Many people are thinking about or just starting on the road to homeschooling, thanks to the pandemic or for other reasons. That’s wonderful! Homeschooling is a great way to spend more time with your children and provide them a good education.
I’d like to share a little bit of wisdom from my 26 years of teaching my children at home. The following is a slight modification of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 in the Bible.
- Do not make homeschooling your god or your religion.
- Do not bow down to the gods who write books about homeschooling or serve them.
- Do not take the name of the Lord in vain when you get frustrated with your children.
- Remember to rest and let your kids rest.
- Teach your children to honor you by being a good example.
- Do not murder your child’s love of learning with boring curriculum.
- Do not love your homeschool friends more than your husband.
- Do not steal your child’s joy by living vicariously through them.
- Do not lie about having a perfect homeschool life.
- Do not covet other people’s books, fields trips, vacations, houses.
While the above is meant to be somewhat humorous, there is truth in these ten commandments. Homeschooling, like any other educational method, offers daily opportunities for obeying God’s laws of how to honor Him and how to honor others .
Want to find out if you have strong faith? Homeschool your kids!
Want to test your spiritual discipline and maturity? Join a homeschool co-op!
Did you ask God to reveal all your faults and weaknesses so he can transform you? Homeschooling can do that!
Feeling a little proud of yourself for having chosen the selfless option of homeschooling? Being home all day with your kids can fix that , too!
Don’t get me wrong, homeschooling your kids is a wonderful way to teach them. But I feel like many moms have unreasonable expectations of what it will be like.
Some think it will be awful so they don’t even consider it, and that’s a shame. Others think it will always be like the first picture below, and are shocked that there are a lot of days like the next picture.
In reality, there will be a lot of fun days and a lot of routine days and a lot of bad days, just like everything else in life.
As you can see I homeschool BOYS. I’ve heard it’s a lot different with girls or a mixed group, or one child, or two. No matter what little angels God has given you, homeschooling will challenge you, and that’s a good thing.
If you go into it expecting to be challenged, hoping to grown, wanting to find out your weaknesses, you’ll have a much better time of it.
Take it one day at a time, even as you plan months in advance and buy way too many books and supplies. As the years pass you will figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. That’s how life works, right?
Homeschooling is life. Enjoy it! And let God teach you as you teach your children.
A few resources that might be helpful.
https://hslda.org/# Getting started
https://www.time4learning.com/homeschool-curriculum.htm
https://www.sonlight.com/ My favorite books
https://timberdoodle.com/ Fun curriculum
https://www.raisingrealmen.com/tag/hal-and-melanie-young/ Very helpful
https://www.christianbook.com/ Good website for homeschool books
Blue Skies and Green Pastures 
Well, mine are long gone and one has his own to worry about, but this was a fantastic and enjoyable read today. Blessings, c.a.
Blessings back!
Great advice for any parent whether they homeshcool or not.
We are going to be starting up again next month. These are great “commandments” lol. I definitely got a laugh and agreement! There are always so many things I want to do with the kids, but then reality and life hit me upside the head, lol. Trying to keep my expectations realistic…which I have a much better idea of now than when we first started! (9 years and several kids ago 😉 ) God Bless!
Summer is going by too fast! And yes , so hard to do all the things . I think I’d make mine do more handwriting and math fact memorization if I could go back in time . And probably put them in at least one or two classes per year . But I can’t go back . God will take care of it .😊💕
Exactly! I figure if I do my best to cover the basics as much as possible then if there is something specific they need to learn, God will absolutely make it happen 🙂 We struggle with math fact memorization…going to try and focus on that more this year. We have one who struggles with multiplication so definitely going to try and make that a priority. The others haven’t so it’s been easy to let it slide! And I hear you about handwriting, I make them do a page a day because it’s one of my pet peeves, lol. Summer is turning in our neck of the woods…it’s been cool the past few days so we know fall is moving in. Working on getting our wood processed and done, hopefully we will get there sooner rather than later!! 🙂
Good on you. Could be a long winter. Do you follow KC Days of Sunshine? She has a good blog today.