The Motives and Heart Behind Home Schooling

I am what they call an accidental home schooler. I was never exposed to home schooling growing up. Never knew much about it at all. Never investigated it, considered it or thought twice about it UNTIL I became a mom. In 2006, after years of loss and infertility we adopted 3 kids at once. 2 toddlers and a new born all in one swoop! WOW, was that parent boot camp or what? They were pretty young so school was not really on my mind then. As they got older and I enjoyed being at home after being on a fast-track career path, I started to entertain home schooling. At that point I still knew nothing and no one who had done it. Those that I had heard of were weirdos I saw on TV. As Kindergarten drew closer for my oldest princess I got nervous. We lived across the street from one of the best elementary schools in our city, so I chickened out the first week of school and signed her up.

Two years, 3 schools and lots of issues later.......home school came back to the forefront of our heart. She needed something different and no one else was going to be there to give it to her. With 35 kids in the class, she simply was not getting her needs met which was causing problems for her and her teachers. At this time I had a 5 yo in Kindergarten and a 3 yo at home.

It started off pretty good as I began to understand how much support, materials and how many people actually do it. One month after I started home schooling my daughter, I attended a home school conference in my city. I spent 3 days immersed in the home schooling culture and my life was changed forever. There were 1000's of home school families, workshops on every topic you can imagine to help you along the way and a vendors hall equal to a home school mom's heaven. I think I cried in every single workshop as I sat and heard parents with families just like mine.

What I was hearing was absolutely blowing my mind! I was home schooling b/c of my daughters need for extra attention and the fact that I had the time and understanding of how she learned. But what I was hearing from so many of these parents was much different. They were home schooling b/c of their convictions. All the academic stuff was secondary. It was about discipleship! Now I have been passionate about my faith as a Christian for many many years. I had just never
looked at home schooling in this way.

At this point I decided that I was going to home school all my children. Not ONLY b/c I could choose their curriculum or teach according to their learning styles. I was ALSO doing it with conviction. I am NOT an anti-public school person. I don't believe that my kids are better b/c they home school. This is what we decided we wanted for our family.

Many friends and family were skeptical as we expected, but we pushed forward anyway. Now I was armed with my conviction of discipleship,  curriculum, support groups, books, new friends and most of all kids that were loving it.

Now we have been home schooling for 3 years! Has it been all roses? No! We are just like every other family. There are days when there are attitudes, lack of motivation, antsy kids, whining and a fed up mommy. Even on those days, we push through. We take a break when we need one and move on. I love seeing my kids learn new things and spending time with them that will be gone before I know it.

Lately I have been feeling like we need a change of pace. We will be dramatically changing our curriculum for the coming year and I plan on giving them much more liberty in their learning time. Something else that has come up lately as well, is attitudes. Attitudes with us as parents and with their siblings. Behavior that I never saw coming. So yes, our schooling is going great and they are right on schedule. I have all my chore lists, checklists, menus lists, grocery lists and every other kind of list that we faithfully run our household by. HOWEVER, Discipleship became my focus again.

You can have ALL those other technical, educational and financial things in place. If you do not remember the thing that is "needful" as Jesus would say, the rest is all for naught. This goes for home schoolers and every other kind of schooler. The discipleship of our children is much more important than getting straight "A's" in their school work.

Discipleship is a BIG part of our home school. This week, I have decided that it is the ONLY thing that we are focusing on. WHY? I have noticed a few things in the way they have begun to relate to each other and their overall attitude towards their work and instructions.

I am reading "Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining and Bad Attitudes in YOU and Your Kids !" by Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller. I have learned so much and I realized that I as the mother control the environment. It is not only their attitude that is affecting our world but mine as well!

So as I start with me and my approach, I know that I will begin to see a big difference in them. Less criticism, more praise. Less law and rules, and more liberty! I will let you know how it goes! We are seeing great results already.

MOM, THE ENVIRONMENT IN YOUR HOME STARTS WITH YOU!

Toodles :)