the blessing of homeschool

We just finished up our first month of homeschooling! I  l o v e  h o m e s c h o o l i n g! I will always remember how Mason told me on one of our first dates that he would only marry a woman willing to homeschool his children. We're obviously a match made in heaven. :)

It really helps to have a mother-in-law who is a homeschool curriculum advisor. I know I would be struggling with a much lower confidence level without all the material that she has given me over the past few years. She even ordered the Weaver Interlock curriculum off eBay for us, and that thing is GREAT (thank you a hundred times over, Penny!!!). It's about as old-school as homeschool can get, and I love it. The first week was all about Daddy, building a framework for discussing God as our Father. Since then we've discussed God the Son, God the Holy Spirit (three in one), truth, the first and second days of creation, light, color, air, beginning math and so much more. Each subject is woven into one overarching topic in the first chapter of Genesis so that only I as the teacher see the transitions from Bible to science to social studies to art to math, and so on. The curriculum advises to dedicate about an hour and a half on three days per week to the material, and it's worked out just so. The beautiful key here is that once the hour and a half of creating, singing, dancing, drawing, painting, playing and listening are over, I am able to find opportunities throughout each day as both mother and teacher to reinforce and further explore the topics. When we touch on a topic that makes Ezekiel's eyes light up, we are free to chase that rabbit trail as far as his 4-year-old boy attention span allows. Mom, I feel bad that you had to school us with NO IPAD! That thing has been invaluable already for impromptu unit studies on volcanic lightning, metamorphosis, the digestive system, and much more...thank you!!!

Weaver is definitely the perfect curriculum for us to start out with. I treasure watching Eden and Ezekiel, though 20 months apart in age, begin their "formal" schooling journeys together - because we all know that school really starts with mom and dad the day a baby is born. Interlock combines preschool and kindergarten activities in one teacher's book, but of course Eden (the blessed second child) is very close to functioning at Ezekiel's kindergarten level because she is his apprentice in everything. Eden has taken on the role of class clown/comic relief very well. I'm having a ball watching them learn together.

In reading the material Penny's provided me, which is in the form of everything from tattered (but QUALITY!) 20-year-old pamphlets to homeschooling handbooks, I've just begun to scratch the surface of this wonderful new world. I don't have adequate words to express how much I enjoy being with our children all day. Yes, I sometimes feel as if I'm going crazy, but that's because I have three children ages 4 and under. You would have to pay ME to make me hand them over to you for the day. I adore them and despite occasional frustration and exhaustion (okay, make that constant exhaustion), I feel the time slipping quickly through my hands. I do not want to miss a moment of their childhood. I recently read that a good childhood is like an early heaven. I want to give our children that early heaven within the safe, loving, Jesus-filled environment of our home so that they can be launched onto the mission field as adults who have been so loved that they can't help but share that love through Christ with the world. I rarely post pictures on here anymore, but I need to show you the schoolroom. This schoolroom is a huge blessing that materialized under the expert guidance of my dear friend Jacque, who taught elementary school before becoming a mom. Ezekiel and Eden were delighted to see the upstairs bonus room go from a junky office to a colorful, interesting classroom over the course of a few days. I once heard them reenacting the upstairs makeover with two dolls in Eden's dollhouse. I think the dolls represented Miss Jacque and me. :)

Did you know that up until the Industrial Revolution in our country, it was understood that education was the responsibility of the parents? They would decide what they wanted their children to learn to prepare them for a productive life, and they'd go about teaching it on their farms or as they traveled and went about daily business. Some children, like Thomas Edison, turned out just fine this way. Industrialization brought an end to parent-directed learning, for better or for worse. Whether the public school system has brought more good or evil is a matter of opinion, but today more than ever schooling is a matter for much parental prayer and careful consideration. I used to think Mason was a bit of a homeschool fanatic, but as I'm finding to be true in more and more areas after our 6.25 years of marriage, I agree with him!

Notes from the schoolroom: school as you know it really is made for girls. While Eden sat at the table diligently attaching buttons to construction paper with glitter glue because she wanted to and found it truly satisfying, Ezekiel repeatedly took flying shouting leaps onto a cushion on the floor. Both were having fun, both were completely absorbed in their tasks, and only one would be acceptable in a classroom environment. Fortunately they are both acceptable in the Martin classroom!

Homeschooling takes some serious preparation. This may be more true at the preschool/kindergarten level than it will be when they are older and able to read, because at that point their learning will take on a life of its own apart from my teaching. The nightly preparation isn't too daunting though because the Weaver spells out everything I need to cover. There are no worksheets at this age, but rather songs, stories, crafts, games and general concepts to present. Worksheets make sense in a classroom environment where one teacher must evaluate the progress of 20 students, but at home it is very possible to ensure learning in other more engaging ways. I hope to avoid any and all teaching methods that suck the joy and fun out of learning. I desperately need the step-by-step guidance provided by the curriculum, but I enjoy being able to cover the material at our own pace, spreading it throughout the day and adding breaks, snacks, trips, and movies as necessary. :) 

Our days at home while Mason works have completely transformed since we started our schooling. It's added STRUCTURE (which we so needed), routine, and creativity to our days, making for a significantly more motivated Momma and calmer, happier kiddos too. I just told Mason that I feel I'm in a sweet, sweet season of motherhood. There is nobody I'd rather share my day with than these three children (and Kamelia if I could right now!), and I tell them so. I am exceedingly grateful to God for placing each one of them in our family. They are so special and worthy of everything I have to give. I was created to worship God through loving them and to create a joyful, secure home in which they can flourish and grow into the adults that God intends for them to become. I believe that watching them learn will be one of the greatest joys of parenting. If you are considering homeschooling, it may encourage you to know that it only comes one day at a time. I know this from being homeschooled myself from grades 1-6 and also from the past 4 weeks! There will be more posts on this topic to come as we continue on this journey. It will be wonderful to sit back and see how homeschooling, adoption, and other specific God-given passions of ours unite to help us accomplish HIS purposes for our family.