Oh, What a Feeling ...

Assignment: Take time this week to write about YOU and your feelings of trials and triumphs with homeschooling. Touch on when you first heard about the concept of home schooling and whether you tip-toed into the idea or just jumped in and never looked back. Share your schooling as a child and how you compare it to what your goals are for your children.



Why is the first assignment always the hardest - especially when you have to write about yourself?!?!? Ah, I know I can make this easier ... just one bite at a time ... you know like eating elephant! LOL

((chewing sounds))

Homeschooling … WOW … once I heard about it (fourteen years ago) I just literally jumped in with both feet. My precious Rooster introduced me to homeschooling - both he and his sister homeschooled before we started dating. **My MOST PRECIOUS Sister Sue that has homeschooled all of her children to some degree ... some she took out of school and homeschooled, some were always homeschooled, and one started homeschool but ended up graduating from a small town school where he played football. I am as proud of my nieces and nephews as I am my own children. I can only hope to raise my children to be as intelligent AND to walk with Christ as they do ... beautiful, beautiful people! ** The only time I have ever looked back is to see how far down the rabbit trails we have traveled. Hmm, makes you wonder from reading this first paragraph who it actually is that gets off of the rabbit trails ... ((GIGGLING))

I look back now ... we started in 1995 homeschooling my daughter and my step-daughter joined our homeschool in 1997 (my step-son who was also homeschooled had already left home to start a family) with boxed curriculum. Then sometime that year, I found unit studies. Rooster and I sat down one weekend, picked a topic and we designed a whole unit around Charlotte's Web - language arts, math, science, history, ... it was all there ... LOL, he calls our units "Prego Units" ... "it's in there!" I don't even know if that is their tag-line anymore, or if it's Ragu's ... LOL, I don't know if they are even in existence anymore - not only has my homeschooling changed from boxed but so has my cooking ... I make food fresh now ... very little mixes or packaged foods! **RABBIT TRAILS**

How do you judge triumphs? Are they the "grades" that your child makes? Are they the fact that when you child is mixed company, they carry on intellectual conversations about their studies? I believe our homeschool triumphs come in many different sparkles I see everyday when I look into the eyes of my children as I talk with them. When I cracked open Amy Pak's New World Explorer CD case, I saw the pure delight in my eight year old Wolf-boy's eyes. He had been watching the mail for days to be the first of my five "mail carriers" to snag the history goodie! Each day when we open our Exploring God's Creation with Astronomy book by Jeannie Fulbright, Miss Smiley (10) and Miss Boo-Bop (5) clap their hands with glee and delight. Bubba-bear looks on with pride as he leaps further and further into his math ... he may struggle with diagramming a sentence, but the maturity and pride I saw creep across his face as he helped ME understand my college algebra problem ... well ... that just said it all for me. Lately, my greatest triumph though was to find for my lost boy ... Sir Hiss-alot his niche if you will, in the academic world. Sir Hiss-alot has fallen in love with MATH! My lost boy, which most of you know is our adopted son - came to us with a myrad of issues - however the failure to thrive due to starvation and attachment disorder (and no he was not adopted from a third world country - he was a relation's child - rolling eyes, spitting, and growling) are the greatest obstacles that we have to get around at this time.

The trials however, fall in line with the triumphs ... it is a trial when a child comes to me and says XYZ is not working for me - but it still works for the other five children. Figuring out a way to make XYZ work for all of my children is definitely my trial. Balancing my class work, work, and home educating my children is another trial. My genius boys just suggested that I get up earlier - how much earlier than 4:30 am can a person actually get up and still be a viable human until 9 pm that night???? Hehehehe ... they are my boys ... I swear I love them ... but "Ethel, there are days ... STRAIGHT TO THE MOON"!

Now I know some started school this week, but we being very traditional homeschoolers (and by traditional I mean we have to do everything different from the system) start our school year in January. We took a longer than usual break this year, as my Rooster and dearest Sister Sue lost their mom. We took some time off to visit Sister Sue, and help her clean out some storage. We also took some time off to be with Rooster-love while he adjusted to his new job and our new schedule (EVERY WEEKEND OFF - no more seven/three/seven/four insanity - no more 6 am to 6 pm that turns into 4:30 am to 9:30 pm - no more nights and VACATION ... we actually get VACATION now!!!!) and we had a couple of mini-vacations mixed in there. So, we "kinda" put some things off until now and are just starting a new study in science and history.See my happy homeschoolers ... this was our "first" day of Exploring God's Creation with Astronomy. We have been "lap-n-notebooking" this year. I have seen such a tremendous difference in how my precious ones learn. Better yet, I see the joy my children have in learning ... now isn't that the ultimate homeschooling "feeling"!

2 Corinthians 7:4

Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

Just as Paul turned to God for comfort during the tribulations of Corinth, I have found great comfort turning to God during our trials of homeschooling. And as Paul found comfort and joy from the Corinthians in his time of need ... I have always found comfort and joy being a part of the homeschooling community - whether it was a time a needed a suggestion for curriculum, or if I needed help on teaching a child! This is only one of many verses that has become my favorite while homeschooling.