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5 Things To Consider Before You Home School

April 14, 2010 in Homeschooling with 1 Comment

Home schooling your children can be a huge undertaking. When people find out we home school our children, they generally have the same reaction, “I could never do that”. The thing is, if your evening considering it, then you are halfway there. I compiled a list of 5 things that need to be considered in making your decision.

Time

Home schooling does not have to consume your whole day. You do need to consider how this will affect your daily routine. If you have smaller children it can take more time to do school than if your children are older, like mine. Take into account that you will be preparing lessons, monitoring experiments, grading papers and planning and leading field trips among other things.

Both parents involved in decision making

You have to both be on the same page on the decision to home school your children, this is imperative. It would be very difficult to home school if one parent is against it. Make sure you both understand the level of commitment this will require from you both. It is a team effort not just one parent involved, you both need to make the commitment.

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Top 3 Ingredients For A Successful Homeschool

April 14, 2010 in Homeschooling with 0 Comments

Your success on your home school adventure is measured by your willingness to evaluate and change things when necessary.  Your success will not be measured by your education or even by your childrens grades. I have found there are three important things to encourage success.

Is Your Family Relationship Healthy

You need to start at the top with this one.  Is your marriage healthy?  Make sure you are both on the same page about home schooling.  When you make your initial decision to home school you need to both agree as I mentioned in a previous post.  Make sure you are providing an encouraging and secure environment for your children.  This will require initiative and discipline.  You need to be wiling to put aside other things to concentrate on getting this effort off the ground.  I am not saying your home needs to be perfect but you do need to take the overall health of your home into account in order to be successful in home schooling.

Make sure your home is educationally stimulating

You want your home to encourage your children to learn.  Our home is filled with what many would call, too many books.  We want our children to have access to books so they can look things up and read at their leisure.  Our kids read not because it is an assignment but because they enjoy it.  You want your home to reflect your commitment to education.  I like to have materials available for my kids to work on projects spontaneously.  Education is enjoyable when you make it easy for your kids to learn.

You need a support system

I have to say without our support system we would really struggle with home schooling.  Initially it can be hard to garner support from family who does not understand the home school process.  My husbands parents had a hard time initially with our decision because they did not understand it, my father in law was a public school superintendent for many years.  They are now are biggest champions.  A support system does not mean you need to only surround yourself with others who home school.  Most of our close friends do not home school their kids.  The important thing is to have people around you who stand in the gap with you through your home school adventure.

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God’s Faithfulness In My Life

January 12, 2010 in Homeschooling with 1 Comment

This is my first entry in the blog.  I feel I should introduce myself to you.  I am the director of development for Kontaktmission USA, a missions organization.  I am a writer and a speaker.  I have been married for 13 years, to the love of my life on this earth.  My husband Rob and I have two precious children.  Our son is 11 and our daughter is 9.  We live near Atlanta, GA.  As I write this I am sitting outside enjoying God’s beautiful creation.  I love to write about life and what God is teaching me through it.

I’m not perfect but I am trying to be more Christ like everyday.  I make mistakes just like everyone else.  I love to tell others about how great God is in the good times and in the hard times.  We learn from each other, if we can be real.  We must be authentic to be free, for it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

I have learned so much in the last 8 years.  When our son was 3 years old he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of Autism.  God has used that event in my life to push me to a closer walk with Him.  He brought Rob and I closer to each other and to Him as the center of our lives.  We have had to make choices that seemed “insane” at the time, but were clear directives from God.

Many times God asks us to do things that are outside of our comfort zone.  Five years ago He called us to home school our children.  We agreed, but came to it kicking and screaming.  Here we are having the time of our lives with our children, teaching them at home.  Don’t get me wrong my world is not perfect and it never will be here on earth.  God has taught me so much and continues to teach me and mold me.  I just want others to know about God’s unfailing faithfulness.  I have a lot to learn before I leave earth.

You will learn along with me as I post about God’s faithfulness and learning to be free.

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