Thoughts on Homeschooling

It is Monday morning and I always have so much
to get done. I always feel like a race horse coming
out of the starting gate.
I thought since I am thinking about home schooling
so much and a strange little conversation I had last week,
I thought I would talk about it today.

We had a appraiser come here last week to appraise our house.
As he walked up to the front door, I went out to meet him, because
when you ring the door bell the dogs go crazy and start barking,
and my little Sheltie turns into a wolf.

As I walked out the door, he said, " I have been here before." I am
pretty good with faces and as I stared at him, I couldn't remember him
at all. So I said, " You have?" He said, " yeah, right after you built it."
I said, "Oh, okay," then he said, " You home school don't you? I shook my head
yes, and then he said, " So, how did they turn out?" I was kind of shocked, not
thinking I heard him correctly, " I said, " I beg your pardon?"
He said," your family was the first home schooling family I had ever seen,
and I have often wondered about your kids and I just wanted to know how
they turned out. "

I think that is a little like asking how many A's did you get on your report card.
So I told him about the kids, and that I thought they turned out really well in
spite of the teacher they had. I know I am really proud of them. That they were
married and that I had 5 grandchildren and that my next two were doing really
well in college and that my last two were in high school and I would graduate one
more this year and I still had a sophomore and after 21 years, I only had two years
left.

So one of the things about home schooling is people will judge you more by how
your kids turned out, rather than whether or not you got math done for the day.
People that you never dreamed of in a million years want to see if it works.
Now as I stand here almost finished, looking to the last year with my 5th child
wishing I had more time, being afraid, that there is whole chunks I forgot to
teach, being afraid for the 5th time I really messed this one up. All of those thoughts
run through my mind like a chorus over and over. Always questioning,
How did time go by so fast and how did I get here.

One of the hardest things that for me to see is my weak areas turn out in the kids
when they do the placements tests. I am so weak in Math, weak, that is a under
statement. I am a idiot when it comes to math. My strong areas are the areas they
excel in, like English and history. The things I love to teach are the things they test
really well in and that is hard.

One of the things I can say we did the best at was talking. There were days maybe
whole weeks, when all we got done was talking, there were days, when all we did was
Bible because the teacher was a basket case.
I tell people when there were years, I was going to have a baby or just had a baby,
all we did for school was lots of Lego's and lots of reading out loud.

When I first started homeschooling the Lord turned my heart to my children. I never
expected that. But I am so very thankful that He did.
I tell people that the kids turned out well, not because I was a good teacher, but because
of who they were, I had the best material in the world to work with, one thing
I found out was all and I mean all children are gifted in a area and to be a teacher
you work to those strengths. Do what they like to do, teach what they like.
You are the teacher, pick and choose and most of all, love what you do, even
if 10 years down the road someone walks up and wants to know how they turned
out.

It has been the joy of my life, my regret is I wish always I had spent less time
on the phone, I wish I had let the boys blow up more stuff, I wish that we had
spent more time outside letting them climb trees and make tree houses, and
then we would have done a bit more school. But only after they had had more
fun than they did.

I hope you have a lovely Monday.

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men!

(Psalm. 107:6)