Blogger Friend School - #101

 I am SO enjoying the Blogger Friend School assignments!  If the assignment below sounds like something you would like to do, check out the Blogger Friend School site and join in any time you wish!

Assignment: This would be a good week to tell about your worst struggles with a lifestyle of homeschooling.  Tell about something you’ve struggled with and how God’s mercies gave us the strength to get past it.  Also, share any curriculum/homeschool methods that have been a relief to you, i.e., a particular Teacher’s Manual or Homeschooling method that’s been easier for your family.  Talk about how you felt when the burden was lifted and Oh, What a Relief it is!

It didn’t take long for me to know what my worst struggle in homeschooling has been.  It’s ME.  ;-)  What’s the quote……motherhood makes us holy?  Something like that.  It’s easier if we don’t fight the whole way down the road!  I have had to drop so much baggage along the way, and still have a long way to go.  What’s so frustrating is that most of the issues I’ve had are petty when compared to getting to be at home with my kids all day, every day.

Like a clean house.  With six of us at home every day, it just can’t happen.  And I want the kids to automatically know how to dust, vacuum, or load the dishwasher.  Taking the time to show them has been something I have had to make myself do because my first instinct is to say, “you go load the dishwasher, I’m going to go fold the laundry.” When there is so much that could get done in a single day, it’s hard for me to take the time to slow down and work alongside my kids as I should.  Some days I am very successful in this area, some days….not so much.

My biggest struggle as a teacher was finding my own teaching style.  I know everyone is hip to the issue of learning styles for our children, but I think that it’s unfortunate that we overlook “teaching styles.”  When we first started homeschooling, I was sucked in by the romantic sound of the laid-back-follow-your-child’s-interests thing.  I tried and tried, but kept failing because I learned that I am the kind of gal who needs a plan.  I need something written down for me that I can follow, or I have the tendency to flake and never finish what we start because in my own planning, I would come up with too many resources and had a hard time weeding things out that we could have lived without.  So I found a curriculum with a plan, and because I have the daily schedule, I feel comfortable branching out and following a trail that the kids want to further explore, knowing that I can pick back up where we left off when we’re done.  I heard Jessica Hulcy once say that it takes three years to learn how to teach, and be a teacher, and I certainly lived that out.

The things that have been the biggest relief to me, as a person who needs a schedule are:

Sonlight.  Oh my goodness.  They’ve done all the scheduling!  We use Sonlight for Language Arts.  I take their schedule and add a few things to it, then hand it off to my kids for them to follow.  It’s been a great tool for teaching them responsibility and accountability.  

Yahoogroups!  Since I don’t use Sonlight for everything, I’ve found that there is usually a Yahoogroup for most other curricula.  I’ve joined many of them, and there has always been someone more on-the-ball than me who has already made a schedule to go along with the book and have uploaded it to the Files section of the Yahoogroup site.  What a blessing. I’m excited because right now I am making a schedule for my son’s Greek studies, and I hope I get to share it with someone else who might be able to use it!  I’ve also met some very kewl people through those groups that I have had the chance to meet in real life that I would have never known without the Yahoogroup.

Going to God in Prayer.  I don’t know how many times I have started off a day feeling as if I was just going to be spinning my wheels all day, getting nothing done.  I’ll look around the kitchen and see breakfast dishes stacked up, the living room a total disaster, a sick kid, a kid who isn’t in the mood for school or chores, and a fussy baby and wonder if I’ll even be able to make lunch.  When I started homeschooling, there were way too many days that I would let myself get overwhelmed, so I would call a movie day, or a park day.  Those are the days when I obviously really would get nothing done.  The big breakthrough for me came during our Bible Study time.  It was a frustrating day with bickering kids and while gearing up to sing, I had a conversation with God, and He set me straight.  Ever since then, I continually bring my day to Him.  I can’t make it without Him!  I wrote an article about it for our support group’s newsletter.  If you’re interested, you can read it HERE.  Here’s an excerpt. 

"We were getting ready for our morning Bible study.  I sat on the couch with my Bible and hymn book in my lap, rubbing my forehead with my first three fingers in total despair and frustration, until I thought I was going to wear a permanent red mark there.  I was shedding a few tears and silently praying, “God, I see the vision You’ve given Darin and me for our kids, but would it really hurt to call it a Movie Day?  They can space out to movies, and I can get away from their arguing with each other and me.  Sounds fair, ya?”  No.

“God, I can see the vision You’ve given Darin and me for our kids, but surely it wouldn’t hurt if I just called a timeout and spent some time building myself up for a change, rather than being bombarded with complaining and disobedience.  It would help me to be able to deal calmly with them later, ya?”  No.

“God, I can see the vision You’ve given Darin and me for our kids, but I am worn out!  I don’t think I can go on, YA?”  No.  You can.  You have to.  Do you see the vision I have given you?

“Okay.  Please help me!”  Ya."

Through it all, God is my mainstay.  I begged Him at one point for a mentor.  I felt alone and as if I had no clue, and would never get one.  But as I was praying this prayer, he drew me to Psalm 32:8:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
         I will guide you with My eye.
Sends shivers down my spine every time I remember this answer to my prayer.  He is so good, and Oh, What a Relief HE is to Me!  ;-)

I look at this picture and wonder how I could ever lose the vision that God has supplied.  What a precious group He has given me!