Homeschooling

Most of the books I have read on homeschooling have left me feeling very inadequate. One author was a homeschooling mom of ten children. By nine in the morning, the cows had been milked, eggs removed from the chicken coop, farm chores done, breakfast cooked and eaten, prayers said and all ten children sat peacefully doing school work. The children knew four foreign languages and American Sign Language. This does not happen in our house! My first thought upon reading this book was, "Lord, where am I going wrong?" Then I started looking for books by homeschoolers just like me.

We do manage to get all of our school work done on most days. Most school days we are lucky if my youngest son can find the perfect pair of underwear to put on and a pair of pants he likes enough to actually wear. If he finds socks that he will wear, we consider that to be a miraculous event here in our household. I am lucky to witness such miracles each and every day. God is in the small things, right? If my oldest can refrain from teasing his younger brothers for an entire day, that is a miracle, too. If my two younger children do all of their school work without some sort of meltdown, that's another one to be counted among the many miracles I have witnessed.

My morning prayers usually go something like this, " Lord, help Joseph to find his underwear, socks and pants in time for our outing today. Send forth Your Spirit and smack my fourteen year old with the grace to keep his hands off of his brothers. And lastly Lord, could you help them with any complete sentences they need to write today? I know that all things are possible with You, Lord. This would certainly be a miracle- Oh, if you could also help them write these complete sentences without tears and moaning, I would be ever so grateful, Lord. Lord, Am I asking too much? I will give You all the credit for any of these miracles You perform today. Amen."

At least once daily, I have to remind my children that this is not the first year we have been homeschooling. We have been homeschooling for nine years. I also have to remind them that none of the rules or expectations changed while they were sleeping; the classroom was not moved and yes, we still have to do school work. We have had the same routine for nine years, we wake up, we get dressed, eat breakfast, brush our teeth and start school. Some days, by the way they act, you'd think I'd jumbled it up on them from time to time.

We definitely have many wonderful days in our school and I would not give those up for anything in the world. We keep our sense of humor and that helps us make it through those days that are frustrating. Thankfully, the Lord has blessed each of us with a sense of humor and that helps us get along as a family-we can laugh at the unfortunate events that sometimes make us crazy. I still have not found the homeschooling book I am looking for-- the one to which I can relate. God has shown me that what we are doing works for our family and there is not another family out there like ours, so that book just isn't on the shelves because it is still being written.