The Changing Face of A Homeschool

I read an amazing article written my Jimmie from Jimmie’s Collage yesterday. It really resonated with me and has given me much to think about. She was writing on how a homeschool blog changes as our children grow older and we move through life, ever changing, ever fluid. 

Then I received a comment this morning from my A.C.E review I wrote for The Curriculum Choice, a mom in a busy season of her life and struggling to reach all her commitments of being a mother, teacher and running a home. Her heart is for a Charlotte Mason homeschool, but she is hanging on by her fingernails and really needs something quite different. Something more planned out for her, something that meets the needs of her children that she cannot give right now. Oh my! I have been there! Yet the guilt that you feel when you abandon your philosophy in favour of meeting a need with something that you had not planned on using. Again this added to my pondering.

Life is full of seasons. My wise grandmother always says that ‘nothing lasts forever’. That goes for our homeschooling too. The face of our homeschool will change as we move from those pre-school and elementary days to middle and high school days. It is true that I no longer seem to post much on our homeschooling, but there honestly is not much to post about. We do less hands on activities and more academic studious work.  My own blog is undergoing a change :o)

Our homeschooling has also been undergoing changes, in fact it has a life all of it’s own! We changed the materials we used and the way we did things when I was feeling utter exhaustion, it has proved to be a wonderful change, but even now iIt continues to change as we tweak, adjust and make A.C.E suite us and our needs. In the early part of next year our family will have to shift our learning and living into ‘lite’ mode as DH undergoes major back surgery. Our focus will be on him, meeting his needs as he recovers. This is the blessing and beauty of schooling at home, don’t you think?

Initially I felt so much guilt about changing, bidding farewell to some faithful resources that had served us well for so many years. I really struggled with this at one point! (I guess you can tell that I don’t do change very well LOL). But the truth is that change is the one thing we are assured of.

In a homeschool, it is not what curriculum you use that matters, it is how you are leading, loving and discipleing your children that matters most. When I finally grasped that truth, I was able to let the burden of guilt slip away. I guess that is what this post is about today. We so often feel guilt. Sometimes it is better to maintain a healthy ‘holding pattern’ with materials that are in your opinion less than your ideal, than to burn yourself out with the effort of soaring and climbing.

There is a time to soar and climb and a time to just keep in that holding pattern. We as homeschooling mums need to cut ourselves a little slack, recognise the season we are in and move forward in a way that is beneficial to our families AND to us!

I think Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says it best –

A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter atones and a time to gather them

a time to embrace and time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Blessings in Christ

Shirley