I’ve never been one to keep up with journaling much. Go figure that this blog is so often neglected. Journaling is super helpful. It helps a person see personal growth, remember specific times in detail or even pass on stories to the next generation… when one actually remembers and commits to journaling, hence, my problem.
But there is hope for me yet. I have realized that I need to get all of my thoughts, ideas, goals, conclusions, Etc. about homeschooling down in one place… what a better place than this blog! And maybe even some other folks will glean some information they needed to know as well from it, as I have done SO many times on other homeschooling moms’ blogs.
I’ll be very plain here, I am not a seasoned homeschooling mom. I am stepping into this whole new realm with the encouragement, wisdom and personal convictions only developed in the past 3 or so years. Many of the places I will reference will more than likely have much fuller and richer advice and background/experience behind their words… this is only our account
Why homeschool?
This is where every parent should start. Even parents who don’t think homeschooling is for them. The education, training and rearing of our children is completely our responsibility. It is wise to look into every option available to ensure that as a parent you are fully claiming that responsibility.
Homeschooling, to us, represents the best method we know of that will ensure our taking full responsibility for the education, training and rearing of our children. We are further convicted that this is the ideal way God wants Christians to raise their children. My absolute favorite homeschooling mom blog is RaisingOlives.com and in this post she explains where our hearts lie as well. Our ultimate responsibility as Christian parents is that we raise our children to love God. Sending our children away for nearly 8hrs a day would make this process even more difficult! Sending them to a training professional, who while they are schooled in learning theories and curriculum implementation, are not trained in the individual weaknesses and sin struggles of each of the students in their class, nor do they have time to deal with them in like manner. Sending our children away is not what Deut. 6:4-9 looks like to us:
Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah:
and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart;
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
So. We have decided to homeschool because we are biblically convicted that God has given us this desire of our heart, because of our understanding of scripture, and also that it is His will that we give our greatest effort towards this end.
Whew! It is a BIG deal to decide to homeschool your children! Some do it because of superior academics and others do it to be “against the grain” norm breakers… but now you know why WE are doing it. Once you can fully commit to and understand your own personal “whys” to homeschool you get to move onto the “whats” of homeschooling… which is an equally BIG deal… though I want to introduce the thought that it is more important to think about HOW you homeschool vs. WHAT you homeschool… more on that next!
I have so much to be thankful for! As I look back to those first months after moving in, feeling sick every day if not getting sick, moping around, sitting on the couch most of the day… I think I was actually mildly depressed! This pregnancy seemed to make me feel more down-in-dumps than ever, even though my actual sickness was no worse than the other two pregnancies. I found some answers in a blog I read, where a guest did a post on first trimester depression. She talked about how she had struggled, more severely than I, through all of her pregnancies and she talked about how it is rarely spoken of though it is very common. As she listed some symptoms and tendencies I realized that first trimester depression was definitely something I was experiencing for the first time. Whew! I was so glad to have some insight and find tips that helped until it passed. Now that it has indeed passed I feel extra great and thankful to feel “normal.”
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