Doing Things My Way

One thing this year has enforced in my mind, after dealing with the public school system, is that I don't like dealing with them.  I get irritated when they blatantly usurp the authority of parents.  I get exhausted with their boring, failing teaching methods.  I get frustrated with they way they treat the students like little prisoners whose sole purpose is funding money.  I don't agree that standardized tests show a true measure of anything other than whether a child has mastered how to take tests.

Either way, I am grateful God is allowing me to homeschool my girls.  Our days don't often look anything like the local school.  In fact, I don't want our education to resemble the school at all!  Unfortunately, it is so difficult to let go of how I was taught.  It still sneaks up on me... that fear that I'm not doing enough, that my kids aren't up to par in some way.

As I am beginning the planning process for next year, I have to remind myself that my kids are unique.   They deserve to have individualized learning plans, not a cookie cutter mold where everyone is expected to fit.  I am reminded that learning is an adventure for us.  There will be things that they don't enjoy as much, but are necessary skills to progress in the adventure.  I am reminded that my daughters are beautiful, talented, special girls that only have one childhood.  I want that childhood to be special.

I was trying to discuss homeschooling with a lady that doesn't really agree with it.  She stated that, in her research, she didn't see a lot of positives about homeschooling.  Now, I doubt she had truly researched homeschooling with an open mind, for the pages are endless online where homeschooling is shown to be successful.  The research has been done, and the truth is that homeschooled children outperform public schooled kids by a huge margin.  I even went online to print out some of these testing results to show the lady.  Of course, if a woman doesn't want to think of homeschooling as positive, all the research in the world won't change her mind. 

I'm going to keep planning, keep moving forward.  I'm not going to worry about whether my children are meeting certain standards, but whether they are actively learning and growing, both spiritually and academically.  Honestly, when I have tested them, they always meet the standards of the state.  Even when we have run into struggles, usually if I just back off for a bit and focus on other things, it'll all fall into place and click in the child's mind.  Sometimes a child just isn't ready mentally to learn something, and then it'll all begin to make sense at a later time.

In a world where chaos seems to be reigning, no one can predict what skills are going to be needed in the future.  I do know that the creativity that is going to be required is not the type that is encouraged in the public schools.  I know that, as America continues to break covenant with God to do their own thing and worship their own Gods, that God's people need to be praying and heeding the wisdom of God in raising and teaching their children.  This is not the time to live in fear, but to stand in the authority given to us by God.