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!