My name is Laura and I have been homeschooling for over 20 years.
Phew, that's a long time. If you're wondering why I began homeschooling, well:
- Because I wanted my kids to have a God-centered education
- It was important to me to have control over what they were learning
- And...I thought it would be fun.
Ha ha. It wasn’t.
What??
Well some of the time it is but a lot of the time it isn’t because homeschooling means that you’re spending a big portion of your day schooling your kids but it also means:
- taking care of babies and toddlers
- being pregnant often (this was me, it may not be you)
- cooking food
- feeding people
- doing the laundry
- going to appointments
- trying to get the kids to as many worthwhile experiences as you can
- running a household on just one income (in our case)
- taking care of sick people
- interacting with others
- keeping up with family
- etc etc etc
It's also not just about schooling your kids in some fun and insightful way. There are so many other things involved, like:
- grading things
- planning curriculum and lessons
- meeting everyone's needs
- dealing with learning problems and defiance and attitudes
- getting people to do their work in a timely fashion
Homeschooling means juggling a lot of balls all by yourself with your entire family watching you to make sure you don’t drop any. When you do, they may stop and help you pick them up, but they also may not.
If I sound so negative, why have I done it for so long?
Because I feel that God called me to homeschool my kids and I figure that if He wants me to do it, it will be a better plan than any I could come up with. And you know what, it has been an awesome thing for our family!
Even if I screw it up.
Especially when I don't want to continue to do it.
Somehow I am able to get down on my knees and cry out to Him for the grace and fortitude to continue to school my kids at home and still try to keep all those other balls in the air.
And He always gives me that little bit of grace I need to try something different, to look at things a new way, to power through the difficulties.
Somehow it always works out. Maybe sometimes He wants me to do things differently and I miss the call, but He always finds a way for it to work out.
And you know what helped me the most?
The #1 thing that continues to get me through 20+ years of homeschooling is my faith and my ability to follow the steps that God places in front of me that makes me grow in my faith:
- other homeschooling moms
- retreats
- books
- prayers
- those well-timed places and events that give me new hope and allow me to tackle another year with vigor once again.
So what I want you to know is this:
That I know what you’re going through.
I know how hard it is and how much you want to give up some days.
But if giving up is not what God wants you to do, then the other path you go down will be the wrong path for your life.
Don’t give up.
Instead, run to Him, the One who makes all things possible, and beg Him for that one thing that will get you through this challenge, the one thing that will make things turn the corner so that you can continue on schooling your kids with peace in your heart; peace in knowing that you are following the path that He laid out for you to the best of your ability.
And then know that I am here to help you in any way that I can. If you need:
- a pep talk
- help getting organized
- ideas to motivate yourself and/or your kids
- things that will make the mundane tasks more manageable
- assistance in building up your prayer life
- anything else you can think of
You name it, just contact me and I'll do what I can to help you through your bump in the road.
I have covered a lot of these things in the pages of my blog so please look around and find the help you need.