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When I first wrote this post, we were just beginning our homeschool journey. If you’re considering homeschooling, I hope this post will help you navigate some of the emotions that go along with it!
Disclaimer:
I am new to homeschooling, and I have much to learn. I do however, believe that I have some things that God has laid on my heart to share. If you would like to read how our family came to begin homeschooling, you can read Homeschooling 101 – Part 1 of this topic.
Expectations
Here is what I see to be my biggest challenge in homeschooling… What I am used to: “Now class, for homework tonight, do math pages 101-102, numbers 1-30. Show all your work and make sure you label your answers as appropriate.” What my son wants: To always speak of math in the past tense. As in, “We have talked enough about math. Lets put that away and talk about building tree forts.” My goal: Something in between that will prepare him for the “real” world without shutting off his creativity and at the same time instilling in him a desire to be more like Christ.
Concerns
One of my greatest worries, especially now that we are out of the elementary school years, is my ability to teach the higher level subjects. It has been a LONG time since I was in school myself. While I was generally a good student, I will confess, that there are many things that I learned just long enough to pass the test and move on! This point was driven home to me just yesterday during his grammar lesson. We were studying conjunctions. I felt pretty good about this topic. I even searched out the old Schoolhouse Rock “Conjunction, Junction” video on the internet for us to watch. (He only rolled his eyes a little bit.)
When we got back to the actual curriculum, I was good with the first part: Coordinating Conjunctions – and, but, or, nor, for, yet. I may not have remembered the “coordinating” part, but I was very comfortable with the rest. Then we got to Correlative and Subordinating Conjunctions. Good grief! Shouldn’t those terms at least have been familiar to me?! My poor son. We got through it, but it wasn’t all that pretty.
Realities
Then I had him do some sentences for me orally. As I already suspected, he knew this stuff intuitively, he did inventive (and funny!) sentences that were exactly what we had just learned. The problem was that when we started labeling it and boxing it in, it stressed him out and caused him to tune out. Therein lies the beauty and the challenge of homeschooling.
Here is the one thing that I can tell you, from my own “expert” point of view, it’s not deep and scholarly, and it’s something that you probably already know: You know your kid. (Side note: Every English teacher that I ever had would have some sort of medical event whenever someone said “kid” when referring to human children. We would immediately be subjected to an annoying discourse about goat babies and human babies, but there it is. I said it. I get to be the teacher now, and I’m not taking it back!) The beauty: You know their strengths and weaknesses. The mission: To maximize their strengths and overcome their weaknesses.
Goals
Whatever our issues may be with the public school system, I am sure that there are teachers in every school that truly care about their students and desire to encourage them to succeed. I also know that no matter how much they desire to successfully educate each child, their time and resources are limited, and they can only do so much.
What is most important is for us to remember that God gave our children to us, and in Proverbs 22:6 He tells us to: “Train up a child in the way he should go…” and when we do this He goes on to promise us: “…and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” In the past, I have mostly looked at this verse from the point of view of teaching them Biblical truth. I believe that we have been striving for that, though we often fall short.
After much prayer, and Scripture searching, I am more and more convinced is also referring to every aspect of life, including their practical schooling. Using Christian-based curriculum is a wonderful way of reinforcing Biblical truths while teaching practical lessons that they will use in their day-to-day life. This year, I will be homeschooling my 9th grade son and 8th grade daughter. What a wonderful and exciting mission God has given to us!
