Re-Inventing the Wheel

Last year was the first year of our Homeschool. Even though my daughter was only 3 turning 4. It was the first time I had not been working and attempting to school her - even if it was just doing puzzles and connecting with each other!

I had a picture in my mind of her being able to learn everything with ease and exceed my (unrealistic) standards!

Well, was I in for a huge surprise... Life Happened... we didn't get to do as much as I had on my agenda... she didn't have any desire to do the 'workbooks' I wanted to get through... now what?

After reading and hearing advice from many other mothers about Homeschool, why was I just not taking it in and using that advice? I've heard it said time and time again, when your children are young, just play games together... enjoy their company... don't worry about the academics of it all... just read to them...
Why didn't I just listen... was I hoping to re-invent the wheel?

BUT, I am grateful that I now know where my mistake was... This year has been amazing so far. Our 'work' is relaxed, we are building our relationship. We are just spending our lives together, reading, playing games, colouring in. It might not seem like work, but the real work is getting your child to trust you and learning who your child is. There is so much time later on to focus on other things...

My child is happy and loves her 'school work' - that's more than enough for me! She doesn't need to be able to do Algebra by 6 for me to be proud of her. Working on character traits has a far higher importance in our home!

Lord bless,
Teri

A Homeschooling Adventure!

When people find out that we are homeschooling our children the standard reaction goes something like this 'Wow, you are brave' or 'What about socialisation?'.

Just to reassure everyone, we aren't not focussed on holding our children captive in our home, never to interact with people and never to form friendships we can't monitor at every meeting.

Our children have friends and are involved in many activities that invites building of friendships and team work skills.

We are not brave, in fact, quite insecure. Because homeschooling is 'going against the grain', until we have something measurable, there's no way of knowing if what we are doing is successful.

Questioning yourself and your methods is something that happens almost every single day in our home.

But that's not such a bad thing. Considering that it's your children's education on the line, you can be sure, working hard and considering what will be a best fit for your family is needed.

I have been looking at what other mothers have written in the past about the conflicts they have had about their homeschooling decisions and it's helped me understand things tremendously! 

We decided to homeschool our children for a couple of reasons, namely:

1. Bible based education:

- We wanted our children to have an education founded on the Word of God. 

2. Being our children's 'greenhouse':

- We want our children to grow up like a plant protected by a greenhouse (our home) and to go out into the sun (the world) when they are mature and ready to endure the heat of the sun. Some might say we are over protective, and yes, we do want to protect our children - I don't see anything wrong with this considering the atrocities that children have to endure at schools today.

3. Offering our children a flexible and relaxed schooling:

- We wanted our children to love what they learn, not just complete a unit of study just because they have to make a grade or keep up with a curriculum set by people who will never know my child as well as I do.

4. Academics:

- Statistically, homeschooled children do have a higher grade average than children who attend mainstream schools. Perhaps it could be that alot of homeschooled mothers doubt their abilities and work really hard for their children to be equipped, or maybe it is because children have individual attention that is altered to a level they understand. Either way, the proof is in the pudding - the children have higher averages and a broader knowledge base.

The reasons we have for homeschooling is by no means meant to offend anyone, but just offer enlightenment as to how and why we came to the conclusion that we are going to homeschool. Going to mainstream school is never out of the question, should homeschooling not work out for our situation, so our stance is not an arrogant one. We just trust that each and every parent has paid considerable thought as to why their children go to school and if it's the best choice for their family, as we have in taking the decision to homeschool.

I'm open to discussion, comment or even criticsm on one condition - that at the end of it all, please respect the decision we have made!

Lord bless!

A Challenge!

The Hello Mornings Challenge has been on the go for 5 mornings now... I can't say it's getting easier to get up earlier, in fact, it's getting harder - but I know the benefit it will have in the long-run and I just can't give up!

This past week has been a study of Psalm 1 considering the author of the Psalm, the commands given and how to apply the scripture. The study also allocates a memory verse for the week. This has been a great study, but I think this past week I have just started feeling my way around, getting accustomed to waking early, struggling with that foggy morning brain!

But on the upside, starting the day with the Lord's word and in prayer - best way to start your day! I've heard of many people who wake early to spend time with the Lord and I honestly believed it was only for those who were happy to be up before the sun! But, even the smallest sacrifice of half an hour - getting out of bed before your family and spend that time with the Lord, it filters through your entire day! I'm happier, calmer and more importantly - I consider the Lord in more areas of my life!

I hope that many other women will see the value of this! As a die hard night owl who definitely hates being up before I absolutely have to - this challenge has changed my opinion on being up early for the Lord!

Lord bless!

Tending your Garden...

Very often when I am doing some work in the garden, I think about life, and how you can draw so many similarities between tending a garden and tending your family and spirituality.

We've been tending a very small vegetable patch, which started very much experimentally, for the past year or so. So far, we haven't really had any vegetable produce, but it's a work in progress!

This is just a picture of one of our garden offerings...

That's a potato believe it or not... the smallest potato I've ever seen, but none the less, a potato!
God is truly amazing... We never planted any potato's, but there we had a plant growing and this little one was part of it! I'm excited about our little garden!

Often when I am doing something as mundane as pulling out weeds or watering the garden, I think about spiritual things. While weeding I often consider how we need to tackle our deep-routed sin, pulling it out by the root and not just dealing with the surface presence of it.

The only real way to tackle sin, is by staying close to the Lord, by feeding on the Word and by communicating your heart to Him in prayer.

I'm about to take on a morning challenge for the next 3 months... 2000 women from 40 different countries are  going to be maximising their mornings by waking early to spend time with the Lord in bible time and prayer... I'm looking forward to taking part as I long to spend time with the Lord before any distractions happen and this would be perfect

I know that registration for the current challenge has closed, but be sure to check out for any future challenges taking place:
http://inspiredtoaction.com/resources/hellomornings/

Lord bless!

Discipline

Just the other day I was disciplining my eldest child.
We went and had a chat about her offence, she was disciplined, we prayed about it together, asking God to forgive her for her offence and to help her rid herself of the sin.
However something different happened that day - after we had prayed and hugged each other, she told me that she feels so happy after being disciplined.

Today, people are often criticized for still believing in something as 'old-fashioned' as disciplining children when they are disobedient.
The Bible however says in Proverbs 13:24 that 'Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.'.

The bible teaches us that not discipling a child is likened to hating your child. I can't think of many parents who hate their own children, but how can so many parents make conscious decisions to not correct a child when they need to be brought back in line?
The bible doesn't say that we should strong arm our children into doing what we want them to do, but it does tell us to 'diligently discipline'.

Proverbs 19:20 says that we should 'Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future'.

The reaction my daughter had to the correction I gave her brought such joy to us as parents. She is learning that Listening leads to Obedience which ultimately leads to Wisdom - which is the pinnacle of a parent's role in their children's lives.

Lord bless!

Biblical Love

For this past week, the theme of our morning devotional has been Biblical Love.
I have been challenged by this as Biblical Love is something I often struggle with.
What I have learned is that the love that The Lord describes is so different to what we often regard love as being. Love is not an emotion, but a sacrificial action that takes place from one person to another.

Just this morning we read 1 Corinthians 13. Understanding that you can do any good deed, but if it is not motivated by love, those deeds are futile.
In particular we read between verses 4 to 7 which are as follows:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

One of the things we did to try and reinforce these scriptures was to replace each of our names for the word love.
I think this exercise proved to each of us just how high and holy Biblical Love is!

Thanks be to God, that we are able to love in the way He intended, by submitting to His Spirit daily through prayer, reading of the Word and considering His ways.

Lord bless!

Why blog?

I have been meaning to start a blog for a while now, but with time constraints and all sorts of excuses to put it off, I have been delaying the inevitable.

Why would I want to blog about our lives at home and schooling?
For a number of reasons really, but most importantly - If I were to successfully teach my children about language arts, grammar and writing, I myself would need to practice these skills.
Also, I have in the past read many homeschool mother's blogs and have found them to be very very helpful. I hope I can also allow other mothers to share in my joys and frustrations through this means.

Romans 5:1,2 (ESV)

 ¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Lord bless!