Posted by Cindy on October 9, 2007
Animal School
by George Reavis
Once upon a time the animals had a school. They had four subjects ~ running, climbing, flying, and swimming ~ and all animals took all subjects.
The duck was good at swimming, better than the teacher, in fact. He made passing grades in running and flying, but he was almost hopeless in climbing. So they made him drop swimming to practice more climbing. Soon he was only average in swimming. But average is okay, and nobody worried much about it ~ except the duck.
The eagle was considered a troublemaker. In his climbing class he beat everybody to the top of the tree, but he had his own way of getting there, which was against the rules. He always had to stay after school and write, “Cheating is wrong” five hundred times. This kept him from soaring, which he loved. But schoolwork comes first.
The bear flunked because they said he was lazy, especially in winter. His best time was summer, but school wasn’t open then.
The penguin never went to school because he couldn’t leave home, and they wouldn’t start a school out where he lived.
The zebra played hooky ~ a lot. The ponies made fun of his stripes, and this made him very sad.
The kangaroo started out at the top of the running class, but got discouraged trying to run on all fours like the other kids.
The fish quit school because he was bored. To him all four subjects were the same, but nobody understood that. They had never been a fish.
The squirrel got A’s in climbing, but his flying teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. His legs got so sore practicing take-offs that he began getting C’s and D’s in running.
But the bee was the biggest problem of all, so the teacher sent him to Dr. Owl for testing. Dr. Owl said that the bee’s wings were just too small for flying and besides they were in the wrong place. But the bee never saw Dr. Owl’s report, so he just went ahead and flew anyway.
A question I hear quite often is, “Am I really qualified? Am I going to ruin my children by schooling them at home?”
This is the topic of a devotion I gave in the Mom’s Room at co-op this week. I’ve tried to write my notes from the devotion here. I hope you are encouraged.
Am I Qualified?So many times in His Word, God gives us not only all the answers we need in order to homeschool, but the mandate that
we are to teach our children. Two of the most familiar passages are Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” – and Deuteronomy 6:5-9 – “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
When God calls us to something, He will qualify us! At that answer, I could end the devotion. God called us to it, He equips us, therefore, we’re qualified! But, I want to answer more thoroughly why and how we’re qualified.
Go back to the Animal School story above. Who knows your children best? Who can instinctively know what’s best for them? Who loves them as much as you do? Who did God give them to? Knowing that “Mom and Dad” are the answers to each of those questions is further proof that YOU are qualified to teach them. No one else knows them well enough to know what’s best for them. For them particularly. No one on this earth loves them like you do. No one. God gave them to you. You. You are the one who can make their education a perfect fit. Not because you have a college degree in education or have loads of money to buy the best curriculum, but because God has already given you everything you need to teach the children He gave you.
If you’ve never watched the YouTube.com video called Home Where They Belong, I would encourage you to take a few minutes right now. It’s a strong visual to get this point across.
You know the news headlines. Christianity is being forced out of the public school system, only to be replaced with a religion of tolerance, evolution, relativism and worse. Even Christian teachers in the public school system are forced to teach things that go against the Lord’s teaching. At best, they can subtly mention God as long as other religious views are being expressed at the same time. These facts alone qualify you to teach your children. Jeremiah 10:2 says, “Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.”
You have been given unique gifts in your children. God has commanded that you teach them. And, He has supplied you with all you need to do this successfully. Homeschooling isn’t always easy. It isn’t always fun. But the rewards are great and the impact is eternal.
Go to the Word when you’re frustrated. Go to your husband. Go to an experienced and well-rooted friend. Please don’t meet the yellow school bus at the end of the driveway.
Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isaiah 54:13
Posted by Cindy on June 29, 2007
A friend of mine sent me an email the other day with a few questions. I thought they were very important questions that deserved very real answers. Here’s a portion of the email…..
……I just want to know where you find all of your time! Seriously, how do you have time to read other people’s blogs, plan so wonderfully, organize, teach, be a wife, enjoy your kids, go on field trips, keep up your blog, etc., etc., etc. Not to meddle in your personal life but all these things I notice when I visit your blog. You’re akin to Super Woman!
I must admit, I feel inadequate for my position right now. I fear I am going to ruin my child and that she will be uneducated because of me. Looking at your blog is very helpful and gives me ideas, but I wonder how do I have time to do any more when I barely get through as it is? How do you do it? Surely if you can do what you do with three kids, I can do it with one?
What are your days like when you are doing school? How much time do you spend each day?…..
The following is the majority of what I wrote in response.
Ha, a super woman – I wish! I’m just as overwhelmed as the next person – really!! In fact, I just got finished sending one of my best friends an email last week asking her to pray for me. I’m completely overwhelmed right now and feel like I’m just treading water some days.
She reminded me that this season of my life won’t last forever and that I need to treasure each moment rather than worrying about all the things that aren’t getting done. I go to bed most nights with the dishes still piled in the sink. There are usually at least three loads of laundry piled up on the couch ready to be folded. I have yet to have time to organize all last year’s schoolwork and get it put away…….
I am able to be on the computer a lot right now because I’m still nursing like crazy. Eli is a ferocious little eater! After I spend one nursing reading to the older kids, I usually spend the others on the computer since the older ones have gone out to play or are working with their dad. As Eli slows down on his nursing and gets more active, I bet my computer and blog time will become almost null and void!
As for field trips and other activities. We run too much! 
Once school starts back up, I tend to slow down to almost a snail’s pace. I can’t do school and run here and there.
And for schoolwork – I’m sure I’ve told you before that I don’t do everything. I would drive myself and my children crazy if I expected every page of every piece of curriculum to be completed. They would hate school and so would I! I just do what I feel like the Lord is leading us to do. I trust Him that I won’t ruin my kids. I trust Him that they will have the tools necessary to figure something out if I’ve left a gap. I trust Him that He’s preparing each one for the work that He has planned for them. I still have a lot of work to do in trusting God, but trusting Him with their education is an easy one for me.
I tend to see life as education. When we cook, work with the cattle, go on a field trip, read a chapter book together, do chores, take walks, go visiting, plan a party together, shop for groceries……..I feel like I’m teaching them about real life. They must be prepared academically, but all that will work itself out if I’ve offered constant opportunity to learn in each of the subjects. I don’t stress over making sure every page of every workbook is done. All that stuff is usually repeated at some point anyway. If I’ve prepared them to know where to go to find an answer when they’ve got a question, they will be fine.
Our school days usually run from late July through April. We do Bible study together and then chores. Afterward, each child usually does their math and language arts – Mahayla on her own, Caleb with me. Then we get together for unit study type lessons – history, geography, science, projects. It’s usually lunchtime by this point, so we take a nice long break. Many afternoons we’ll take some time to read from a chapter book together and maybe do something like art, foreign language, or computer games on their own. The rest of the afternoon is completely free for them. They aren’t allowed to watch tv until right before bed, so they’ll usually do things like piano practice, playing outside, Mahayla might knit or crochet, they might cook something together, board games, a science experiment on their own. I’ll often gather a few items of interest and put them out downstairs as “motivation sparks” to do instead of whining that “there’s nothing to do.”
Now, this is how it used to work! Throwing Eli into the mix this year is going to make it interesting!! You may watch me spiral out of control as the year progresses!!
Don’t worry about feeling inadequate. We all do, at least sometimes. I’m praying for you!
I asked my friend’s permission before putting any of this on my blog. Like me, she hoped that someone else might benefit from seeing that we all have struggles. No matter who seems to have it all together, there’s usually more to the story. 
Posted by Cindy on May 25, 2007
You’re sitting around the dining room table some Sunday afternoon 20 or 30 years from now with your children and grandchildren.What will your children want to talk about?
I hope my children have rich stories full of wonderful memories to talk about!I hope there will be many bright and beautiful moments that stand out in their minds that they want to share with their children.Moments that they want to recreate with their children!
I won’t mind talking about the daily grind of chores and school work. I won’t mind talking about the rotten days when we all grumped around.I won’t mind talking about anything really.I’ll just be all smiles that my children and grandchildren are at my table!But I sure will be happy when the conversation turns consistently to the things that I purposely set out to do when they were children that I wanted them to remember when they grew up.
Things like a trip to the museum, a tea party, jumping on the trampoline together, mom acting like a crazy woman when they made a homerun, weekly picnics at the park during the summer, water balloon fights, snuggling on the couch with good books, making special meals together, pillow and blanket forts, hikes to the creek………………
Everything so simple, yet so important.
I hope your table will be filled with special memories!
Posted by Cindy on January 20, 2007
I came across a WONDERFUL site the other day that pulled my thoughts back in the direction that I feel God is leading us in our family and homeschool. It seems I start every school year with such good intentions, and then somehow my original vision gets crowded out by the “have to dos”. What are the “have to dos”?? Here are some examples:
-Have I filled in the little box on my lesson plans for every subject today?
-We need to be finished with the botany unit by Christmas because we MUST cover zoology this year, too.
-Will my daughter really be prepared for 5th grade math next year if we skip over a 4th grade Saxon lesson here and there?
You get the idea.
Overall, I believe myself to be a very relaxed homeschooler. I don’t mind skipping redundant lessons in a workbook. I don’t mind chucking a workbook for a more real-life approach. I don’t mind changing plans at a moment’s notice for a field trip or a friend in need. But, it never fails, every year about this time I find myself having to stop and get myself back on the right track. I don’t know how I slowly become a slave to the workbooks and my lesson plans as the fall semester goes on, but I sure do!
Let’s just say that the articles on this site have helped me to regain my focus. You will be blessed!
http://www.homeschooloasis.com/lol_main_pg.htm
Posted by Cindy on October 25, 2006
Homeschooling….I sure feel like I’ve been at it a long time, but some days it seems as if I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s on those days that I realize that we’re in a rut. The last couple of weeks have been a rut for us. Of course, it could have something to do with school starting the first of July this year (trying to get in as many days as possible before the baby arrives around Christmas.) It could also be that I’m allowing far too many “good” interuptions into our days. Co-op, field trips, Keepers At Home group…..all those things are great, but I’m wondering if somehow our “rut” is God trying to tell us to slow down, to be at home more, to enjoy our days and each other more.
Whatever the answer to our rut, I know God will put us back on track soon. He always has, and there have been many ruts in the road on our journey so far. The hardest part about a rut is that Satan loves to find you in one. For me, that’s the time when he sends the nay-sayers my way. You know, the people who would love to talk you out of homeschooling, who play the 20 question game with you about “why in the world you’ve chosen to homeschool??”, the ones who say “Of course you’re in a rut, you’re with your children 24/7!!”
But, again, God has always been good! He has given me faithful homeschooling friends and a strong husband who are able to remind me WHY we do what we do and how important it is to keep moving westward in our journey. It’s not always easy homeschooling, it’s not always easy even being a Christian in this world of ours – but I know that God has called us to do what others might see as silly or futile. And what God calls me to, I know He will be faithful to pull me through.
I love being home with my children. I just have to be reminded sometimes about how much I love it!
