I have homeschooled for ten years now and it really hasn’t been the idyllic picture I imagined at all. It has been hard work and has shown me some of the worst parts of myself. Many days have involved just waking up and doing it. This is my journey about finding joy in homeschooling.
We decided to homeschool when we were pregnant with our second baby, we lost our first sweet one to miscarriage. I had grandiose images of sitting curled up on the couch reading books all day and my children saying, “mommy, thank you for homeschooling us!” I can count on two hands how many times my children have said that! I was reading all the homeschool books and had the Sonlight catalog all marked up. This poor sweet girl who wasn’t born yet and her mama had already set such high expectations for her already. I dismissed the experienced homeschool mamas that said we didn’t need to start school as early as public school. They advised to enjoy your babies and read and play a lot. Sure we would do that too, but there was so much curriculum to buy. Why wouldn’t we start early?
The Lord had so much to teach me and still is. I have had to lay my expectations at his feet. Many days I feel He is teaching me as much or more than my children. Homeschooling has been the most beautiful sanctifying thing I could have ever done. My children and I see the very best and the very worst of each other and we love despite it all. This is why I choose joy. I wish I could tell you this is something I learned as a young mom, but it has been revealed to me over the past year. There will always be hardships and struggles. Over the course of ten years of homeschooling we have experienced death, sickness, anxiety, depression, lost friendships, and numerous diagnoses. That fact will not change, but how I respond can. I will choose to be thankful and joyful despite it all. Learn how to find joy in your homeschooling.
Romans 5:1-5
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.(Edit)
