First Year Of Home School is Done

I can't believe it! I did it! I did not give up, I did not go to my back up plan, we finished our first year of home school. When I started on this huge endeavor it felt like I was climbing Mount Everest, and then I realized I was half way through the year. My daughter goes to an amazing Charter School two days a week so I have back up and her workshop teacher was exactly who I would have hand picked to be with my child. I prayed over this decision for months before I decided to go for it, knowing that if it didn't work I could send her to the public schools in my neighborhood and she would still be in good schools, but there would be aspects that I would not like at all.

 I will never forget when I was about 5 weeks in to this venture my daughter gave me a blank stare after I had explained something to her about three times, in three different ways. I was in tears, she was in tears and I had decided at that moment we are not going to be able to do this. I put the books away and was getting ready to pack them in a backpack to return to the charter school. I am not even kidding you when I tell you that, within twenty minutes I read an article about something happening in a public school that was absolutely counter to our beliefs, and then I saw a video of our Charter School's dance team and how amazing they were. It was as if God was looking down and saying, "I want her there, don't you even think about not doing my will." 

Needless to say, I asked my sweet girl one more time about the subject matter that I had presented and she completely understood, and I got a very good lesson. She likes to mull things over in her head. I learned how to teach her! First present it, ask if she gets it, if she doesn't right then let it go and come back to the subject matter later, she will more than likely completely understand. A teacher with 20-30 students in front of them will just not have the time to come back to a subject, I do! I have completely tailored my teaching style to my child and her learning style. I present something, we go do some reading or art or something and then we go back to that subject. It is fabulous! 

 Later that same day I was reading in my Bible and I came to the verse that said, "Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign on your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 And you shall teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates: " Deuteronomy 11:18-20 

 It was as if God was giving me signs from all sides, telling me that I am supposed to be doing this, this is God's will for mine and my daughter's life. The teaching of God's word can't happen in our public school system today, but I can do it everyday and integrate it in to our lesson plan. This is the most important lesson I feel I can teach my daughter, and because of this decision to follow God's way instead of society's it is part of her schooling.  Praise the Lord for this! 

 I have had the most rewarding year of my life. I got to see those "aha" moments when she learned something new. I got to give her the hugs for her good jobs, I got to give her the stickers, I got to teach her to read (which by the way was the absolute scariest thing in the world to me.)  The highlight of my year came in May. I keep a journal of notes that I take from my Bible Studies and from church. I do this in the hopes of giving my daughter my legacy of faith. I went to a retreat this year for two days and had taken quite a few notes. When I came home my daughter picked up my journal and started reading, obviously she could not read all of it, she is a Kindergartner, but she was able to sound the words out and figure  out a lot of what I had written. I cried then and I am crying now looking back at that moment.

Homeschooling is not for everyone, and no one should try to fit a square peg in to a round hole, but if you feel this calling on your heart at all, DO IT!!! I always said I would never home school my child, and now I can't imagine not doing this. The relationship between my daughter and I has been taken to a completely different level and I love her even more than I did the day she was born. WOO HOO First grade is going to be amazing!

Shadrach, Meschach, Abedenego, and The Son of God....Wait what?

I just had to share this! I have heard the story of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego a lot! It was always a "Bible Story" to me, because I never got past the Sunday School lesson level with it. I decided last year that I was going to read the Bible from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 22. It has been awesome! I am now reading Daniel, you know Daniel in the Lions Den, The Handwriting on the Wall..... That Daniel. Well I read all three of those stories today but Shadrach, Meschach and Abdnego really stood out to me. There are so many amazing parts to this scripture.

Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego were being put in the furnace for not worshiping king Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue. These men remained faithful to God and were going to be punished for it. The furnace/incinerator was heated to seven times the normal heat. Why would good ole Neb's do this? I say he did this because God was in control and wanted to really show him who was in charge. Seven is the number of completion in God's word, so.... the king demands that the furnace be brought to a heat seven times that of the norm for this type of punishment. The men who brought these three to the furnace were burned up and they didn't even go in the middle. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego go in to the middle, they are laying down because they are bound and can't move. Now this is where it got interesting for me and God revealed to me the absolute coolest part of His story.

 When Neb's goes back to see what is happening to the men he is punishing for not worshiping him, he not only sees them alive and walking around, but he sees a fourth man that he describes as "The Son of God." Wait what?! Back the truck up! The Son of God!!! That's right before Jesus was even born he showed up to be with God's faithful. I also want to point out that the straps used to bind the men were burned up, but their clothes, hair and even their smell stayed in tact. The smell of the furnace didn't even fall on them, I can't sit by a campfire and cook smores without smelling like a bonfire when I am done.

 Jesus will show up for any of us in our time of need, even if someone doesn't believe He will show up. He does it over and over again. He hadn't even been born yet, and these men had no way to believe, or not believe in him because he was just a prophecy in their mind, yet he came to give them God's love. When Paul was going before the court and is held in prison with his life on the line, Jesus shows up and says, (paraphrase here) Don't worry, you are not going to die here, I need you to go to Rome and spread the gospel there. Which he did, granted he was a prisoner but still.....! God lets those who believe go through our own furnaces I think for multiple reasons, but the biggest is to give Him the glory of what He can do in our lives, and so that our lives can be a witness to others. No one wants to be in the furnaces of life, but I am definitely going to be looking for Jesus the next time I am in one. Thank you Jesus for your faithfulness!

 By the way, after Nebs saw what God did for Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, he signed a decree that no one was to worship anyone but the one true God. That leads me down a whole other train of thought that I will save for another day.

 To read this part of scripture go to Daniel 3:1-28

 TTFN, I Pray God Blesses you,
 Jen