Blogger Friend School

Blogger Friend School is in session!  The ladies there are leaving it open this year, so you can join-in at any time!  Here is the first assignment:

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.

I love homeschooling.  I have from the first minute I understood that it existed, which was when I was 28!  Honestly, I had never, EVER heard of homeschooling until 1996.  I was working part-time at a bookstore after our first son was born.  Being a new Mom, during my breaks, I would wander over to the “Parenting” section of the store and browse.  There was a tiny little section of about five books on Homeschooling.  The first book I read on it was the Colfax’s Homeschooling for Excellence.  That was it for me.  From then on, we were going to homeschool.  My Husband gave me the ol’, “I went to public school and I turned out all right!”  Then he thought about it and remembered a few more details of his life as a public school kid, and reconsidered.  ;-)

Looking back on my own time in public school, I am just sad.  Things weren’t always easy in my own home life, and I spent all my time in school trying to work through all of that.  And the working-through was uncomfortable.  Silly, but intense fighting with my friends, poor decisions, poor grades.  Don’t get me wrong.  I was a pretty good gal, had lots of good friends, was considered “popular,” but it was a struggle.  It would have been nice to have a little more adult guidance.  I did get that later on in high school when I went to a boarding school.  That probably saved me in a lot of ways. 

Anyway….we are beginning our 9^th year of homeschooling, and I hate to say this because, well, you know, it’s the “saying it out loud” thing…..but I’ve never felt burned out and ready to give it up.  My regular prayer to God is to give me His vision for me as a wife, parent and homeschooling Mom.  And I pray that A LOT.  After all, I am the Mom of five hard-heads.  God is so good and has held me steadily in His hand through all the frustrating moments, hours and days, and I never want my life to be different.  God made me for this! 

My goals for my children have changed over time.  At first I didn’t really have any goals.  Like a true control freak, I only wanted to be the one to have a say in what my kids studied.  I still like that control, but now my goal is just to raise them to be servants of Christ.  That’s really hard because that means I can’t really put my faith in a curriculum to do that for me.  I have to be the example every day.  Ugh.  I constantly fail, and a lot of times I don’t WANT to do what I need to do to be an example.  So many people say they could never homeschool, but I believe it’s because they don’t want to enough.  That’s the way I feel about being that example sometimes….that I don’t want to enough.  I think of this verse often to encourage me: Ezra 8:22 “…the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him.”  When I remember that, I know that I can continue.  J

Here’s our new table for our littles.  One of our new purchases this fall for school, and quickly labeled “Kid’s Coloring Table” by my older ones.