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10 May 2023

worthy the cost

I am so grateful for homeschooling. 

There are days I think I've lost my mind (and more that other people think I have) but that is not the same as days that I regret homeschooling. I simply never do.

The hours with these kiddos are so sweet. Teaching things their pace, so good. Reading so many good books, together.  

Today I was reading I, Juan de Pareja next to Sofie on the couch, and before I knew it, Nora was drawing pictures at my feet and Lily was perched on the back, passing through and drawn in by the rich story. At lunch, we read for the third time about the life of George Müller, once again inspired and touched and humbled by the obedient story of George and Mary and so many others to care for thousands of orphans by faith. I cherish the moments in between each chapter, when we marvel and talk and remember and share...I love shepherding their little hearts through all we're studying. 

As Emma crawls between us and Ben unorganizes whatever I just finished organizing, I can see all the ways homeschooling has blessed and enriched our family, and I can see how the steadiness and slowness of learning, day after day, has carried us through a lot of really challenging times. There were seasons this year I wanted to stay in bed instead...or send everyone somewhere. But instead, we learned about the world before these tumultuous seasons, about the way God knit the universe together, about life and how it carries on, about men and women in His hands, about His Word, we read good books together, wrote about fascinating things, practiced and practice and practiced until ruts were worn into little brains and hands.  We have carried on and mourned on and lived on together, and I got to be a daily part of that. I know these kiddos well. We've been hemmed into each others mournings and struggles and joys and when they have needed help and truth and support, it. has. been. Christ. through. me.

Even math--dear math--that threatens to kill us and often pushes my children to emotional outbursts, sassy frustration and/or stubborn withdrawal....conquering it, little by little, builds so much in them. And there have been countless times this year, when Algebra 1 has stretched Lily and I to our very ends, that we have laughed together at the insanity and battled it through. There have been times when her teenage mouth has burst out some drama and the Lord has helped me to return it with humor and grace and melt her completely. It's helped she and I work through other hard things with grace and humor, and I'm grateful for all the square roots and charting of equations.


It has enabled us to keep Haiti in our lives...to go where we need to go when we need to, and to dictate our days. It has enabled us to draw others in the lives of our kiddos, community-made-easy by, "here, read these two chapters with Sofie, will you?" Sharon, Grandpa, Cindy, Shelley, Gaga...many have found an easy way to invest in our kiddos over the years through coming alongside homeschooling for a day or season! 

Sweetest, when we want to start our day with breakfast and devos and a walk...we can, Ben still in his pajamas, Gracie on her leash, the sun just starting to warm our skin, and there isn't a day I'm not thankful for those slower, together, intentional moments.  I only get them once!

As we wrap up Math with Sofie and History with Nora and Science with Lily this week with about another week to go (except that Algebra...finishing her will still take another month!) I am grateful.  I NEVER dreamed I'd have homeschooled Lily from preschool to high school (yes, she'll be in ninth grade in the fall!) or that I'd have ever homeschooled anyone, at all. 

That is my annual random homeschool post. :)

If I can ever help you think it through for your own little corner of the world, email/text me!  There is so much I never thought I could do that has instead become some of the richest (and most reliant-on-Him) parts of life!



1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMay 13, 2023

    Even in your honesty about homeschool, it sounds idyllic. -RS

    ReplyDelete