Under His Wings

Rend your hearts………..

………not your garments. Joel 2:13

Rend your hearts………..

………not your garments. Joel 2:13

so little time. I am in the midst of preparing to leave for my parent’s home for the Thanksgiving holiday. In the past several days I have been busy working on the seating list for a fund raising banquet to be held Dec. 4th. We have approx. 50 extra people coming. More about that later.

But, I did want to express the things I am thankful for today. I am thankful for the Goodness and Faithfulness of God. I am thankful for His desire to dwell with His people and for His provision of a covering for us to make that possible. I am thankful for the many blessing He has so richly lavished upon us.

For His Name’s Sake.

Because I have two blogs and I am the moderator of a local homeschooling forum, when I asked, “What are the pros and cons of homeschooling” I received several answers. Here is a list of those I received. I have edited some of the answers to either protect confidentiality or make them more general.
Pros:

• I can catch my son before he gets lost in a daydream
• I can help my child with each step of the topic that he does not understand and I am aware of the misunderstanding before it is too far gone to try to fix the problem.
• We can move at a pace that is best for my child
• I am learning things that I have either forgotten or didn’t pay attention to the first time around.
• We spend time as a family
• I know that how I am spending my time is beneficial in the long run
• The family and community provide a much more enriching social environment -IMO- than a classroom.
• Learning is individualized and can be self-directed.
• Flexible hours
• The child has more time to spend being a child, at home, play and pursuit of his own interests and daydreams
• opportunity to fill child with truth
• little or no peer pressure, negative influence, bad language, etc.
• set your own schedule, pick what works best for your child
• children like it at home
• can pick and choose holidays
• can mold the child
• “Too many to list”
• less busyness, driving around
• time to get to know your child very well
• Control what my children learn
• I get to spend time with them all day/enjoy each milestone
• Control the influences they are around
• Match home life better
• Infuse faith into schooling and throughout the day
• Don’t have to deal with competitiveness from being in social situations.
• No stress for struggle in school subjects
• Children can develop their own passions
• No labels

Cons:

• I don’t have as much time for my own projects or other people ( I say this is a con, but it’s good for me to limit myself and it’s a selfish thing I want more of)
• I feel as though I am always with my child and always at my house-which is a joy, but at times it would be nice to talk with adults and get out with no children around (I did work for awhile and I longed for what I now have)
• We don’t have as much money as we would have if I were working
• socializing with friends
• parent may have to find their lost or unused brain cells to be creative
• parent who is unorganized must learn to be organized
• parent who is impatient must learn to be patient
• parent might unknowingly teach methods that they have learned wrong (get help with math, etc. )
• parent who likes to shop and do coffee and lunch with adults is out of luck (sacrifice)
• You have to learn how to get along with your children
• your house will look lived in most of the time because it is.

• No high school sports (note from jenny: This varies in different areas. Where this person and I live this is true.)
• Often not time to do all the “jobs” involved in schooling and running a household
• Sometimes forget to take care of myself and meet my needs or that of my husband/marriage
• People assume that since you are “at home” you have all this free time and should be able to help and do all sorts of stuff–you have to be able to say, “no” to those kinds of things.
• We have to search out activities/sports for those of our children who are interested in such things. Must be creative.

Other thoughts from my readers:

” In my opinion, the only real “con” is the financial sacrifice if a parent needs to stay home (or work on a very limited part time basis) to home school. Also, if one parent is home with the children 24/7 she will need to carve out some time for herself and her interests (for the sake of her mental health). Otherwise-I see only advantaged (depending-of course-  on the needs of the individual child and family).

Compulsory attendance laws vary from state to state. In my state, a parent can opt to hold the child out of Kindergarten. That might be an easy way to give home ed. a “trial run” for a year. And, of course, the family can change its decision ANY time if its needs change.”

“The pros are all for the child. And that’s who we are doing it for. I highly recommend it!”

“I began HSing because my oldest knew all the letters and sounds by the time he was 3 1/2 - but, by law, couldn’t go to Kindergarten until he was 5 yo 11 months. What would they have taught him then?

My second was HSed because by 15months we knew we had a child who would get labeled, and spend much time in the principals office (not a bad boy, but just could not keep still, and shy and non-participating)

Look at your children and see them in a way that no one else could. How could anyone else possibly know XXX about your child, and how to manage that, to get the bast possible outcome out of him/her. All children come with strengths and weaknesses. Our special privilege as HSing mothers is that we can intimately know these strengths and weaknesses. We can work toward building them up and encouraging them…without tearing them down for the weaknesses.”

“I’ve got 5 right now, they are all different, all came with a plan from Adonai. My job is to train them up to be the best PERSONS they can be, and the bent Adonai has created them with will come out naturally.”

“I homeschool my daughter while being a full-time employee that works from home. It’s quite challenging as I am a single parent. But it is well worth the struggle because she needs one on one attention, she needs someone who cares if she learns, who cares about what she learns, who cares about her heart and spirit. We don’t have to run a race of ‘learning for the test’ Of course she tests, but she is not slamming ’stuff’ into her mind to beat the test. She is learning HOW to learn without pressure and stress that I see so many teens having these days.

Oh, my word, I am amazed at what the children in schools are doing, their socializing is atrocious because there really are no boundaries. -everyone does what is right in their own eyes-

I praise the Most High for allowing me to homeschool despite the challenges we face in a single parent home, and thank Him for being the strength and courage, the wisdom and grace that ushers us through each day with peace and confidence that we are exactly where He wants us to be, in His hands.”

“The number one PRO I see in homeschooling is that I KNOW my children and have a real relationship with them. My 15 year old son has real conversations with me (something I did not do with my parents, for sure!!!). And, it’s the same with my 13 yr. old daughter and 11 yr. old son. Besides that, with our evening activities, if they were in school I would not see them at all or spend any time with them. Also, I have control over the things they are taught (and there is lots of things in the public school system I do not agree with!) They’ve also learned how to be in mixed company with people of all different ages and not be nervous or unable to function in those situations.”

I also had one phone conversation in response to this question. This mother has had her children in and out of the public school system at different times for different reasons. I really appreciated the conversation I had with her. She now has two teenaged boys in the school system and she said that for her one son, especially, being in the school system caused him to study his Bible MORE so as to be able to give a defense for what he believed. She also was very encouraging in stating that with each child it is a walk with the Lord for her and her husband as parents. What is best for each particular child?

This post has gotten really long so I will add my thoughts in the next post.

For His Name’s Sake.

• Write an update to my last post
• Play with my blog
• Explore new widgets
• Read!!!