When we decided to homeschool last year, I felt pretty overwhelmed with all of the choices and all of the responsibilities and the fact that I had to be my OWN boss & motivate MYSELF to get up every morning and inspire my own boys to learn. Luckily, we found a wonderful co-op, Cottage Garden, and that dictated some of the courses Evan took. Cottage Garden and my friends, Kim and Jennifer, were God-sends because they provided much needed wisdom and support. And then I met even more wonderful moms from church and the co-op and we were settling into quite a nice routine.
But then it all changed when God provided a “divine interruption.” (This is what I learned to call it through my summer Bible study on Jonah by Priscilla Shirer.)
God called Eric to a new church in Center, TX, so we moved in the middle of the school year. Luckily, school and my job were not issues because we were homeschooling. But soon after we moved they became HUGE issues to me because I did not have my support group that I had grown to love and depend on so much! We worked out a way to travel to Tyler once a month to finish our year at Cottage Garden, but to say this move was not a struggle would be dishonest.
It certainly disrupted our nice routine which was the topic of this post. Sorry I’ve digressed, but it also helps me to process all of the changes to get to where I am today.
After months of trying to get settled and searching for a new homeschool group to join, we did find one in Nacogdoches. Once again, it’s about a 45 minute drive, but everyone seems to be really friendly and we are SLOWLY assimilating into the group. Evan has even joined the Boy Scout Troop that is sponsored by NACHEA (Nacogdoches Home Educators Association). This has turned out to be a great Daddy/Son time every two weeks, and Eric is enjoying getting to know the other dads and learning ways he can help as well. We’ve also joined the NACHEA 4-H group. We’ve decided this is for Ethan because he loves being a part of the Clover group for the younger children. His leaders are awesome & he comes away with a little project every month!
We are also going to be a part of a much smaller co-op this year, but we are really excited about it! Evan will taking Apologia General Science & Starting Points Biblical Worldview /Writing classes there, and one of the moms has graciously agreed to work with Ethan and her 5-year old son each week. They should have a blast together!
As a school teacher, I also learned the importance of attending CONFERENCES to learn HOW to do my job better. My husband and I were fortunate enough to attend two this summer! We attended the Homeschool Book Fair in Arlington in May and then the THSC Family Homeschool Conference in July. Both of these conferences motivated us to examine how, what, and why we are teaching our boys at home. The speakers were SO encouraging and full of practical ideas that we can implement, and the exhibit halls were so much fun to explore the diverse curricula available for any and every subject.
We had the opportunity to learn from Sally Clarkson (Whole Heart Ministries), Andrew Pudewa (Institute for Excellence in Writing), Steve Demme (Math-U-See), Jim Weiss (Greathall Productions), and many others!
A few observations that I have made from the few homeschool conferences I have attended…
1. The homeschool community does NOT seem to be out to get your money! There were many times that I wanted to attend math teacher conferences or any other educational conference over the years, but they were very expensive. I finally resorted to writing grants to be able to attend. However, these conferences are fairly inexpensive…the Book Fair in May only cost $20/person for the 2-day conference and the THSC conference was FREE to members! Wow!
2. These experts are tried and true normal parents just like us but with a lot more experience and a lot more wisdom! The ones I’ve met so far are all very godly Christians seeking to raise a godly generation of young people to change the world for Christ!
3. As I am learning, I have really had to question my motives and methods for teaching. I have to constantly remind myself of my priorities—to raise godly young men—and not just complete a checklist of learning outcomes each day. This process will take much more TIME and PATIENCE, but I truly believe the result will be a much better product!
4. I have learned the importance of READING good quality “living” books!
5. Audiobooks are awesome and the public library has so many of them! They are an answer to prayer for a dyslexic child.
This post is a little disjointed but it helped me think through some things this week & take a little break from cleaning that JUNKY school room/Ethan's room/office. (That post will come as soon as I finish cleaning!)
Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear how you are getting ready for the new school year!
Finding JOY in the Journey,
Kim
FIELD TRIP TO THE MOVIES!
Mark your calendars for September 23rd…and set up a field trip for your local homeschool group or go as a family!
We are going on a giant homeschool field trip to see:
Dolphin Tale
Homeschool Movie Club and Warner Brothers will be offering a ‘homeschool day’ for matinee shows on September 23rd and if you sign up HERE you will get information on special group promotions, discounts for homeschoolers, and FREE DOLPHIN TALE CURRICULUM written by Sherri Seligson who wrote Apologia’s Marine Biology curriculum! Also, contact usand let us know if you want to bring your homeschool group to see the movie and we will send you some extra ‘goodies’!Register here to get updates on Dolphin Tale’s “Homeschool Day”:
Welcome! I’m participating in the Boy Mom Blog Hop today at M.O.B. Society. What a fun way to connect with other boy moms!
I enjoy cooking & decorating cakes & cupcakes, scrapbooking (although I don’t have much time do to that anymore), taking pictures, & traveling.
I have been married to my best friend, Eric, for 16 years. He is a Music Minister at FBC Center, TX, and God has truly blessed him with a beautiful voice & a talent for anything musical. We met teaching high school…he was a band director & I was a math teacher. We met in August & got married 2 days after school was out in May. Needless to say, we were teased by our students all year long!
Our two miracle sons are Evan (12…a definite TWEEN) and Ethan (4…almost 5). Evan is a miracle because we were actually able to have him, and Ethan is a miracle because God created him just for our family through adoption!
It’s funny how God’s plans are not always our plans! Life has not turned out exactly how I dreamed about it growing up, but I know His plans are so much better than I could ever dream or imagine! And I always claim Jeremiah 29:11—“I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans for good & not for evil, to give you a future & a hope!”
I like to say that I didn’t marry a minister…I married a band director! But God changed that just a few years after we were married when Eric was called into the ministry.
I also always dreamed of HAVING four children…I loved being pregnant! But that is not how God chose to grow our family. Eric & I used to both dream of having 4 children…until we had ONE & realize how much work it is to raise them. But I still sometimes wonder if God will continue to grow our family through adoption again…
We built our “dream house” in 2000 & thought we’d live right down the road from my parents forever…but then God called us to a “crisis of belief that required faith and action” (Blackaby’s Experiencing God principle). We have served at 2 other churches 2-3 hours away from my parents since then…
I thought I would teach high school math until I retired & then God changed that last year, too! Through a series of circumstances, God showed us that homeschooling would be the best choice for our older son who struggles with dyslexia. We just finished our first year and it has been a great fit for our family! We’re still learning, but we definitely see the benefits! You can read more about that here.
Evan enjoys building with Legos, loves anything to do with technology, and enjoys science. He recently joined Boy Scouts & spent a week this summer at Boy Scout camp in A TENT! I don’t know how he did it, but he loved. (Can you tell I am NOT an outdoorsy person? Just another way God has a sense of humor by giving me BOYS that LOVE the OUT OF DOORS!) Some of the books he enjoys are Narnia & Harry Potter (I just started letting him read/listen to these because he’s 12 now).
Ethan enjoys learning anything about Geography & loves to look at books. He has a love for learning & I’m praying that will never be squelched! He has the cutest personality & the funniest sense of humor! Ethan enjoys reading ANY book but especially LOVES two stories from the Bible—Joseph & the coat of many colors & Jonah. If we have any sort of Bible story book, these are the 2 that he wants us to read EVERY night OVER & OVER. That’s ok though. They do teach wonderful lessons!
Come to think of it, all three of my boys are pretty witty (husband included). I’m so blessed!
Thank you for stopping by! I’d love to hear from you & have you follow me! I look forward to meeting some of you at the Boy Mom Blog Hop!
If you would have asked me my opinion about homeschooling 2 years ago, my answers would have been dramatically different than they are now.
Several circumstances led us to our decision to bring Evan home from public school to teach him at home for his 6th grade year. It all started when I read Sally Clarkson’s book, the Mission of Motherhood, last fall (2009). This was the book that our ladies decided to study on Wednesday nights at church, but I couldn’t join them on the discussions because I was in our handbell group that met at the same time for practice.
This book changed my life!
I had never heard of Sally Clarkson before, but let me just tell you that this author put into words what I’ve felt for the past ten years as I tried to balance all of my roles as a wife, mom, and teacher to the best of my ability! Early in the book she talked about having a “divided heart.” It was then that I started dreaming of the idea that we could actually homeschool Evan & bring our family closer together. (Not to mention that we had become friends with a family just the summer before that had homeschooled for 8 years and totally admired their children!)
Another major influence on our decision is the fact that Evan has dyslexia and has struggled with academics as a result. He is very intelligent but his gifts are not in writing and reading—but if you ask him to explain something to you, he’ll talk your ear off! He maintained an A/B average because we were always staying on top of his assignments and stayed in close contact with his teachers. However, that daily struggle & homework until bedtime was really wearing on all of our nerves.
We also could see how he was being affected by the “worldly” influences at school. It is our heart’s desire that both of our boys grow up to have a love for Jesus and live godly lives. Each year, we could see more & more of the world creeping in on his thoughts & attitudes. We wanted to be able to teach both boys about God’s word every day and teach them about things that have eternal significance. However, with our busy jobs & his homework load, the most important things would often get neglected for the daily deadlines of homework & tests.
After SEVERAL months of prayer, research, and late-night discussions with my husband, we decided God was indeed leading us to take a HUGE step of faith & homeschool Evan. This would mean that I would quit my teaching job of 17 years & live on Eric’s church income. This made us very nervous, to say the least! But we felt that if God was leading us to this decision, then He would help us make it financially!
And I am happy to say that we have survived this first year with so blessings! I can’t say that it’s always been easy…some people have told me that homeschooling is not for the faint of heart! Boy, is that true! Some days it’s extremely difficult. But the positives definitely far outweigh the negatives!
Here are just a few of the benefits:
We said we would try this for a year and see how it helped Evan, and we have decided since it’s gone so well this year, then we will do it again next year. Ethan is still too young to start school, so we’ll just have to keep praying about that decision.
This just barely scratches the surface of all the thoughts & discussions that we’ve had about homeschooling…perhaps I’ll share more soon.
Today we had the opportunity to go on a field trip with the Nacogdoches Home School group to tour “Whatakite” in Lufkin. It was such a neat place! The owners were so friendly & generous. They gave all of the kids a free kite & they all got to fly them in the field next to their building. The weather was perfect! The kites that they make do not have any wooden dowel rods in them, so they seemed to fly easier. The boys had a wonderful time! I'm so thankful we had this opportunity for some family time, and I'm thankful that my husband was able to move his "day off" to this morning to go with us! The boys love having time with their daddy!
Evan and Ethan visiting with the owner while they're flying their kites.
