Saturday, February 27, 2010

Homeschooling from a Teacher's Viewpoint

It's nice to see a teacher fighting for homeschoolers' rights.

Article here.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Life Happens

The last three days have been a lesson to me in flexibility, patience, and honoring God's commandments.

A young couple in our church had a family member in California die. I could see she really wanted to be there, but with three young children on a 3rd class petty officer's salary, it was not likely to happen. I encouraged her to look into Space A MAC flights, and also offered to watch her kids if she wanted to go. Friday morning, her husband called mine and asked if we could take all three kids until Tuesday. He told us that we were the only ones they felt they could trust with their precious children - what a blessing to hear that!

Years ago *we* were blessed with wonderful people who would watch our young children on a moment's notice. This is certainly a blessing to a young military family far from home. These people have become our forever friends whom we will never forget.

All through Scripture God calls us to show our love for our neighbors in practical ways. Sometimes this isn't convenient or easy. I learned long ago that it is more important to be available for the new homeschool mom who needs to vent than to finish the lesson plan for the day. My kids have learned to be flexible, and to understand that people are more valuable than books. This is one of those life lessons they wouldn't have learned in school.

In this particular instance, it hasn't been at all easy to serve. I haven't watched a two-year-old for more than a few hours in a long, long time. In addition, he has a medical issue which requires me to watch everything he touches and puts in his mouth. Doable, but challenging.

To add to the challenge, we just got a new puppy whom we are working on housetraining. I haven't been able to keep as close an eye on him as I would like, so we've had lots of accidents. Plus, I've been so busy caring for two young ones, a puppy, and a house, that I didn't have time to put together lesson plans for homeschool today.

No worries, right? Well, I got up early after a sleepless night to get things going, only to find that my two youngest both have fevers. I've struggled all day to keep on top of things, but all my plans have gone awry.

Still, there have been moments of joy. There was genuine laughter from sharing old jokes with new kids. The two-year-old has entertained us hourly with his antics and impish smile. With two of my kids down, the oldest from both families stepped up to the plate with chores. The new puppy is too adorable for words. My dear husband has been home the whole time and is a great help. Still, I'll be glad when mommy and daddy come home tomorrow.

And if they asked me again tomorrow, I would would smile a sincerely genuine smile and say, from my heart, "Absolutely."

Monday, February 1, 2010

Cons of Homeschooling

Every once in awhile I'll come across an article or blog about the "cons of homeschooling." Unfortunately most of the time they aren't really cons but veiled digs at non homeschoolers.

That's why this article is so refreshing. These are thoughtful, real reasons why homeschooling is hard.

But, I still think it's worth it.