to enjoyable conversations. Sadly, I've also had conversations where I've felt like the person I was talking to cared more about finding a way to prove that homeschooling is a poor choice rather than being open and interested in my experience. And sometimes I get to field questions that I find completely ridiculous, like "How did you get into college if you didn't have an education?" or "Did you actually do anything all day, or did you just watch TV?".

My favorite people to talk to about homeschooling are young parents. Usually they're asking because they're actually interested because of their children. When I talk to single people my own age about it I tend to find that people will fight for whichever "side" they experienced, be it private, public or homeschool. And I'm not interested in fighting over which is better, homeschooling vs classroom, because neither is better.

When my parents had to decide about how to educate me, they followed the path that they felt God was leading them to, and that was homeschooling. And because of that, homeschooling was the perfect situation for me. If your parents felt like God was leading them to put their kids in public school, then you were exactly where you should have been all of those years. And if your parents didn't pray about how to educate you, then I'm sure that God will work with what you give Him. Kidding, kidding. ;)

When it comes to the question "Are you going to homeschool your children?", I don't want to answer that question right now anymore than I want any of my "public school friends" to answer their version of that question (not that they get asked). When the time comes, my husband and I will pray about what God wants us to do with our children, and we'll do it. If that means public school, then public school it is. But let's stop pretending that we know that one option is definitely better than the other, or that we're definitely going to be raising our kids one way or the other. There are specific situations, specific people, specific callings from God, and all of those things should impact such a decision. So how about we all wait until our time comes to make the decision and worry about it then? And in the meantime, let's stop acting like public vs homeschool is a valid debate. In my book, it's not.

Now if you want to ask the question "How involved should parents be in their children's lives and education?" I'd be all for talking about that! If more people would focus on that question instead I think we'd be getting somewhere.

I feel inspired to write a blog post with some of the ridiculous and/or humorous questions I've been asked about homeschooling. I just might do that one of these days.

The Android apps that make my smartphone world go round

I'm a fan of smartphones and use mine to organize a lot of areas of my life. I particularly like having it when I'm out and about to take care of getting things done, like responding to emails if I'm waiting in line. But I also try hard to be someone who puts my phone away when I'm with people so that I focus on them, rather than my phone.
Whenever a friend gets a smartphone for the first time they're always asking me which apps to install first. Everyone is different, but here's what I love.


No Lock - This isn't actually an app that I interact with at all, but I use it everyday. It keeps my screen from requiring me to swipe in order to get to my home screen when I want to use my phone. I don't ever want to go back to the swiping thing (and why in the world isn't there a setting for that built into the OS? Eh?).
Blink - I use this to change which color my LED light blinks depending on what kind of alert it is (blue = text message, green = personal email, red = camp email, etc).
Kindle - So that I can read no matter where I am.
YouVersion - The Bible. Gotta have it.
Google Maps - Best thing ever for looking for the closest XYZ when I'm out and about. Or for just figuring out where exactly I am.
Cut The Rope - My waste-my-time game of choice.
Quick Office - My text editor of choice.
Barcode Scanner - I think that all phones should come with this already installed. It's how you scan all those QR codes that you see around, and also a great way to scan barcodes in stores to try to find cheaper prices.
Volume Control - I use this app purely for it's widget that allows me to toggle between my sound settings quickly with a couple of taps of my finger.
ColorNote - I use this to put post-it notes on my home screen.

Obviously I use Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and other such common apps on a regular basis. And there are plenty of fun apps to play with, like Sleep for Android or Google Sky Map. But the ones listed above are the extra ones that I've added that I would be sad if I ever had to live without.