Relaxing While Homeschooling

I suppose the best piece of advice I was given when I first started homeschooling was to relax. Don't worry about trying to keep up with everyone else, especially public school kids. Every child learns on a different level, and trust me, with five kids schooling now, I can testify that all kids learn differently and on different levels.

My first child, Christiana, didn't learn hardly any alphabet her kindergarten year. I would spend a whole week on one letter doing all kinds of methods that used every sense to help her. At the beginning of each day I would ask what letter we worked on the day before and she couldn't tell me. I would get so frustrated and cry, thinking I was a horrible teacher and what was I thinking, homeschooling. It just must not be for me. But I wanted to homeschool so bad. So her first grade year, I tried again. And would you know that within the first week of school she knew every one of her ABC's. I learned that she just wasn't ready her kindergarten year for what I was trying to teach.

My other children have not had problems with kindergarten and the struggle with learning ABC's has been non-existent. However, reading has been a little different. My fourth child is now in the third grade and still struggles with reading. All the while my first grader is flying through learning to read. I've come to realize to just relax. To not put pressure on Micah and let him know that I have full confidence in his ability to learn to read. Many people don't even attempt to teach boys until they are eight (Micah's age). I don't wait that long, but I figure that he's only eight now so we will see how this year goes. So far he is doing well. He is beginning to pick up quicker than he did before and can relax and know that I trust he will do fine.

So I encourage you today, if you have a young one who is struggling, relax. Added pressure will only delay the learning process. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and not everyone can be strong in every subject. Besides, when we get to heaven, I don't think God is going to ask how we did in school. I think it will be more important what we did with His Son Jesus. Don't get me wrong, learning is important and I think we should do the best at everything we do, but sometimes our best is not an A+.

In the realm of everything, it's okay. Kids will learn, just not always at the level we expect. So be patient and relax, it's okay, really. Blessings.

I took the kids to the Lenoir City Museum Tuesday as a field trip to help prepare them for todays field trip to Fort Sanders. I found out that before the army headed over to Fort Sanders they had spent some time in Lenoir City and thought it was interesting enough to check it out. The older kids seemed more interested than the younger ones but as you can see from the pic above of Matthew with his book he did find something interesting.

I love taking the kids out to real places that history happened. It just brings it all to life for them. Which is one of the reasons I love homeschooling so much, we can take as many field trips as we want.

So we are excited about Fort Sanders today and I think I'm just as excited as the kids, if not more :)

Why we homeschool

Where I grew up everyone went to public school. I knew one girl that went to a private Christian school and had heard of one family that homeschooled. It was just an accepted fact that when you had children they would go to public school. I never really thought of doing anything different.

When I was in college my aunt decided to homeschool her daughter and had invited me to attend a homeschool meeting with her. It was at that time that I realized that I really wanted to homeschool when I had children of my own. After I was married and had children we attended a church where three other families homeschooled. My best friend, who had six children at the time, homeschooled and was able to show me how she did everything. We were surrounded by people that homeschooled. So, when it came time to school our oldest child my husband and I just naturally chose to homeschool (being in agreement was confirmation that it was the right decision for our family). So, since the very beginning I have homeschooled our children.

We choose to homeschool for various reasons. We believe that it is God's design for our family. We believe that our children will receive a better education through homeschooling. We believe that by homeschooling our children will receive the behavioral instruction we desire for them. We believe that it is our job to raise and teach our children and we choose not to give that job to someone else.

By saying all that I'm not saying that everyday is easy. And yes, there have been days when I wondered if it would just be easier to send them to a private school. But since I believe that God led us to this decision then He will give me the strength to do what needs to be done. I love watching my children learn and discover things. Missing out on this would be like missing their first step or their first word, for me anyway. It is a joy to hear my child read knowing that I helped them learn to do that. Just as I believe God enjoys watching us learn to do the things He is teaching us.

Many of you may wonder if you would be able to help your child learn by homeschooling, or think that you couldn't do it. Think for a moment who taught your child to walk, speak, drink from a cup, eat with a spoon, tie their shoe, etc. Now understand that there are all types of curriculum out there to help you teach however you want to teach; hands on, very involved, not so involved, through the computer, or textbooks. You can do it if you desire and there are so many resources available to help you achieve this goal.

I'm not saying that every person should homeschool. I believe that it is each person's decision to make on their own. But if it is something that you would like to do, then let me encourage you that you CAN. If you have the desire to homeschool then pray about it. God gives us the desires of our heart (meaning He is the author of your desire, He is the one giving you that desire). Yes, it's a little scary at first, but you can do it. Just take one day at a time, give it to God and remember to smile.