I am struggling right now? I love homeschooling, and I love being home with my children. And I love living my life with my children in tow. But I am struggling right now. How do you balance homeschooling with life. I want school to be a part of our life and not a master over it. I don’t want to live around school but rather school around life. But where is that balance?
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| Singing our Bible verse song – It is a favorite this year!! |
How do I know if my children are on target in things such as spelling and writing? How many problems do I make my fourth grader do when there are 15 addition problems in ONE section of her math lesson? How many hours does it take others to school?
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| Reading class on the couch – It’s one of the perks of homeschooling |
Just a season of doubt, I guess.
But, how do you put those to rest? Will I ever be confident that I am doing this well? Will we ever have a routine that we can stick to for more than two weeks? What about grocery shopping? and ministry? and play dates? and field trips? How do you stay on routine when you leave the house even once a week?
Anyway, if you have any ideas, places that I can find “benchmarks” for grade levels, a post about what your homeschool looks like, etc I would love to see them. I will try to read them. But along with this season of doubt comes a season of drowning. School is taking FOREVER right now and thus “backing up” my other momma duties like cooking, laundry, etc. And I still have a baby that nurses every 4 hours. So, to say I am busy is an understatement. But I am choosing to love life and embrace where God has planted me. So, tonight I will rest in His peace and wake tomorrow with a deep breath and a peace that only God can give and I will try to focus on one thing at a time. And allow God to put my doubt to rest in His time and His way.
Are you doubting an area in your life right now? I would love to pray for you. Leave me a comment and I will pray for your peace whenever I am overcome with doubt in this season and I am praying for myself. It’s what sisters do!!
Amen sister. I can’t wait to see what everyone else has to say, cause I got nothing!
Amanda-will be praying for you. I’m feeling overwhelmed right now too and I don’t even homeschool. Being a mom is hard work, being a good mom is even harder! The Lord reminded me today that this is the life I prayed for, this is IT! I can’t wallow or I will miss it. Easier said than done. Thanks for your honesty! Wish I could be with you at the shower this weekend – hope it’s a great time and I will look forward to pictures!
(((HUGS))) Such a hard stage. I’ve been in and out of it more than once. One thing I would encourage you to do is to find the state standards for your state. Most states have them online, but if yours does not Minnesota has very good standards all available online. I would put money that you will discover your kids are far above the “standards” which will hopefully give you a little room to breathe. You may even discover new ideas for topics of study you have never done or find a hole that will give you something different to focus on for a time. I am totally opposed to standardized testing, but the standards themselves are particularly useful for encouraging a struggling homeschool mom :)
Prayers,
Heidi
Hey, did you read the 4 Moms this week? They were posting about balancing homeschool and housework! I haven’t read any of them yet but look forward to it when I get a little while.
I am struggling in this area too. Actually, I have struggled with this since the beginning of my homeschool journey 5 years ago! All I can say is that we have to learn to give ourselves graces in both areas (homeschool and housework). Neither will ever be perfect. The important thing is that we ARE doing this and the blessings from our obedience with shower out any failures. :-) Hang in there!
I would say not too worry too much but work on using Math U see which helps alot. every so often after about 5 lessons they have a test and if more then a few questions are wrong they do the lessons over again. we use this for our family!