Home Sweet Homeschool

About Home Sweet Homeschool

Home Sweet Homeschool opened November 17, 2007, and is owned by Dan and Mary Horner. My heart (Mary) is to minister to parents. I believe many parents want to raise their kids in a godly home but do not have the resources, encouragement and support that is needed to carry out that great and awesome responsibility that God gave us. Of course the Bible is our number one resource we need to turn to for guidance in this area. Proverbs 22:6 is directed to the parent; "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it". The second resource we have are the family and friends around us....including your local church. There is so much wisdom in others who have "been there, done that". God gave us each other to do life together. Have a couple of mentors in your life to reach out to during the good times and the bad. Our third resource that so many neglect are the tons and tons of great books that are out there on godly parenting. So many do not even know that these books exist. Now, not all parenting books emphasis godly parenting, and some that claim that they do, really don't. We must use the disernment God gave us while reading such books. When an idea touches your heart make sure it lines up with the word of God and that peace fills your heart and spirit concerning the matter at hand.

I love to read and I love getting my hands on great parenting books. But what I love even more is sharing the insight, wisdom, and even the books themselves with others. That is a joy, a passion, and a lifestyle that I bring to Home Sweet Homeschool. Those who volunteer with us have that same joy of sharing with other parents great books, curriculum, videos and more. We hope you find what you are looking for here at Home Sweet Homeschool. If at first you do not see the item, please let us know and give us the opportunity to fill your request. Although we can not fill each request received we will, however, try our best to provide as many resources as we possible can.

About the Horner's

In December of 2002, we decided to homeschool our daughter, Sarah. She had begun her kindergarten year at the local public school. We can't say she brought home horrifying things but it was enough to make us evaluate our choice of education and began to realize how young one truly is in kindergarten. One of our goals as parents is to instill godly values in our children. This is something we were doing but we realized is was far too much to expect a 5 year old to stand on the values we were teaching. At the time I remember my husband, Dan, and I making the decision to homeschool until 2nd grade.

Well, 2nd grade came and at that particular time we decided we would play it year by year for each school year...if we had peace in our hearts to put Sarah and now Christian in public school we would do so....but we did not.

I was the children's director at our church and had gone full time when Sarah was about to enter 4th grade and Christian into 3rd grade. I did not think at the time I would be able to do both so we decided to put the kids in public school. I even went through the process of having their school changed to a different county...into the county I worked.

Christian had always been our child who took a little longer "getting it"; but once he "got it" he had it. I knew he was right on the verge of that with reading but the "got it" part had not happened. The principal informed me that the school did have a reading program and that Christian could take part in it. I was asked by his teacher to come in for a meeting the second week of school. Joined by three other ladies from the reading program, the meeting began by the teacher stating Christian was doing well in other subjects but he was definitely behind in reading. Then the ladies from the reading program shared that they believed, that for Christian, it was degrading to go into a 1st or 2nd grade room for reading. One shared "We do not believe Christian can make it to a 3rd grade reading level by the end of the school year." They went on to say that the choice was ours but that their recommendation was that Christian be placed in 1st or 2nd grade totally. I was now "hot" and could not speak, for if I did, I knew I was going to blow.

I can honestly tell you as Dan and I talked and prayed over this situation that night we were at total peace with homeschooling for many years to come. We realized through that experience how much we enjoyed homeschooling and noticed how much it had become part of our lives and part of our family. Why would we want to stop? We did remove the kids from that public school that week and we did make some schedule changes, and so many others since then. Life is about changes...and so is homeschooling. If you have homeschooled for any length of time you know what I mean.

Oh, and by the way, Christian "got it" several months later. At the end of the school year he WAS on a 3rd grade reading level and in his forth grade year he jumped to a 5th grade reading level. Sarah and Christian both love stories and enjoy being part of Home Sweet Homeschool's Book Club for kids. Dan is the facilities director for our church, Celebration Church, and has been in the construction field for many years. As a family we do so enjoy homeschooling and Dan and I love being part of our kids' life in this way.