Protected: project 365 : week 30
It’s all Greek for me
We’ve officially made the switch in our home.
Only Greek yogurt will do.
And this little one thinks it makes a great moisturizer as well.
I can no longer allow her to eat yogurt unsupervised because Greek yogurt… is also really hard to wash off!
The decision to homeschool
This fall our family will be embarking on an exciting adventure.
No, we are not moving… yet. That happens next June.
Our new adventure is that we are now a homeschool family … just like the ones Tim Hawkins sings about.
Much like the decision to adopt, many people wonder why we’ve decided to homeschool. Others are curious about how we came to this decision as they consider it for themselves. We realize there are also some that think we’re nuts. Already being a multiracial family means we’re comfortable with people seeing us as odd. Wherever you fall on the issue, I wanted to communicate the core reasons why we’ve made this decision for our family.
Training in Righteousness
It has been our joy to witness God working in LeighAnna’s life since the day we met her. He has equipped us to teach knowledge and impart wisdom as she learns about the world around her and grapples with the depravity of her own heart. Being chosen by God to be her parents… to train hearts and minds in righteousness… is a privilege we don’t want to hand over to another regardless of what the private or public classroom might offer. (Deut 6:5-9)
We also want to be active participants in the education of our children. We have been the ones to see the light bulb turn on for LeighAnna… moments that can never be recreated and that we cherish forever. Like the look of joy in her eyes at my Grandma’s 90th birthday dinner when she learned to write her name on a paper placemat at age 3. (A very long name that I wondered if she’d learn to write at all!) Or the day she asked me why Jesus was hanging on the cross. These moments don’t stop when our children become school age. The questions only get deeper and the discussions richer as we navigate the ups and downs of daily life together.
The Socialization Debate
With the exception of half-day kindergarten last year, LeighAnna has never been to daycare or preschool (yet all who meet her can plainly see that she has not suffered socially as a result). Although LeighAnna just turned 6-years old, she has seen more of this world than most college graduates. She’s lived and traveled in China and Europe. She’s explored half of Japan and visited 30 out of 50 US states! She’s climbed mountains in Colorado and swam with sea turtles in Hawaii. Given that her Daddy has a few more years in the Navy, her passport to adventure is not about to expire.
Even during the 90% of the year we are not on the road, she has been involved in many activities including sports, dance, Chinese language, and church. Throw in an abundant local community of homeschoolers and you can see that my child does not need seven hours in a school building each day to be properly socialized. We have a diverse group of friends both at home and around the world that have also chosen to homeschool. What a gift they have been in encouraging us to take this step!
The opportunity for our children to learn in a one-on-one environment… taught by a parent that loves them regardless of success or failure… on a schedule and track designed for their unique strengths and weaknesses… apart from the foolishness bound up in the hearts of peers… and surrounded by the example of sinfulness and repentance of their immediate family…. all this far outweighs the tradition of learning to stand in line and school playgrounds.
It’s My Job
Thanks to the hard work of my husband, I have been able to stay at home. It is a choice that not every mother gets to make. It is also a cherished gift that I can easily take for granted. Last year, we were ready to homeschool. I had ordered all the curriculum and done the research, but then at the last minute we decided to put LeighAnna in a local charter school. Why? Mostly because I panicked. The leap from one to two children was very overwhelming for me and I felt I needed some “me time” for a year. What I discovered is that “me time” is over-rated.
Having my child enrolled in school didn’t give me time for manicures and personal trainers (as if I’d even do those things). It didn’t provide mornings free for womens Bible study but instead confined me to a school schedule that seemed to always conflict with the needs of our family. Of the 3 hours each day that LeighAnna was in kindergarten, I spent one (plus) hour commuting to and from her school and sitting in carpool waiting to pick her up. I spent another 30 minutes getting an active 2-year old fed and down for nap. The remaining 90 minutes of “me time” were usually spent blogging or reading blogs while said toddler napped.
When looking at what sacrifices must be made in order to homeschool, we concluded that I will probably have to loose a lot of time online in order to add school time during the day. This is a price I’m willing to pay for the benefits listed above. It doesn’t mean I have to cut myself off from the world (or stop blogging), but it will require that I commit more dedicated time to my children each day. This is a discipline that God will use to sanctify both my children and myself as we learn selflessness and perseverance together. I don’t expect to become an expert overnight, but I do expect that like marriage and parenting, homeschooling will be yet another way God changes me for His glory.
He has given me a heart to teach my children and the one tool necessary for accomplishing that task.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
It Works
Lastly, we, as a couple, believe in the efficacy of homeschool education. I will write more about this later. I will share with you some resources that have helped us come to our conclusion to homeschool. You won’t see any denim jumpers around my house (yoga pants are a possibility) but you will find a love of learning and a very full library bag.
And hopefully tomorrow my curriculum will show up on my doorstep and we can get started after one last summer trip down to Grandma’s house!
Sunday Snapshot {his life}
A little treasure was discovered at my in-laws house earlier this month. It was an assignment my husband did in middle school. He wrote his life story on index cards and strung them together in a vertical chain to learn about “past, present & future”.
Some of the photos have fallen off but the words are what I love most. It makes me absolutely positive that if I had known my husband in middle school… I would have loved him even then.
Want to see why? Keep reading…
↓
PAST
My husband was a month OVERDUE. His mom would be happy to tell you all about it.
His first trip to Disneyland happened BEFORE I was even born!
He also got dragged around to lots of Civil War battlefields and cemeteries.
Our kids are getting to benefit from the same family tradition. 
Incentives. My husband has always been a good student because of incentives.
His “love for learning” didn’t arrive until after graduate school.
I love his “art”.
One of the first cards he sent me had handmade illustrations added for effect.
↓
PRESENT
“Where I was told to do this”
You have no idea how this one sentence defines my husband as a boy!
↓
FUTURE
Check.
Check.
It was his Dad’s Alma Mater after all.
Check.
This is what I love most about my husband.
Even as a teenage boy, he had his priorities straight. He has been a family man from the start.
And although he didn’t realize it at the time of this assignment…
…there was already a place for me in his future.
See for yourself
♥
Want to play along with Sunday Snapshot?
Protected: project 365 : week 29
Scheduling
Want to know a blogging tip? It’s called Scheduling.
Scheduling is how I convinced you that I could blog while camping… which I totally did not!
Because even though AT&T is the one cell provider with coverage here:
I wasn’t going to fritter away on my phone in the middle of that gorgeous wilderness!
I was too busy fending off bears and making s’mores… and eating s’mores… and hiking off s’mores.
If you are hoping to find a part of the wilderness that doesn’t have cell service or 3G coverage… may I suggest the entire central part of Nevada on US highway 6.
There just isn’t that much exciting to write about on a daily basis in our lives… however on those days when I take 100 photos that are all deserving of their 15 seconds in the spotlight, scheduling helps me spread the love over a whole week… or two or three as it took for the East Coast portion of our 2010 Summer Family Odyssey.
Over the years, I’ve realized that I am no Katie Couric and this blog is not your source of “breaking news”. I don’t have cable TV and I do have two young children… the combination makes me sadly behind on current events. The blog has become more of a daily journal which is why I am still in shock that so many of you take the time to read it and actually comment!
If you want to try scheduling, no one has to know. It’ll be our little secret.
Just write your post and instead of clicking publish, look at your options and set the date and time you want it to publish. In Blogger this is under “Post Options”. Click here for WP instructions.
This is different than drafting a post or saving it for later. When you schedule a post, you are making it live but it will not show up on your blog until the appointed time. So you can be wandering a backroad, backpacking through Europe or sailing to Fiji and still keep your blog active.
But promise me that if you do any of those things, you will post about them afterwords. Because I don’t think I’ll ever get to Fiji and I’d really like to see your photos… And because now that I’m back home, I’m using all my time online to catch up with your blogs!
Laundry and Sanctification
The problem with taking a year of vacation time all at once is how normal it becomes to live out of suitcases, sleep in hotel beds and have someone cook and clean for you… which explains why adjusting back to reality is so difficult today.
The five suitcases of laundry staring me down are helping me with the transition.
I put them all in the garage because of the strong campfire odor (and other ghastly smells) they are emitting. However, I can’t ignore their existence. Since those suitcases contain ALL our summer clothes, I’m going to have to tackle the mountain of laundry sooner or later.
Yesterday, I got some perspective on my laundry. I just love how God meets us where we are at in life.
One of our deacons was talking about the process of sanctification… the continual process that never ends until we meet Jesus face to face. He said that sanctification is like laundry… just when we think we’ve gotten everything clean, we find another pile stashed away behind the closet door.
(He later admitted that his wife gave him this metaphor. Well, of course she did!)
Now when I think about my five suitcases of stinky camping clothes covered in DEET, soot and dirt… I have a VERY vivid picture of what needs to be cleaned inside my heart.
And I can assure you that whatever I may discover inside those suitcases today smells much sweeter than the sin hidden away in my own flesh. Thankfully, the one doing the cleaning in me doesn’t go on vacation and is faithful to continue the work He began in me so long ago. (Philippians 1:6)
To quote Charles Spurgeon:
I can imagine a room in your house being perfectly clean, but I cannot imagine its being kept perfectly clean unless the process by which it was first cleansed be frequently repeated.
