Grace For The Homeschool Mom by Sarah Beals

We have a sweet visitor today who is going to bless us with her words of encouragement and grace.

Are you feeling like:

"I’m a homeschooling mom of nearly 20 years and I’m weary.
This post is to help you, the weary, burnt-out homeschooing mom, embrace a word that we seem to ignore: enough." ~ Sarah Beals

If you answered yes, continue to read this amazing post and you let her words encourage and refresh you.

Thank You, Sarah for allowing me to share this here too. If you are blessed by her words be sure to leave an encouraging comment by following the link on her title.

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Grace For The Homeschool Mom

January 15, 2014    Sarah Beals     

          

I’m a homeschooling mom of nearly 20 years and I’m weary.

This post is to help you, the weary, burnt-out homeschooing mom, embrace a word that we seem to ignore: enough.

Homeschooling moms have many wonderful qualities to be sure, but I’m not sure that giving ourselves grace is one of them.



School is never enough. We always do more, expect more, try more. Homeschooling marketers KNOW this and feed this insecurity in all of us: buy this, do this, try this, don’t miss this! And buy it we do.

We keenly feel our own under-qualifications for this monumental job and so we try to overcompensate. In the end we burn ourselves out, scare away other would-be homeschooling moms, and discourage fellow homeschooling moms at the very meetings that were started for our support.

I’m just gonna say it:

I don’t want to attend another homeschooling conference.

I toss out homeschooling catalogs that come in the mail without so much as a flip through them

I really, really don’t want another tutorial on making Valentines sculptures with plaster of paris or a how-to guide on building a rope course.

Please don’t send me that link to that amazing lap-book website you were telling me about. {I die a little inside when I realize that moms out there do all THAT in a typical homeschooling day.}

Grace is what I need right now. Grace with myself that affirms,

“Sarah, you are doing enough. God will fill in what lacks.”

There comes a season when you really step back and assess your current course. You ask the hard questions like:

• What exactly is an education?
• How do children learn?
• What do MY children need to learn?
• What strengths can I encourage in each child? What weaknesses need work?
• Have I allowed comparison to steal my joy and drive us all a little neurotic?
• Have I forgotten that I DO, I WILL, and I ALWAYS WILL HAVE limitations? {So does every other teacher in America! Not to mention the limitations of the kids.}

I need to recall why we started doing this in the first place:

• I want time with my kids.
• I want to teach them our family values, and about our God on a day in and day out basis.
• I want them to be avid readers.
• I want them to love learning and pursue it life-long.
• I highly value family time and flexibility.
• I want them to have time to pursue the interests they love.
• We want to travel.

When I step back I realize that my list is quite short,
but my self-made daily to-do list is oh, so long, burdensome and unnecessarily complicated. 

So, I’m saying no. I’m calling good enough enough.

I’m growing whole-hearted children over here and that takes inspiration and creativity and time. It means saying no to a million good things in order to make way for what we value most.

I don’t just want them to read a snippet in a text book, answer 10 questions for a test, and believe they are educated on a topic. We’re going to read living books (Books that inspire and are written by an author with uncommon knowledge and a passion for that subject.) on a variety of topics and enjoy the read. We’re going to discuss, debate, and digest the material.

I want them to empathize and feel deeply the sorrow of those who have suffered injustice in their history readings and biographies and rejoice with those who discovered cures for once life-threatening diseases, or stood up against the wrongs of society with uncommon bravery. I want them to feel the energy of the symphony orchestra and experience the joy of preparing a nutritious meal to present as a gift to your loved ones. I want them to remember that hearts are tied together around the candle-lit dinner table over simple things like spaghetti and garlicky bread.

I want them to enjoy famous composers, artists, poetry and try our hand at our own.

And while Pre-calculus is a necessary evil of high school life and requires a textbook, we’re not going to let textbooks rule our education.

We’ll discuss and hash out politics, theology and different ideas around our dinner table.

We’ll visit museums, concerts and libraries and take advantage of the rich History we enjoy in the New England area.

And when mom can’t remember what an independent clause is or the difference between mitosis and meiosis, we’ll all sit and watch Kahn Academy. Or we’ll  learn via the History and Discovery Channel.

We’ll embrace quiet times alone with our thoughts.

We’ll cultivate creativity, by picking up hobbies like knitting or crocheting.

We’ll do what we can and breathe. We’ll be happy and call it a day.

We’re no longer calling it school, but instead real life. And it is enough.

Are you burnt out? Take some time to invest in yourself, too. You can’t always give. You need little snatches of time to take in.  It might be a walk through a beautiful shop, buying some flowers, arranging some furniture in a creative way, reading a book, painting, sketching, walking or talking with a friend. There’s nothing noble about running yourself ragged into the ground.  Do what it takes to get yourself in a good place where you are ready to jump in, serving your family with a renewed outlook.