First Day Nerves to Three Years of Adventures

Laura's 1st Day of Homeschool

It was October.  After weeks of research and prayers and talking with my husband, my little 3rd grade Laura was home.  My nerves were dancing in my stomach like Mexican jumping beans.  That combination of fear and excitement that asked continually, "Can I really do this?"  I prayed prayers to God that told Him how inadequate I felt.  I told Him how I thought I would totally mess up my kid's life.  I comforted myself with the words, "If it doesn't work out, I can always send her back to school."  I told myself and my family and friends that phrase, like a mantra, to keep my own doubts and the doubts of others from overtaking my life.

Three years later, I still get that feeling around the beginning of the school year.  Before the routine of school gets firmly established, I question myself. I wonder if I am doing the right thing. I pray for God's guidance and direction... because I know deep down that I am inadequate without Him.  I know longer ask if I can do this.  I know that I can't on my own strength.  It takes my King to give me His strength every day. 

My poor Laura, my first student, has been my guinea pig.  She has run the gamut with me of curriculum options and learning styles.  I homeschooled one of my high school daughters for two years and graduated her, but her plan was set by someone else.  Laura's plan has been set by me.  The journey we have been on has taken us many places, including in circles at times.  Yet we press on, with a preschooler in the mix now.

Homeschooling has been such an amazing adventure.  Only God could have led us here.  Now, the thought of doing anything else seems unnatural.  I love the curriculum I feel God led me to, but I know that I could homeschool without it if I had to.  Very simply, I've learned just as much over the last three years as my daughter.

I've learned what a true education is, versus "doing school".  I've learned that grades really don't matter, even though I had to assign them for a transcript for my high school graduate last year.  I've learned that tests don't tell what a child knows, but what they don't.  I've learned that spelling lists don't teach kids how to spell, but how to memorize short term.  I've leaned that history is best learned from our rich, wonderful literature, filled with stories of lives, instead of a textbook filled with bits and pieces of the past filled with dates.  I've learned that science is not about complex, difficult topics but about the wonder and fascination with the world our Lord created.  I've learned that Christ can take center stage and be woven through every subject, and that including Christ only improves the quality of the education... not detracts from it as seems to be the attitude of much of the world.

I hope and pray the Christ continues to lead me and that the adventure continues for a long time.