Homeschooling has been a gift that I will always treasure! I am blessed to have had the opportunity to spend so much time getting to know our two children and learning and growing alongside them for their whole childhood. I am thankful that even through the hard times that we kept going. I am seeing them become young adults who have so many wonderful traits and who are a blessing to others. Our home school has never been perfect, we have had plenty of long, hard days, but it has been a tapestry of learning, challenging, helping, serving, caring, working, diligence, and perseverance. Our home school days changed over time, but I will never regret all of the hours that I spent reading aloud, teaching lessons, planning lessons, editing papers, and trying to figure out the curriculum and how to make it work better for each of them. I will remember funny moments, field trips, co-op friends, science experiments that may have gone a little sideways, memorizing all of the Classical Conversations memory work while bouncing on the mini trampoline, taking the dogs on walks, playing in the backyard, 4H meetings and lots of projects, Driver's Ed, strength training classes and football practice, choir, church, youth group, piano and guitar lessons, gymnastics and dance classes, recitals, Nutcrackers, eventually equestrian riding lessons and horse shows, and Indy Car races.
I will remember singing lots of songs, reading beautiful stories, memorizing Bible verses, and talking about the Bible on most days. I will not regret any of that. I am thankful that my husband really considered my idea to home educate our kids back in 2006 for a year of Preschool and Kindergarten! Here we are, fifteen years later, with our second and final home school graduate. Other people told me when our children were very young that "the days are long, but the years are short" and that feels especially true right now. There were plenty of really long days, days of trying to help my kids stay busy and fulfilled when they were with me most of the day. There were hard days when we did not feel like doing school work, but there were so many wonderful memories. Now that we are at the end of the journey, it does feel in some ways like it was short, but it really was a long term commitment and a longer view of who we wanted our children to become one day when they were very small.
Each of our children are individuals who will make their own choices, but I feel proud that I know they have a foundation of substance, character, values, and their faith that will guide them as they venture out into the world more and more on their own. As their mother and educator, I am also very proud of all of the hard work that it took to get to where they are today. I will not forget the frustration and tears that we shared, while I was also blessed to experience so many smiles and so much laughter! Our home school was not perfect, nor is any school, because we are all imperfect people, but I am glad that we were really able to do things in the best way that worked for our family and we had so much time together!
I may feel sad right now that fifteen years of time has passed and that our journey of home schooling is coming to an end, but I am thankful that I have had so much time with them along the way and that we were able to create so many memories. They lived life with me and saw me through my own ugly or difficult days and how I handled it. I did not always handle things well, but we were real with each other and lived our life together. They are two of my best friends and I hope that we will always stay connected. They were also able to spend more time with their dad, even though he worked long hours. They were here when he was at home, even if he had worked all night and then came home in the morning. We were also able to travel and take vacations together when it worked better for his schedule for many years before the kids got more involved in year round sports in high school. We were able to take ski trips to the mountains and spring trips to the beach together. More memories to be thankful for!
I am also thankful that God helped me with so many decisions along the way, how to schedule our days and our weekly activities, to what activities we would be involved in each season or school year, what curriculum to use, when to switch if something was not working, and how to handle difficulties and challenges. I have learned a ton about teaching, critical thinking, writing, English grammar, how to talk with kids about any topic, books, literature, science, music, history, and art. I have learned about dyslexia, dysgraphia, other learning disabilities, and how to accommodate and experiment with the student to find out what accommodations work best for them individually. I have also learned about dealing with anxiety and depression and how to help a student deal with those challenges. I have learned how to lead and direct a group of parents to form a co-op and keep it organized and going strong. I am not perfect, but I hope that I am a kinder, gentler, more open minded mom than I was when we started. I am also glad that I have blogged lots of this for myself, to process my own thoughts and to share my experiences from this incredible journey.
May this post serve as a reminder to our own family of the many amazing moments that we enjoyed together and the hard challenges that we made it through over the years. May this post also inspire those of you who are still caring for little ones at home or homeschooling young children and teens and help you to see that over the course of time, there are great benefits and fruits of this hard work that you are doing. When you want to be reminded of why you are doing what you are doing to care for your children, come back and read this post. When you are ready to throw in the towel and send the kids on the next school bus, read the lists of all of the wonderful treasured memories that we now hold dearly. Focus on the good stuff, because there really is a lot of good that happens between Day 1 and Day 5,475 or about 15 years of home schooling! It's worth it and God will bless you for all of the ways that you continue to show kindness, patience, love, and discipline to the children that He has entrusted into your care.
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| Our son's graduation in 2019 |
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| Our daughter's graduation in 2021 |
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