Assignment: Take time this week to write about YOU and your feelings of trials and triumphs with homeschooling. Touch on when you first heard about the concept of home schooling and whether you tip-toed into the idea or just jumped in and never looked back. Share your schooling as a child and how you compare it to what your goals are for your children.
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My first impression of homeschool was anything but positive. The only encounters DH and I had with the homeschool world was with a family who lived a very counter-cultural lifestyle to ours, or a family that had children who socially could not fit into the public school system. So, based on these two examples, our judgment was formed.
When our first child was born, I was wrapped in the bliss of being a first time, stay-at-home mom. I would cuddle my little fella and say, "what shall we do today?" I wanted to find activities that we could do together that would enrich our days. I began to research online, different things to do. I kept encountering statements that would say something to the effect, "this would work well for homeschool families." From these encounters, I was beginning to see that homeschool was not necessarily a reactive action based on the failure to adapt in the "traditional" school environment, but that it was a proactive action; a decision made with much deliberation, and faith.
Once I was able to shake my initial negative perceptions, I began to look at other websites that were dedicated to homeschooling. I also found myself pregnant with our second child. The many nights staying up with small children gave me the time to read and learn and grow and discover that this is what God had planned for our family. Now if only He could convince DH.
(A couple years later, He did!)
Goals for my children:
- That they grow to become the men God intends them to be, and that we, as a family, will be able to discern what that is
- That they love learning and that the thirst for knowledge is never extinguished
- That they realize that they are not the only ones on this earth and that they are in a position of privilege and with that privilege comes the responsibility to care for others
- That they will create a similar legacy with their own children, as God calls them to
Trials and Triumphs:
Trials-
- Trying to get it all accomplished (school, household duties, fun, exercise, etc.)
- Forgetting God in the process. I need to go to Him first with everything, yet that is not what I always do.
- Trusting God that this is what I am supposed to be doing. The last thing I want to do is mess up my children.
Triumphs-
- The overwhelming knowlege that this is what I am supposed to do. When the little doubts creep in, God provides the support and comfort in acknowledgement that I am heeding His call
- Seeing the kids grasp a new concept and their own excitement at knowing they "got it".
- Being able to correct their behavior at the moment it occurs and not hearing about it later. At the same time, they hold me accountable with my own behavior.
- The classroom is not limited to four walls. We learn anywhere, everywhere.
Share your favorite scripture in your post. (one of many)
Matthew 22:37-39
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Not bad, huh?!
To be a kid again…
‘F’; I just wanna squeeze those cheeks!
‘A2’, cute girl!
‘A1’ is a mountain goat!
