We are extremely blessed in our family; my wife and I were given four wonderful gifts from God: two sons and two daughters. All of them are active in their churches, all of them graduated from college, and between them we have ten grandchildren. Six of the ten graduated from public schools and all are doing very well. That is why I was so terrified when I was told these four would not be “going to school.”
Dear Dad,
I am not sending your grandkids to school. John and I have decided to homeschool the kids.
That is what the letter from my youngest daughter said. I thought: “There is no way they are going to homeschool my grandkids. My son’s wife is a public school teacher, my sister is a public school teacher, and it seems that half of the ladies at our church are schoolteachers. What are they thinking? How are the kids ever going to get into college?”
My wife was not as concerned as I was. “After all,” she reasoned, “our son-in-law is an ordained minister, and our daughter is a college graduate—if she is qualified to teach in a public school, I guess she should be qualified to teach school in her home.”
I still wasn’t convinced.
These were my precious grandkids we were talking about: three beautiful little girls and one very handsome little boy. I just knew God had great things in store for them, and if they didn’t get a good education that would ruin everything. I groused and I prayed and I watched.
Soon . . . twelve years passed by, and then it was time for Rachael to try to get into college. Her SAT scores were very good and she had no trouble at all getting into college. I thought, “Okay, let’s see if she can do the work.”
Then there was her little brother; he says he wants to be a pastor like his dad. That is wonderful, but he can’t do that without a degree. He not only was accepted into college, but he also got the first two years paid for with a scholarship.
This year Rachael graduated in the top 10 percent of her class. She was hired at the school where she did her student teaching and is now teaching third grade at a public school. We just helped her move into a beautiful apartment. Now Grandpa is praying that she will meet a nice, professional, Christian, young man.
Jonathan will be a senior next fall and is going on to get his master’s in divinity; he, too, will be graduating with honors. Sarah has just finished her freshman year, and her grades are extremely good.
Rebekah will be finishing high school this year, so let’s wait and see if she can get into college. Even an old grandpa (who must have been secretly born in Missouri because they had to show him) now knows. Show him, they did.
If there are any more “doubting Thomas grandparents” out there, listen to me. Things have been different for these four: they never played in a high school band, never went to Friday night football games, and they never did all of those things that I was so afraid that they were going to miss.
But . . . they never missed them.
My grandson won a state championship in chess. They have all four gone to nationals in fine arts every year. They have been to the Grand Canyon, they have been to Disney World, and they have seen Niagara Falls. Three of the four have lived and worked with missionaries in Germany and Australia. Rebekah is getting her high school finished while working with a missionary and his wife in Holland. Next fall she will enter a Christian college.
Rachael was employed as Youth Director of Fine Arts at a church while still in college. Rachael and Jonathan backpacked all over Europe for three weeks this summer before Rachael started teaching this fall.
Yep, Grandpa was on his knees a lot over the past few years, but the Lord is used to him being there about all ten of these young people. What it all boils down to is if you want to homeschool your kids, have them well grounded in the love of God, and if you spend a lot of time on your knees, they are going to be all right and Grandpa need not worry.
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, the trade magazine for homeschool families. Read the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com or read it on the go and download the free apps at www.TOSApps.com to read the magazine on your mobile devices.
George Dalton is first and foremost a born-again Christian. He is 72 years old and is married to Jean, his high school sweetheart. They have been married for fifty-four years. They are the parents of four children and grandparents of ten fine grandchildren. George owns his own business. He is an active member of the North Texas Christian Writers Association.
Publication date: August 15, 2012