My thoughts and encouragement on homeschooling

I am posting this letter that I wrote to a friend's inquiry of my thoughts on being able to successfully homeschool 5 children. She suggested that I share this as a blog post in hopes to encourage other moms who need encouragement, guidance or ...whatever : ) These are only my "thoughts". I am no expert. This is my experience. I hope if you need encouragement it will bless you, on a hard day or in the beginning as you wonder if this could even be a possibility in the life of your family. Blessings ~Theresa xo

"Wow, homeschooling..., it is definitely a very challenging thing that brings me to my knees and makes me feel my need of Christ all the more. First, I think you have to know WHY you want to do it? Ask yourself, your husband the question: WHY am I considering homeschooling? This answer will help propel you through difficulties...if your answer is because you want to disciple your children, because you want to have the ability to decide what they learn and do not learn, because you want to teach them to love learning and to love God simultaneously, this motivation will propel you through what will be some very challenging days.

Another thing that you have to remember is that homeschooling is not going to look like regular school, I have to remind myself of this all the time. It may look like 10 minutes of reading with the 5 year old and send them off to color or do an activity at the table and then 15 minutes of math with the 7 year old and then send them to read a chapter book for a little while. Then you go and sit on the floor and read to the little ones and build blocks for 20 minutes...school is a climate of learning in your home. It isn't going to always be what we may have known of school in the public realm or the private for that matter either. School has to have a plan, but you make the rules. If your kids are learning and learning to learn, you are doing them a wonderful service. And furthermore if you are talking about Christ as you sit, as you stand, as you walk along the way, you are doing them an even greater service. Teaching them to love and know Christ is a huge gift.

[Please don't get me wrong here. I do not believe that homeschooling is the only choice for a Christian family and that you you couldn't disciple or love your child if you send them to school. I think loving and discipling children looks different in every family}

Another very important thing to remember is that alot of your life is already "school". The library visits, making cookies, making bread, teaching chores around the house. These things add up to making useful and profitable people who will go out into society and add to it in a lovely way. You MUST FOCUS only on a couple things in the early years and leave the rest alone. Teaching the children to read and do math is essential. Everything else in the early years up to 4 th or 5th grade is extra. READ, READ, READ. Read to the kids, let them get books that they like at the library. Listen to books on CD, talk to them about what they are reading...reading in a home creates smart children. Whatever interests them, get a book and have them read it or if they can't read it to them, or have one of the kids who can read, read it to them. Reading is the largest part of school. It may not "look" like school, but just reading is benefiting your children in a million ways.

MOST IMPORTANTLY is to seek CHRIST. Nothing happens in my home except from the grace of GOD. Truly, I could not do this without Him. Begging Him in the morning to help me. Reading a scripture with my coffee. Bowing my head when things get absolutely crazy here. Seeking Christ is essential and the worth of it is immeasurable. He helps me so much. Those who wait on the LORD WILL renew their strength.

Homeschooling is hard for me, but I am doing it because I believe it to be a worthy cause with priceless dividends. You will need Christ immensely and you will need to ask Him, what needs to be done and what does not each day. Trying too hard to fill a day with school work when you have lots of little people around will not be a super peaceful home. It will take trial and error. But teach your children lots of Scripture at meal times, sing songs, talk about Christ and read as much as you can. WHen things get really rough and crazy, stop, take time to tickle, give them a break and put on a learning video, put on classical music and take out the blocks and crayons and just sit. Go for a walk or a ride in the car and put a book on CD in the player...drink in Christ so that you will be a "stream to feed the garden" of your children. HE CAN HELP YOU.
Ask Him for wisdom. He promises to give.

If I can be of any practical assistance to you, come over one night and I can show you what I use and we can talk about some practical pieces to simplifying your school life...I am not a pro, but I have been doing it for a long time now and I know THE ONE Who can help ; ) Let me know how I can serve you. I will pray for you in this big decision. God will give you grace for whatever you choose. xoxo"

An Acrostic for the Mother/Teacher in Me

I read this today and thought this is what I really need to meditate on as I FINALLY get started with our homeschool year on Tuesday. Yes, I know that I said I was starting awhile ago. Here is what this dear woman wrote as a tribute to the new homeschool year:
(I sooooo need this)

Am I ready? I have spent the summer thinking; plans are laid

Now I carefully prepare to execute these plans I've made

Every subject I have researched, every book that I have read

Will not make my homeschool for me; prayer will light the path ahead.

Hard to wrap my brain around the syllabus for every class

Organizing, planning schedules, challenging but still a blast

Mindful always of the need for balance in our homeschool life

Expectations of perfection only lead to tears and strife

Setting goals and planning rest for body, mind, for spirit, soul

Can't allow our academics to disrupt our being whole

How could I consider profit if I graduate a child

Only full of smarts and knowledge, brainy, bright but all the while

Overwhelmed with heart confusion, striving flesh not knowing grace

Lord, forbid that I should fail to teach my kids to seek Your face!

You and I, Lord, you and I will stay in constant conversation

Eating from Your word and finding there my daily explanation

All I need to make decisions for the way we spend our time

Resting in Your loving arms and trusting in Your perfect mind.

At This Week's End

Ahhhh, long week, good week, full week, high points, rough spots...think I will just use this entry to babble a little about my week.
Things I "learned" or "relearned" this week:
~that you can catch a quick catnap around noon while your kids are eating lunch and watching "WildKrats", enough to carry from 4:45 am til bedtime again.
~that I won't need to stay up from 4:45 everyday when I get up with Mark, I can go back to sleep a little and still get a lot of things done.
~that spending time alone with my Bible and prayer with the Lord can carry me so far during a full day.
~that I really do love homeschooling my kids
~that I love checking things off my list and seeing things accomplished
~that my kids don't like lentils and rice, but will eat them without complaining!!!!!

Best memories from this week:
~hearing my kids get excited about school
~hearing every kid tell me that they LOVE school
~laughing over Nathan's funny comment about the lentils, telling me he would have complained if he was allowed to.
~watching the webcast from Ann and Lysa.
~running 4 miles on the treadmill while watching Pride and Prejudice (A&E)
~swinging on the porch swing drinking coffee with my hubs

Overall this has really been an awesome week, with a few challenges. Been convicted about spending more time in prayer for weeks now and have seen the LORD giving grace in this area. Oh to walk and abide more closely with the Father!!! Getting up early with the new school year starting has been good for this, oh that it would continue! Shared some candid thoughts with a friend this week and now I am regretting that decision, mulling that over in my heart and head. Sometimes it's not sin your dealing with it's just life, that's where I am now. but then again, isn't it always sin your dealing with? Well, wish things were always easy and sweet and great, but there are rough patches, but He is even there and using them for His purposes and His glory...

Psalm 61:2
From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

I've shed tears this week, laughed, been at the height of excitement and felt like the lowest scum. I've tucked seven kids in bed (Rae and India are here)and at 10:29, I think they are all finally quiet, oh no, really, one just walked down the steps...oh well, I just sent him off, I hear hammering from below and footsteps going up. I thought I would do some laundry, but these tear-burned eyes can't stay open much longer...think I will tuck in...goodnight dear blog.

Dear Lord, Thank You for a good week, full of so many many graces and mercies. May I learn to walk closely with you in the weeks to come. May I trust You more and love you more. May I lay everything at Your feet everyday. Everything, all the time. I need You, Lord, more than yesterday, desperately need You. I need You, I need You. Dump what's in me and fill me up with what You have. Let it be. Let it be.
In Jesus Name,
Amen. So be it! So be it!!

You Don't Have to Be Good at Being Good

I am meditating on these good thoughts tonight, coming from this great website

"Of course, this side of heaven we will not do perfectly. Harsh words will be spoken, patience will wear thin. Frazzled mothers will act frazzled. And when this happens, our own sinfulness does not detract from the power of the gospel, it illustrates why we need it. Do not use your own mistakes as an excuse to wallow about what a bad mother you are. Repent, seek forgiveness, get it right, and move on. Believe. Be forgiven. Extend that forgiveness, that belief, that joy, to your children."

Wow, isn't that good? I know it, I fail everyday, many times a day. I am a godly mom by the grace of God, but I am a mom who fails, harsh words and thin patience. But it doesn't stop there does it? Oh, Amen!!! It does not!!!

As a mom, my greatest joy would be to see my kids love and serve Jesus for all of their days!! Oh, how I want that!! It is to that end that I pray and to that end I plan my days with them, teaching them Scripture and telling them about Christ.

But I do find that what displays the gospel so often to those five little people is my shortcomings. It is then that they see, it isn't about what WE do, but what He has done. When I sin, in whatever way it may be, it is then that they see the need for the Savior. MY need for Jesus!! Sure, I can point them to Christ when I am not sinning and I should and I do, but when I have failed, that is when they see, this is not about Mommy being so good, it is about Jesus...
The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of The Jesus Storybook Bible.
I want to proclaim to my children this from this treasured book :
"'It's not about keeping rules?' Paul told people. 'You don't have to be good at being good for God to love you. You just have to believe what Jesus has done and follow him. Because it's not about trying, it's about trusting. It's not about rules, it's about Grace: God's free gift--that cost him everything' What had happened to Paul? He met Jesus."

I am a recovering perfectionist, everyday struggling to remember, it's not about what I can do, it's about what He has already done. Let me teach my children this, the gospel, that Jesus came to Redeem. We can't redeem ourselves. Let me not teach them that it is their works that make God love them, or me. And let ME forsake wallowing my sins, repent and share the gospel of Christ with the little ones in my home, and tell them that
"Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
HE washed it white as snow!!
~ So that they may know the Jesus I know, the Jesus of Grace, Forgiveness and Love. Jesus Christ, our only hope!!!

I Have Everything I Need

I read this tonight and it challenged me, convicted my fainting heart. Here's what it said:
"Believe it: I have all I need for today.

The needs of our day are great but our God is greater and we call Him Providence because we believe: He is the One who always provides."

Do you ever forget that? Do you feel like you don't have all you need for today? I have felt like that a lot over the course of my motherhood, well my life for that matter, especially the past couple days.

But when I think about it, I am reminded that I really DO have what I need in Him. And when I feel like saying, "I can't do this" or "This is too hard." Don't I really mean, "I won't do this, because I don't want to, trying is just too hard." ?

Well, as I have searched my heart on many days, and namely just the other day, while tears streamed my cheeks as I knelt couchside praying, I heard that, "you can do this, it's just the want to that you need." The 'want to', the drive to push me on a hard day. Summed up, I need FAITH!!! I need to, "believe it: I have all I need for today."

If I know anything about God, about His Word, then I know that He is control, and He is with me, and most of all He loves me. This doesn't mean that things won't get hard, but because I know Him and His character, I can believe that He will "never leave me nor forsake me".

A powerful verse that encourages my heart in regard to my faith and struggles is from Hebrews 4:
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Help in time of need, don't you love it?! That's it!! Let me remember to come boldly to that throne, the throne of that beautiful word, grace. I need more grace, and He promises that when I come boldly to the throne, what will I find? Well, I will get mercy and find grace to help in my time of need. That is encouraging!! Oh so encouraging!!

So, the next time I feel like saying or thinking that I "can't" do whatever the task is that is set before me (the pile of pots and pans, the little one who needs training, the laundry that needs folding, the floors that need mopping or all of those things at the same time). Let me fall to my knees and run to that beautiful throne, that is so real, even though I can't see it. Let me run there and seek what I so desperately need (more than a cleaning lady, a shower, or a Starbucks). I need mercy and grace to help in my time of need. Which really, is everyday for me. Amen!!