All homeschooling families are familiar with the same comments they get from friends, family, the general public, etc ("I could never homeschool my kids..." yadda yadda yadda)
And most of us have our pat answers ("It works for us..." yadda yadda yadda).
The one type of comment that I have a hard time giving a one lined response to is the "I'm not patient/organized/educated enough to homeschool." or "I don't get along with my kids/they wouldn't listen to me".
I want to grab that person and head for Starbucks for a nice visit over a cup of coffee and let them know what they are missing out on.
I want to tell that them that when you and your husband together make the decision to educate and disciple your children at home, to teach them to love The Lord, that God takes us as we are (impatient, fearful, disorganized, self-centered, discouraged, unfocused, unconfident, lazy, you name it) and he kneads out those lumps. He grows our character and we are forced to rely on Him to make up for our shortcomings.
I would never claim to have arrived. No way. But I am a much better Christ-follower, wife, and mother than I was before we began our homeschooling journey. Quite frankly, my patience surprises the heck out of me on a daily basis. And I know that the hunger I have to learn about God's story of the world is from Him. My worldview has changed drastically as I strive to stay ahead of my children to help guide them. Both Jason and I can claim that.
I believe those are things that we would have missed out if we had decided to forgoe the responsibility of educating our children at home. I'd miss out on learning the extreme patience and self control it takes to live with multiple little people day in and day out (ongoing process of course--some days my jaw hurts from gritting my teeth). I'd miss out on learning along side my children, seeing things like history and science through the eyes of an adult. All of my nasty character deficets (named above) would go on mostly unchallenged as I had more time to "focus on myself".
I don't have all the answers as a parent or a homeschooler. I don't know exactly how we'll handle teaching high school or how I'll manage teaching 5+ children as time goes on. But God has given me all the answers I need today to continue what He has called our family too. And I'm content with that.
And I'm so very thankful not to be missing out.
2 comments:
Love this, I can relate to exactly what you express here!!! Homeschooling has changed me, and I am proud of it. Love your style Wendy!
I think I figured out real soon that during these early years, God may be teaching me as much as I'm teaching the kids. If not more!!! I'm looking forward to a fresh start, but also scared. It's had work, but I'm so thankful that I heard his voice when he called me to this.
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