More than surviving
This month’s editorial will be a pep talk to myself—feel free to eavesdrop. I am about to start my 13th year of homeschooling (19th year if you say homeschooling begins at birth) and am doing all the usual things. Collecting books, writing out curriculum plans, making lists of what I still need to find in the way of outside classes, designing weekly planners on computer documents and of course wondering if I am expecting too much out of this year. I am honestly looking forward to this year … and dreading it at the same time.
It will be a strange year for me with my eldest, our only daughter, graduated and living in New York while she attends a sculpture atelier program.
Our remaining three children are boys, the mystery of which I have yet to plumb. I will always wonder if I had a brother growing up, if being in a houseful might be easier. As it is, I am regularly flummoxed attempting to comprehend the male brain.
In spite of this I am looking forward to a year full of learning for me as well as for my boys. I will be joining my two oldest boys in their humanities studies which are lectures on CD. I will be helping with two different co-ops, one for my older boys and one for my youngest.
A middle son has made marked progress on his reading this year and I am hoping for more independent study from him. My youngest is eager to learn, is already a strong reader and loves everything we do for the most part.
It is good and right that we are enthusiastic about the coming year. We have every reason to expect great things. We serve a mighty God who is faithful in providing all we need when we need it.
We also have a rich heritage of pioneer homeschoolers who have gone before us and whose children are thriving in higher education, in the public square, in entrepreneurial endeavors. We can take great confidence in knowing that homeschooling really does work, that we are doing the daily work of building God’s kingdom by teaching our sons and daughters His truths.
By the time you are reading this, your lessons will probably be in full swing. Hopefully everything is going smoothly and your children are co-operating beautifully with your carefully laid plans. You may not need the second part of this editorial. But in case you do I humbly offer to you my version of:
The Homeschool Mom’s Survival Tool Kit
- Daily individual and family prayer time — You need a time of personal devotions as well as times to pray together as a family. I have found that the simple practice of starting my youngest son’s lesson time with me with a short prayer asking for wisdom, asking for God’s truth, goodness and beauty to be revealed in our daily lessons is a wonderful encouragement for both me and the child.
- Someone whom you can call up when you need to vent, get advice, ask for prayer, etc. Preferably someone who is a little bit further ahead than you are in this homeschooling journey. We are developing a mentor program for moms getting started in homeschooling in which they are matched up to a more experienced mom, preferably one that lives nearby and has a similar family make-up and/or style of homeschooling. If you need a mentor, or can be a mentor, please e-mail me jmtulis@gmail.com and we will try to match you up. No one should try to homeschool completely on their own. Last year I was struck by the number of moms who said they never got connected and were very discouraged about their first year of homeschooling. In a homeschooling community as large as ours, such isolation should not occur.
- Some good and worthy books in which to escape, assuming that you will not shirk your duties but will find those appropriate time to lose yourselves in some encouraging instruction or a great story. Keeping three books going, a stiff one of high ideas and intellectual challenge, another book that offers practical help in a needed area such as child training, habits, family communication and lastly a book just for enjoyment.
- Once a month getting together with friends for face to face time to laugh, encourage, share stories of God’s faithfulness – in a previous editorial I stressed the importance of this and the fact that virtual friendships while valuable do not replace the real thing.
- A larger support group, either online or actual, of homeschooling moms who can be a resource for field trips, product reviews, curriculum suggestions — see the support group section of this newsletter or just go to yahoo groups and find a Chattanooga-based group of homeschool moms.
- A somewhat regular date night with husband — Try not to talk the whole time about homeschooling! For some this is weekly, for others it may happen less often but, trust me, you have to plan a date or it will not happen.
- A supply of games to break out when seat work or other lessons are just too difficult and frustrating for all. These can be simple board games for the very young that just reinforce counting, letter recognition, sorting etc. For the older children, it can be word games, trivia games, geography or history games. Ask your support group for suggestions of their proven family favorites if you do not have your own.
- A collection of read-alouds just for fun to turn to when a child or children just need to cuddle with you before getting back to the lessons at hand. You may need to build a small family library using books on worthy booklists such as Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt, The Book Tree by Elizabeth McCallum and Jane McCallum Scott, Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson, Who Shall We Then Read by Jan Bloom.
- A really good printer and a photocopier if you can swing it. There are just so many great resources on the Web. A copier is especially helpful if you are trying not to consume certain resources but hoping to preserve them for the next child or to sell when you are finished. Unless you are super organized, you will often be surprised by how often you need to photocopy a textbook page before your child can do an assignment.
- A daily/weekly plan including chores for all, individual time with each student, group lessons, reasonable start times and outside classes.
- Plan B for when Plan A does not work due to illness, catastrophe or other unforeseen circumstances. This can include some educational videos or DVDs for the younger children, activities or games that the older can do with the younger, abbreviated basics for the older students. (See Cindy Rollins’ essay on this matter on Page 3). Make sure your older students know what is expected of them on “those days.”
Remember, we can be confident in what the Lord is doing to grow our children up in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and man. Sometimes His work is not as obvious to us as we would like. In spite of this we need to tell our children how proud we are of them. We need to be their biggest cheerleader, we need to let them know that we are convinced that God will use their gifts and their abilities to accomplish mighty works for His kingdom.
May this year of home education be a blessing to you and to your children.
— Jeannette Tulis