Good morning, busy moms! Ready for another day?
I shall try to remember that as we spend the next
Today, I’m choosing to remember some things I jotted down in my journal–’cause I’ll probably need to refer to the list at least once today. 🙂
Blessed perspective. One of the things I’ve gained in 22 years of parenting is the gift of perspective.
And it hasn’t come easy. I’ve decided I learn most things the hard way.
Skinned knees and all.
I scribbled a list of things I wish I had known when I started homeschooling all those years ago… but it applies to every mom–because every mom is a teacher.
2. Education is discipleship. And because of that …
3. “School” should never become the “main” thing. I’ll be my kids’ mom long after the math book is finished.
4. Character training always comes before curriculum.
5. When I’m frustrated and on the verge of burnout, it’s time to take a step back and reevaluate what we’re doing. I might be missing something.
{insert vague memories of times when I’ve discovered this before burnout, rather than after.}
6. His yoke is easy… which means …
7. Homeschooling done right will NOT run me over and leave me on the side of the road for dead.
{insert memory of burdensome curriculum and times when I forget about what really matters.}
8. Marriage needs to consistently come … before mothering.
9. I’m homeschooling, not trying to do “school at home”. There really is a difference.
10. Sometimes, baking cookies is better than math. And it will often accomplish the same thing with better results. 🙂
11. Homeschooling through high school is not as scary as “they” say… and worth far more than I imagined.
12. Teenagers need their parents more than they let on.
13. It really does go by as fast as “they” say so now is a good time to think about what I want the homeschool years to accomplish.
In other words, what kind of children do I want to raise?
14. Sow good things into the lives of the kids now … reap good things later.
15. Sow wind … reap a storm.
16. It takes time for flowers to bloom. They do it in due season.
Come to think of it … twenty years is about right.
When I remember this, I also remember that my kids aren’t really listening to me most of the time. BUT… They.Are.Watching.
17. My actions will speak for me.
18. Apologize.
19. It’s okay to ask for help. Asking for help with homeschooling is good, not a sign of weakness. {repeat often}
20. Being real is better than pretending to have it all together. No one really has it all together anyway.
Except God. He’s good like that.
Okay, and one more.
Never leave Sharpie markers unattended.
I just recently found your blog and I’m glad I did. I am especially thankful for today’s post. It was really insightful and well timed for me as I am just starting to homeschool my 12 year old son.
Thank you for this post. I am 2 years into homeschooling and I often find myself trying not to get overwhelmed. I have a million great ideas and yet I try so hard to stick to the books. Looks like maybe we will bake cookies for a neighbor who is moving for Math today. 😉
I love the “we home school not school at home.”. I tend to forget that and when I do remember things often go much better.
I NEEDED this today!!!! Thank you…..
Thank you for just being you,a real mom with real ideas. It took me six years to finally figure out that we are not “homeschooling”, we are home educators. We have 2 girls 8 years apart and our oldest, the guides pig(lol), went through the trials and errors of learning to .”school” at home. 5 hours at the kitchen table 5 days a week. People quizzing her at random making sure I was doing a good job. Poor kid. I went to a confrence where a met a mom who educated all 5 of her children from k~ 12, after talking for a bit she laughed and said ” Honey you are going to make yourself crazy and take your kids with you.” She told me to read a book, paint a picture, bake a cake, take a walk, and watch a movie. She said that was a much better trip to take my kids on. So I put the text books down and did some investing in my girls. The best advise I ever got. Reading this today brought that very vivid memory back. So again thank you! ; )
Thank you for the reminder!!! WE all are going through the same things just in different seasons!!
God Bless
I appreciate your thoughts this morning, all are good reminders! I am in my seventh year homeschooling and just beginning to have a vision and understanding of what God wants for my children! I wish I had done more reading early on on the topic. “Life” truly is a classroom!
Great encouragement. LOL @ the sharpies 🙂
Brand new homeschooling mom and I can’t wait to see you in Spartanburg! You are one of the main reasons I am going to the convention. I find the whole idea overwhelming:) also, Spartanburg is a great place and I hope you get to enjoy some of it while you are here!
Love! Needed the encouragement today!
Great post! As a new homeschool mom I really needed to read this. I’m already feeling burnout and my kids are just PK, kinder and 1st grade.
Thank you so much for this encouragement! As principal (cheerleader) of our homeschool, I strive to maintain this perspective and share it often with my wife. She is quick to beat herself up and get discouraged – when you’re neck-deep taking care of 5 kids under the age of 11, perspective can be so elusive! I find that the less we look horizontally (to others) for approval and validation and the more we look vertically (to God), then the better our perspective will be. And by the way, I LOVE the cookie idea (but for selfish reasons 😉
We will be at the conference in Spartanburg this week and we are SO looking forward to it! I pray the Lord blesses you in your travels. Having recently done a 14 hour road trip ourselves I can totally empathize with those hours in the van. Thank goodness for great audio stories – we completed all of the narrated Narnia CDs on our trip and the kids started out complaining and ended up begging for more!
Love the post script! So few good things come from unattended Sharpies.
YES! We are blessed with 5 kids ages 18-7. Even our church friends are confused as to how we managed to raise teenagers who seem to ‘like’ us! We are NOT the cool parents. We do NOT have a ton of money, we just have invested 24-7 into our kids. We take breaks from school often, and play, goof off, take hikes, go swimming, make a movie (notice I said MAKE a movie)……our experience is showing the relationships are WAY MORE imporatant than any devotional or math book. Our kids see God thru us as we ask for forgiveness when we blow it! They see us on our knees before the throne of grace often. Also, I love your blog, honest and refreshing.
I an encouraged by this blog. Thank you so much. I`m a homeschooling mother of three young girls.
Thank you for taking the time to write this! I’m so glad I decided to click on the link & have a quick read.
Such great words of encouragement & advise. Number 3 especially spoke to me, so thanks again. God bless xx
I am not homeschooling yet but looking forward to the summer so that I can start homeschool and proceed to the fall. Working full-time, a wife, and a mother to five children under the age of 10, it seems like God is calling me to homeschool. Although my community doesn’t support me, it’s good to know that there are moms and dads out there that support homeschooling. Reading through your posts and the responses, I am so excited and trust that God will make this happens for my family. Thank you for your great wisdoms.
Welcome to homeschooling Ying, you will never look back in regret. I am sure you are committing it all to the Lord. As you step into His perfect design for you, you will find the fit feels right. Press on on the tough days, Heidi`s posts are very encouraging and will come in handy. You have many moms that will walking that same path alongside you.You can do this girl!
Thank you for the encouraging post. It always helps…so in return we can try to encourage other mamas. See you tomorrow in Spartanburg!
A wonderful reminder! So true with sharpes. Haha!
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Yes, those Sharpies! Thank goodness that dry erase board came with two sides! Red sharpie will undo black on a red dry erase board. We will treasure your 21 Heidi! Thx!
I love 8 and 16, my two greatest challenges by far. Although it is now after midnight here in California, and I must say, my hubby and I had blessed grown up evening. I also love that you include “ALL” moms. My sister is trying to homeschool her special needs son. After enduring many years of marital abuse, she is finally divorced and struggling. We are a Christian household but even God wouldn’t condemn her for divorcing someone who was trying to deplete her. At least I’d like to think so. I’ve been married almost 20 years and couldn’t imagine ever doing this alone. Bless all moms, married, divorced, single, widowed, adoptive, foster, step, biological, pseudo moms, ALL mothering figures who are doing their best at enhancing a child’s life and motivating them in lovingkindness. Great Blog. I just wish I knew how how to do it.