Once upon a time my siblings and I were homeschooled…. Our mom did well with us, academically we were above our grade levels. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, our mom had to go back to work putting us into public school. This happened a few times. My mom tried to keep us homeschooled but inevitably, she had to help maintain the income for our family of six.
As we resided in public schools our grades began to dwindle, and we became more social than academically achieved. As well as getting into trouble… mind you we weren’t in the best area with the best school’s.
In the end I have to say, as an adult I wished that my parents would have kept homeschooling us. We would have done better academically, no doubt.
Anywho… with that said, homeschooling is nothing new to me. Now that I have children of my own I can see why education for my children is crucial. I mean who doesn’t feel that way… but you never understand the degree till you have children of your own.
Fast forward to the year 2015 and me having four children with several meetings regarding my oldest (Luke) and his academics and behavior. Of which played a large role in my decision to homeschool my children, and me finally saying enough is enough….
My son yet again had a rough year of repetitive issues. Nearly every day he’d come home with disciplinary sentences with his teacher requesting for meetings regarding his behavior and academic failure.
Luke has always been energetic. He loves to entertain other children…. With this he gets sidetracked from focusing on his work. But besides that, he was failing in some areas of school that his teachers shed some concern on.
They were saying, that because he’s so active that it was getting in the way of learning new concepts. While I understood, I felt if he was getting the adequate teaching techniques veered towards him, he’d understand.
I have to say this before I continue… to all teachers you are awesome! Thank you for acting out the desire to teach our future.
Teachers can only do so much with the time alloted and with whatever help they are given if they are given any help. Granted it is a tremendous task to teach an enclosed room of smelly, overactive, under-matured individuals. Not to mention classroom sizes… do… not… get me started on that one…. I appreciate their courageous efforts. But the way the school system is set up, it’s just not working. I could go off on a whole other tangent but I won’t.
Its free education, yes, but that doesn’t mean we should be able to apply the saying, “you get what you pay for,”…. I mean come on! It’s our children and their future. An educated… no, well-educated society will beget not only a smarter generation, but a generation rich in knowledge, morals, and much more. Education is being dumbed down, causing our students to feel confused and frustrated. So much so, that the spirit within themselves is tired and complacent. And I was just that, complacent, frustrated, so I gave up and just tried to get through school. Although I had a natural desire to learn. I couldn’t do both, have a social life and good grades, I wasn’t gifted with that talent. So I chose the path of least resistance, my friends, instead of focusing on academic perseverance. Which I completely regret, to say the least. It’s sad to say but this is extremely common, as we all know. But that can change.
Ok, back to my story about Luke… he would come home with his homework and I’d sit down with him to work on it. No matter what subject, we’d get through it. It’d take some effort to get it down, but we’d get it done till he’d understood. Other times he’d come home with a test that had a failing grade. As I’d study it to see what he got wrong, nearly most of the time I’d see it was something we had worked on together that he showed me he knew how to do on his own. So I would ask him why he didn’t get the problem/ question correct and he’d say, “I don’t know.”. Which reminded me of when I was in school. I could study for hours on end, and knew the answers like the back on my hand. When it came to the quiz or test I’d get nervous and nine times out of ten, I always failed. It was certainly discouraging nonetheless. He was like me… and I didn’t want him or my other children to have to encounter this on a continual basis, as I did all throughout my school years.My daughter, Kayla, was not exactly like my son, overactive; but quiet and not quite understanding her school work. Causing her to become behind in school.
The thought kept replaying in my head, “I cannot allow time to beat me in this race we call “Life”’.
I’m competitive and I am not willing to lose. Especially, when my children are the casualties. As a mother (as any other parent would say), I want the best for them and don’t want to see my children regress or plateau in their academics. When I know they are smart children and they have the potential to do and be so much more.
We live in a free country of which allows us to better ourselves and our education. It’s within our power to do so. And I refuse to allow my children to have the feeling of limitations in succeeding to further their education.
It became difficult to grasp, that at home when Luke and I would work on homework he does well, but the same stuff that he works on at home just fine, is doing bad at school? I thought, “what’s going on here?”. And the same was happening with my daughter.
In a parent/ teacher conference my son’s second grade teacher explained; it is best to hold back a child in grades Kindergarten through Second grade. Because the school system is not required and will not retain a child beyond those grades because it’d be too late to retain them due to the curriculum in the higher grades. It is best to hold them back in a younger age (which I agree). In doing so, they may be able to grasp the curriculum better.
But… to me that doesn’t seem sufficient, not enough to help a child, well my child at least.
In obedience I prayed about it… asking the Lord to guide me in finding what best suits my children. And it was homeschooling that was brought to my attention from my parents. I’ll always look back and think that even though I can vaguely remember if I even cared about going to a public school or not…. I want to say that it didn’t matter only because now, as an adult I wish my parents would have stuck it out and kept homeschooling us. Again, I strongly believe it would have been beneficial for us.
With that, I wasn’t sure if Mario (the hubby) was going to agree to allow me to homeschool our children. Because as my husband it is my duty to work together with my husband in unison together in all things respectfully. And the Lord answered my prayer. Mario stepped out in faith to have me begin homeschooling. The school year of 2015-2016 was my first year. Boy! Was I scared… so I prayed… I prayed for guidance.
“What shall we say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31 (KJV)
Take a look at this link from a speech given by Sir Ken Robinson who is world-renown education and creativity expert; you will see my point regarding the Public School System. While I am not a current fan of the Public School System, I do not completely oppose it. With further articulation, I will say this; public schools should change the approach as to how they teach and place children in classes, without requiring extra funding, if possible. And if need be, schools may want to try getting sponsorship’s to pay for extra funding to do so.
Look, we all know our children are our future but few of us take that literally and apply the principle. If we care about our children and their future why do we become lazy, and stop trying to figure out how to fix and/or adjust education to fit the needs of our children and each of their different learning styles and education levels? Is it because a lot of us fall into that category of very little creativity because of the industrialism from public schools, in which we lose the creativity to figure things out?
Here in California education levels are low and it’s a bunch of bologna to say it is solely because we don’t have enough funding. That is an issue no doubt. But think, the approach to which things are done costs nothing. Let’s abolish this “Common Core” curriculum, and “Standardized testing”, because our children are anything but common. (And yes, I understand this suggestion does cost to change.)
Every moment that passes is crucial, time does not wait for us to get things together. Let’s not look back and think of all the things that we wish we would have done with our kids concerning their education.
During my first year of homeschooling, the Lord revealed to me different personality types.
When I attended a women’s retreat for my sister’s church. It was a blessing might I add, thanks Amy! There I learned about the different personality types. That led me to discover something I never thought of before… Learning Styles. There are a plethora of resources I found regarding the three main learning styles. I was amazed! My children all learn in different ways and I needed to figure out how and what types of curriculum they will do best with, in all subjects.
Now regarding public schools, I am not entirely against them. What I am against is teachers who keep suggesting children to have ADHD or ADD, just as they did with my son, is unfortunate. Children are children, and they can be irrational because of a lack of maturity. Most definitely, I believe the Lord has me to homeschool my children. And I will be obedient. Disobedience begets consequence. Obedience begets blessings, of any form, even as simple as the satisfaction of being right with the Lord.
Our flesh easily taints the Spirit in us once we allow our flesh to seep up into our lives. Not all mothers can homeschool due to financial circumstances. And for that I feel I am blessed. And not all stay-at-home moms are called to homeschool their children, but their children are there to be the salt and light of the world in public schools.
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” -Matthew 5:13 (KJV)
Prayer was and will always be vital in my walk with my glorious Savior. Prayer bridges the gap. And in so many ways even in the most minuscule things in life. Prayer works…. Jesus said:
“Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
-Mark 11:24 (KJV)
With that, I pray my prayers, of wants and needs align with the Lords will for me. Because, not everything I want is what I need and ultimately what the Lord has for me is best, beyond compare.
“He hath made everything beautiful in His time…”. – Ecclesiastes 3:11
Thank you for reading and may the Lord bless you!
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