Homeschooling

05 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by crowsnest2001 in School

When my sister-in-law started schooling her oldest boy in the fall of 2009, I thought, “Hmmm, should I be doing this?”  After all, her infectious attitude about things she’s doing, makes it seem like we all should be doing it.  So,  I brought it up to Dave.

I made him a proposition: Pray about this every day for the month of January and whatever God tells you we’re to do, we’ll do it.

I began praying in earnest also.  Lord, please change my heart, because I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS!!!

The end of January 2010 arrived and I asked Dave, with a stomach full of butterflies, what Divine Guidance he’d been given.  His reply wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind.  He said something very close to, “I could lie and tell you God told me we’re supposed to do this, but in reality I just want us to.  I didn’t feel a strong answer from God, either way.”

I said something close to, “Great, I’ll sign her up for school in a few weeks.”

We “discussed” it (which is short hand for, fought like cats and dogs) for about a week.  I, in no uncertain terms, let Dave know that HE could be the one to school her if he wanted it to happen so badly.  And he told me again that he wanted us to do this.  After this lovely week came to a close, all the while I prayed (more like I let God know how things were going to be…)  and finally, when I actually stopped to listen to God – this is what He asked:

“Susanne, (I’m sure he wanted to insert something like “you knuckle head…”)  If I had told David this is what I wanted for your family, would you be fighting this so hard?”

My reluctant “yes” was enough to tell me that I had to work on something much harder than homeschooling, I needed to work on that ugly and foreign word – SUBMISSION.  I’m talking about submission not only to God, but to my husband.  For those of you that know me at all, you know I’m not really the “submissive type”.

In fact, don’t most people look at submission as weakness? As taboo? As…yucky??  Kinda like a doormat?

My husband was asking me to do something and I didn’t want to.  My God was asking me to do something also and I REALLY didn’t want to…

So, I began trying to submit, against my will.

Summer came and went and I had done some preparation.  I’d bought some curriculum, I’d bought supplies, I’d bought a “Lesson Plan and Record Book” (which, by its self was scary to me!) and I’d bought bookshelves to organize all my new stuff.  Now, all I needed was to know what I was doing…

Some of you read my posts on FaceBook and saw that there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on my part those first couple of months (or, to be honest, until a couple of weeks ago…)

I sat down those first couple of months and made my lesson plans out for a month at a time, then wouldn’t stick to it.  I would make Emily do days of work in one sitting to catch up and by the end we’d both be in tears.  It got bad enough that I realized I needed someone to be accountable to.  I needed someone to ask questions of, someone to do the record keeping for me!  I talked to Dave about Valley Oaks Charter School and he went with me to the orientation.

We talked about it and we agreed that this was going to be the best situation for us, so I signed her up – and it took a major load off my back.  I think we officially signed up and started meeting with her Resource Teacher in March of 2011.

Being able to look back gives one the advantage of 20/20 vision.  When I look back on last year, I am able to see a huge amount of progress from my little girl who was only 4 when we started and I find that she and I have both come a long way!  To hear her beginning to sound out words, when she didn’t even know her letters when we started; to watch her have a knack for certain areas and give me high-five’s when she got it right the first time; to feel that sense of accomplishment when the school year came to a close, these things have made the challenge a little easier to deal with.
Being half way through year 2, I look at this little girl and I am awed to see what has been accomplished.

The evil and foreign, non-living adversary, that started out with such cause for dismay, alarm and outright anger has been turned into this blooming flower that I can look back on and see our struggles, our growth and our ability to overcome.

And, although I still have issues submitting every day, God is working on me and in me and much of what He has done has been through the thing I started out despising most:
HOMESCHOOLING

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