Oh What A Feeling!

BFS Assignment #100 - Oh What a Feeling!

Memory Verse: Ephesians 4:19 KJV
Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Assignment: Take time this week to write about YOU and your feelings of trials and triumphs with homeschooling. Touch on when you first heard about the concept of home schooling and whether you tip-toed into the idea or just jumped in and never looked back. Share your schooling as a child and how you compare it to what your goals are for your children.


Remember the class picture you took every year in public school? Here's ours. Obviously not taken in our classroom, but it is the most recent picture that includes the principal (hubby), teacher (me), and all 6 of our precious little classmates.

It was my best friend who first brought up the idea of homeschooling with me. At the time, her and her husband didn't have children and my oldest was only 2. She had heard a Focus on the Family radio broadcast discussing the benefits of homeschooling and promptly declared that I should do it.

I'd always enjoyed 'playing school' when I was little. My cousins and I would make up assignments and draw on a little chalkboard in my Dad's basement. They would roll their eyes at me when I insisted on being the teacher. So, actually, the idea of homeschooling sounded like fun.

Now, I wasn't completely without fears. I had heard of a local cottage school for homeschoolers in our area. The kids went to school there 2 days a week and were homeschooled by their parents 3 days. The cottage school provided the curriculum, did the lesson plans, had field trips, and even a prom (wow!). So I thought this would be the best of both worlds. My children would still experience a 'school setting' and I would still be homeschooling them.

This worked perfectly for us for almost 4 years. But last year I began to sense that God was leading us in a different direction to be at home full-time. I still think that the cottage school we were involved in is wonderful and that it was right for us then, but I am so happy to be on my own now, choosing the curriculum that I want to teach and that fits our family perfectly.

I have such a range of emotions to how I feel each day about homeschooling.

Usually, I wake up exhausted and struggling with being motivated to do what I need to do for my children (begin the school day) and what I want to do for me (usually this means computer time). Add into the mix, trying to maintain some resemblance of order and cleanliness in this home and still caring for a needy one year old and nursing baby...it's enough to make me want to climb back into bed.

Even once the school day has begun, I can so easily fall into the chronic multi-tasker that I am and try to do too many things at once. This winds up making me impatient and cranky.

I want so much for my children to love learning, but they can only do this in a relaxed setting, not in a rushed one.

I want so much to face the interruptions of my little ones without frustration and patiently.

I want so much for my children to look at me and see their Heavenly Father who loves them even when they don't listen, are not focused, and just can't seem to 'get it'.

I want them to see that He has so much to teach them and that this is just the beginning. If they can learn to sit at His feet, He will teach them every single day of their lives.

God was not at the foundation of what I learned in public school, and because of that I now know that I was not learning the whole Truth. How blessed our children will be if we can, by His wisdom, teach them every subject truthfully from His Word.

And when the struggles and frustrations arise I will hold on to His promise in 1 John 4:4 that says, "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

I may wake up exhausted, and I may experience frustration, but there are also the moments every single day when I experience pure joy. It's listening to my 7 year old read scripture. It's singing a memorized hymn with my 6 year old. It's my 4 year old surprising me by telling me something that is so smart, but I've never even taught to him. It's coloring with my 3 year old, and hearing her ask, "Do you like it Mommy?"

It's not just that they are learning, but that I get to see them learning! So many moms never get to see their child learn. I am so blessed that I do. Pin It Now!