Assignment: This would be a good week to tell about your worst struggles with a lifestyle of homeschooling.  Tell about something you’ve struggled with and how God’s mercies gave us the strength to get past it.  Also, share any curriculum/homeschool methods that have been a relief to you, i.e., a particular Teacher’s Manual or Homeschooling method that’s been easier for your family.  Talk about how you felt when the burden was lifted and Oh, What a Relief it is!

My most difficult struggle with a lifestyle of homeschooling is not with schooling at all but, rather, with parenting.  Those who know how firmly I believe in being a stay-at-home mom may be surprised to learn that I don’t like this job – because I’m terrible at it.  When I had an outside job, before I was married, I was always good at what I did.  Now I’m always bad at everything I do.  It is very discouraging to feel like everything you touch is a failure.  I do this job, not because I enjoy it (although it does have its moments), but because I love my children, and because it is right.

The greatest relief I have found has been in support.  We are very blessed, in that our families are fans of the decision to homeschool.  (I was, in fact, homeschooled myself, so of course my parents are on-board!)  The greatest relief for me is people who will say, “Yes, it is hard.  Yes, I often want to give up, too.  But don’t give up.”

“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” (Heb. 10:24)

The NIV words Hebrews 10:24 this way: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”  We went to a conference last week in Buffalo, New York.  One of the speakers reminded us that spurs hurt.  But they get the horse moving.

According to the Bible (1 Tim. 5:10), bringing up children is a “good work.”  Let us consider how we might spur one another on in this good work.

Filed under: Babies & Parenting, Homeschooling, Personal and Blog News by Rachel
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We’re counting down the days now (until the move), and I’m counting down the big tasks.  Grocery shopping for the month?  Check!  (Nine hours yesterday – on that and other errands!)  Waterbed drained?  In progress.  And, boy, let me tell you, that is a huge task to accomplish solo!  (Especially when you’re a 90-lb woman.)  It is taking some finagling to get the mattress propped up to continue draining. lol

As we’ve been sorting and rearranging, I’ve come across some things I forgot I had.  One is a bottle of Rhodiola rosea.  I thought I’d tell you all about it in case it would be useful to someone, because most people have never heard of it.  Rhodiola rosea is an herb.  It isn’t very well-known yet here in the west (although it is starting to pop up in some unexpected places – like in the “weight-loss” supplement Leptitrex – I’m not sure why), but has been used for many, many years in the east.  It’s classified as an “adaptogen.”  Basically, an adaptogen is a substance that “boosts” all of your body systems without directly interfering with any of them.  This makes it good for encouraging greater energy, and causing everything to function more effectively, without causing any weird imbalances.  Because it’s so new here, there haven’t been a lot of studies on it, so there is no “proof” that it’s safe in any particular circumstances, but from what I have read, and my own experience with it, I would personally be comfortable taking it while pregnant or nursing (and I tend to be pretty particular).

Filed under: Health & Safety, Personal and Blog News by Rachel
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When you think about school, what do you remember?  Little-girl pigtails?  Teenage acne?  Best friends?  Bullies?  Well, this week’s Blogger Friend School assignment is all about the feelings associated with school for us as children, and our homeschooling journeys now.

BFS Assignment #100 – Oh What a Feeling!

Intro:  Oh What a Feeling!   (Marketing credit:  Toyota)
Wow!  As many of us enter into another school year, the feelings that we have permeate in setting the tone for the upcoming school year.  Box Day!– ahhh….the new books and the sound of cracking the binding and smelling the freshly printed pages….Can you FEEL the freshness? ….

Assignment: Take time this week to write about YOU and your feelings of trials and triumphs with homeschooling.  Touch on when you first heard about the concept of home schooling and whether you tip-toed into the idea or just jumped in and never looked back.  Share your schooling as a child and how you compare it to what your goals are for your children.

For me, my own schooling is closely tied to my decision to homeschool my children.  I was homeschooled myself!  Only from sixth grade on, though.  When I hear Christian parents talk about how school is harmless because their schools “are good,” or their “teachers don’t teach evolution,” or whatever, it grieves me.  What they don’t realize is that more is taught at school than that which is officially taught.  When I was in school, I learned to be a “strong” (read: “feminist”) woman.  I learned that feminine softness was a bad thing.  I learned that I needed to work even harder than the boys to “prove” myself, rather than just being who I was and excelling at being me.  I learned that my little sisters were pests to be brushed off or gotten rid of, rather than friends to love, relatives to honor, and younger Christians to mentor.  All of these are unGodly mindsets and attitudes that grieve the Lord – and, now that I know better, me.  This is not the worldview I want my children to learn.

Although we are not far into our “official” homeschooling journey (Ariel is only in first grade this year, and we haven’t started for the year because of the move), I am blessed by the very counter-cultural attitudes we see in her.  Granted, she is very young yet, and we will have to work hard to preserve these, but I believe we have started in the right direction.  Preserving is much easier than undoing!  (I know; it took me many years to overcome my own wrong thinking.)  Just yesterday, she told us that Sophia is her best, best friend.  This is what we want to encourage and develop in her, and in Sophia – a view of the world as God sees it, which includes a good relationship with her sister!

Michael and I knew before we were even married that we wanted to train our children ourselves.  It is our belief that discipleship cannot truly take place if we are sending them away for many hours of the day, even if the place they’re being sent away to is a “good” place.  (For this reason, even a private Christian school is not an option for us.)  It is our responsibility as parents to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” to “teach [God's words] diligently to [our] children,” talking of them when we sit in our house and when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up.  (Eph. 6:4; Deut. 6:7)  We don’t want to be like King David, who was known as a man after God’s own heart, and whose children were wicked.  Or Eli, who served the Lord but did not pass a true heart of worship onto his children.  We want our children to love and serve and follow Yahweh wholeheartedly for generations to come.

There are a few who “escape” public school unscathed. But we find our children too valuable to leave to chance* – and our assignment too clear to do so with clear conscience.

*Did you know that, according to the Center for Excellence in Education (as quoted by Considering Homeschooling), 98% of Christian homeschoolers maintain their faith, but 85% of Christian children in public school do not hold a Christian worldview by the time they graduate, and drop out of church?

Filed under: Babies & Parenting, Deep Thinking, Homeschooling, Personal and Blog News by Rachel
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We only have two weeks left to pack.  (Well, we have three chronological weeks, but we have a trip in the middle.)  We just started really packing up in earnest yesterday, and it is beginning to look like we’re moving.  Somehow, that makes the move suddenly feel real.

The hardest part of packing, for me, is not the physical packing.  It’s the mental sorting through of things.  We’ve been setting a lot of things aside to get rid of.  It’s crazy the junk people collect.  I remember when we first moved into the house I spent my teen years in.  One of the outbuildings was full of old theater seating.  Red.  Who in the world collects these things?!  lol  Our junk is not that weird (at least to my mind – but then, it’s my junk), but we do have a habit of holding onto things that have far outlived their usefulness.

Filed under: Personal and Blog News by Rachel
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