Staying True: My Journey through Homeschooling

My blogging break has been wonderful. It has accomplished everything I hoped it would and I feel refreshed and energized and ready to jump back into the blogging world. Joyfully that break is over, but another one is on the horizon and school is just around the corner.
Most years I have already purchased all my curriculum by the end of the previous year so that I can have the summer to tweak it and prepare myself for the upcoming year. This year with our big NY/DC trip that didn't happen. I knew that I wanted top make some changes but the sepcifics I had not laid out yet. Then a friend offered me her curriculum from last year...Science, History and English Lit/Grammar. It was everything I would need for those subjects except for the grammar work text and I was thrilled. The amount of money she saved me was unreal and I was so thankful. She brought me all the books and I started going through them trying to figure the best way to use it and still be true to myself.
The truth is, I couldn't. I sat there and looked over this great gift and solid curriculum and I was lost. I couldn't find myself with those textbook pages, and I feared failure was on the horizon. I looked over each subject and then in defeat I prayed over them and asked for direction. And this is what I heard in the depths of my soul. "What you see as a financial gift and answer to prayer, is really your lack of faith that I will provide what I really want you to have. Be TRUE to yourself, and to your kids. I have called you to homeschool these precious children, and I will not leave you short handed"
In the span of just a moment, a mere breath within my self I suddenly felt at peace. And I reminded myself of the two things I counsel other homeshooling moms to do. First, know WHY you are homeschooling. Write it down. Remind yourself of it often. You have to know the WHY or you will get lost in the HOW. The first time someone asks you, "Why do you homeschool?" and you stutter and fumble over your answer, you will feel defeated. So know the WHY so you can succeed in the HOW. The second thing I urge other parents to do is this: Be true to yourself. Be the teacher God created YOU to be, not the teacher you see in others. You are uniquely gifted to teach your own children, your own way. This is the gift that homeschooling gives you. Instead of your child being in a group of 20-30 kids who all learn differently, but are required to learn the systems way, you have the freedom to individualize. Meet your child where they are, and bring them on the journey.
The beauty of homschooling is just that, the journey you take with your children to teach them to know God and to love knowledge. Remembering above all things, that diagramming sentences and periodic tables have nothing on the real gift you are giving your children. Hold fast to the knowledge that homeschoolings greatest gift is the beautiful relationship you are given with your children when you stay true to yourself.

In Love and Laughter, Seeking to KNOW Him