Yesterday I shared how we started the journey toward home education. Today is a continuation of that story…
I bought a series of progressive workbooks, worked out some schedules and away we went! I didn’t give the girls a break that Christmas. I had them do the testing to see precisely what levels to start with. Then we started with what I knew of education– public school style. I brought school into the home. It was kinda fun…for awhile. But I started to get bored of doing the same thing day in and day out and wondered if I’d be able to do this for another 10 years or so. A few months later…
We connected to the Internet – wow, a whole huge, new world opened up for me! Even though the ‘net is a lot bigger nowadays there was still a fair amount of information on various methods of homeschooling. I started researching unit studies and we delved into them for awhile. This led me to the Charlotte Mason and the Classical approach which led me to Unschooling and Natural Learning but the CM method was what I really wanted for my family. All methods offer something valuable but as Christian parents, we wanted something more – we wanted to pass our faith onto our children…we want for them to take ownership of that faith and experience a life filled with God for themselves. Throughout the years I started working very hard to become more like a ‘proper CM homeschooler‘ but I’d fall short and then feel like a failure and well, suffice to say that this time was fairly tumultuous for me as I was caught in a vicious circle. It was a great time where I learned a lot but also had its ups and down. I wanted to ‘take the meat and spit out the bones’ but felt an internal pressure to be a CM purist yet I couldn’t attain to the CM ideals! What a quandary…it’s always going to be hard when we keep looking at others instead of God.
Anyway, as I experimented on my girls with all these methods I was revising my educational philosophy, my dreams, goals and ideals for the children. In actual fact, my dreams and ideals drifted away from God and more to providing a ‘superior, successful, academic education‘. But deep in my heart I knew that something was missing. Oh, don’t get me wrong: we did Bible study and had memory verses and all those right things, yet something was missing. I knew that I was doing what God wanted- after all, I was doing this for Him, for His glory! Right? Oh boy, God was to show me how wrong I had been. After a few years, in His right time, He stepped in and didn’t leave me to wander for too long.
Looking forward to the next installment in this, your journey… 🙂
Dear Susan
“In actual fact, my dreams and ideals drifted away from God and more to providing a ‘superior, successful, academic education‘. But deep in my heart I knew that something was missing. ”
So so true, the post on AHS also was convicting as I so easily fall back into teacher and forget about priesthood in my classroom……enabler of grace, and freedom, the author of life not just BOOKS needs to be in my classroom!!!
Sigh sigh God give me wisdom
Cathy
.-= Cathy´s last blog ..Beauty for Ashes =-.
Wonderful as usual, Susan, can’t wait for the next one! You and I are kindred spirits in completely different seasons of homeschooling.
Amanda,
Knowing me IRL means you have probably heard all this one hundred time…yet you still offer encouragement. Bless ya!
Cathy,
Ah, what a way with words you have. You’re one of those poetic type of writers taht leve me feeling a tad envious. 😕 But I’m shouting a resounding Amen! to your words “enabler of grace, and freedom, the author of life”.
Marissa,
Thankfully my girls were fairly resiliant, plus I had a lot more energy back then…but it’s wonderful to see a younger mum who isn’t getting drawn into the ‘hs peer pressure’ and being a little bit radical like you are. :rotfl: