Integrated Impact – LearningRx

Months ago LearningRx called to check in on our kids.  It’s been almost five years since we trained with them.  My youngest, Danielle, was homeschooled and in second grade at the time of our training, but she’s a seventh grader now.

We are in full court press with all teenagers now, and the days of homeschooling seem far away.  Next year, two boys graduate high school.  Has our training helped longterm?  Am I still seeing the months of work we put in?

The answer is yes; however, it wasn’t an easy answer because the skills have been integrated into the lives of our children. How to communicate this took a lot of thought and some very direct questions.  Instead of a lengthy list, I will share the video we made for them, and I hope this gives some of you hope.


Where does summer go?

First, let me get a protest out of the way.  Summer homework is for the birds.  ‘nuf said!

My protest leads me into the ever-quickening pace of our summers.

As a child they seemed to last indefinitely.  I don’t remember summer projects assigned by teachers.  I remember making hammocks out of mom’s sheets, lemonade stands, the pool, learning to drive the riding lawn mower and catching fire flies.

There are no fire flies in Jacksonville!  There are, however, summer projects along with a host of other wonderful blessing like tons of frogs (which I love catching).

It seems summer barely begins and then we’re in the heat of midsummer.  I turn around, maybe twice, and school is upon us again.

When the bible talks about this life being fleeting in the face of eternity it’s truth is never more evident as an adult with children.  One moment you hold your newborn and the next you are learning how to let go and allow them to be mini-adults.

It’s sad for this mommy.  It’s also rewarding, frustrating, glorious and crazy – all wrapped up in one!

When they were little I kept them safe from climbing steps, falling on the cement and my husband and I kissed boo-boos and passed onto them out love of campfires.

Babysitters helped them make visors that were actually proud to wear!  And while my photography skills have increased my babies are growing up……

Taking care of the “bare necessities” of life were quite uncomplicated compared to our new found role as parents to teens, tweens and an almost tween.  Hoping they live their lives for God, make good choices, choose their friends wisely, don’t speed, be respectful……and all that jazz!

All of that is much harder than wrapping them in warm jackets and finding their favorite shoes.

Sometimes I wish we could flash freeze moments as to return and look at them with eyes full of wisdom from the future.  A multi-dimensional stop in time to appreciate all that was in that moment.  The baby voice, the tiny shoes, the cries of protest, the trusting child, the Barney songs, the little hand in ours and even the smelly diapers that are just too quickly gone.

I think we need more summers.  Not the break from school summer, but the “let’s go have fun and leave our worries behind” summers.  God knew how badly I needed a husband who has a summer outlook on life.  He pulls me out of me seriousness and says, “Let’s go have fun.”  He tries new food, catapults from airplanes and dares to live life on the edge as I sit with my feet firmly planted on the ground.   “For it is safe here young padawan!”

I need more summer.  More of an ability to trust the Father and swing high from the branches of His tree.  To squeal like a little girl and to run with wild abandon.  To rest.  To listen.  To be quiet.

Homeschooling, although crazy as it got at times, allowed more summer into our lives.  With all the children in school there is less summer.  As they grow into their responsibilities as young adults days spent riding big wheels in the drive way and picnics in the gazebo come less often.  Schedules fill up.  Time to “just be” falls away.

I believe my goal for the coming academic year (non summer) is to schedule one day of summer into each month.  A day or a night where the whole family does something…..anything just to pause, have fun and enjoy the sunshine, the lemonade and the homemade hammock.

And I have just the man to do it with!  Hold me accountable baby!!!

 


Full Circle…

If you read my blog you know about my super lovely day a few weeks ago.  This is an exert from that day’s events:

Driving along in this broken-hearted state this morning I ran smack into downtown, stand-still, Jacksonville traffic.  There was a policeman amidst all the traffic.  I rolled down my window.  My own simple, small world persecution now began as this officer spoke to me as if I was 2 years old.  After repeatedly answering the same question he asked over and over I finally told him he was being awfully rude.  I didn’t know I was supposed to detour.  I didn’t know there was a wreck.  I didn’t believe he had the right to talk to me the way he was talking to me, however, he still chose to belittle me.

And in that moment my world collided with that pastors world.  My heart turned towards his pain and persecution.

I was stunned and shocked that this police officer was berating me in front of my children as I attempted to travel our normal route downtown to school.  Over and over again he “slapped me in the face” with his tongue.  My fresh tender heart began to harden.  Had I not been blinded with indignation I would have looked at his name tag.  I would have called to report him.

My indignation slowly twisted inward.  I was reminded of my fellow brother-in-Christ who lies in solitary confinement, beaten, dying.  Am I above persecution?  Is my life anything like his?  Absolutely not.  But, did today sting?  Yes.  Badly.

After sharing the pastor’s story I’d heard on the radio and my day with my best friend she called later for the pastor’s name and location.  I had no idea, after hearing the story, where he was imprisoned until one night this week. I mentioned looking up the radio station and finding his name later that day……but life took over, until….

I had the most incredible phone call with a fellow LearningRx parent in Boise, Idaho.  We were sharing stories about homeschooling and our faith, as well as our journey with LearningRx when she mentioned my recent blog post.  “Oh, did you know Pastor Saeed is from Boise, Idaho?” she asked.

“Who?”

“The pastor you spoke about in your blog. He is from Boise.”

Shocked that the pieces of my horrible day were coming full circle right before my eyes I intelligently commented, “No way!”

Only God!

How life went from driving my kids to school on a foggy Monday morning to my heart breaking over Pastor Saeed in part because of my local Christian radio station, to sharing the story with my best friend, to speaking with Lareina in Boise, Idaho about a fellow brother imprisoned for cause of Christ, to knowing his name!  There isn’t a word to describe how incredibly shocked and blessed I felt!

After finishing my phone call with Lareina I immediately called my BFF (teenager language – my son would be proud!) at 10:30pm hoping I wasn’t waking her to tell her the story…….

Saeed has been imprisoned while in Iran and accused of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was working in an orphanage when arrested.

He is in a prison FOX NEWS calls Hell on Earth.  Fox News also reports:  It has been almost a month since Iranian authorities promised Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith,  that he would receive medical treatment.  He has undergone months of beatings and abuse at the hands of his brutal Iranian captors, which has led to dangerous internal bleeding.

For the cause of Christ, for not denying his faith, for staying true to the One he calls Lord!

When I heard his story on the radio he was just placed in solitary confinement again with internal bleeding and failing kidneys.  My heart ached to think he may die in that tiny dark place I can only see in my imagination.  And now, each time I think of him, I pray that God would be tangible to him in that horrible place.  I pray as he reaches out his hand or curls into a pain-filled ball that he feels Jesus holding him, for HE walked the same path all for us.  For me.  Just so that I might have the chance to know Him.  Just as I believe in a God who knows all I also believe He gives us all a choice.  I didn’t know I would call him Lord.  I didn’t know I would desire His will for my life over my own.

Knowing I have an all-knowing, all-powerful God directing my steps gives me comfort to face another day on this earth that has prisons like Evin in Iran.  When my heart feels heavy with the weight of this world I can turn my face upwards towards a Father who smiles at my neediness, my “lack of”.  Knowing He loves the part of me that is like Him and the part that wants to run away.  Knowing He knows I can’t walk a single step without Him brings me peace.

And for His all-knowing, all-encompassing love, I am eternally and tearfully grateful!

**If you’d like to know more about Saeed’s imprisonment CLICK HERE and HERE

**If you would like to read Lareina’s blog post about LearningRx it can be found here.  Read about her here and to click on her website you can do so here.

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


From Homeschooling to School (The Realm of the Unknown)

Just recently my good friend IRL (in real life), The Scooper, dished on her family’s transition from homeschooling to school in her most recent post:

School Decisions: Finding Your Family’s Path & Walking in Freedom

I’ve walked beside her as she took the brave and scary step to enter this realm of the unknown.  As homeschool moms there is so much encouragement in our decision to homeschool.  Although there are adversities if you have “your people” you have lots of support.  Scooper admits she has ONE friend who has gone before her on this journey.  ONE.

I can say I have Two.  Two, including Scooper, who have walked this path just one year before me.  I am so thankful for their support in our family’s decision.  Their encouraging words have been a life line to me at times.  Scooper says it well:  “Even though homeschoolers are still greatly in the minority, there is a lot of online support and often much personal, community support for making the switch. It’s a countercultural decision and as I’ve said before, you need your people. I know I did. I’m thankful that such support exists; I know it hasn’t always been the case.”

The switch is difficult.  I, like Scooper, yearn to base my decisions on what God wants for my children.  I am a Christian.  I’m a Believer.  And in my heart of hearts I long for heaven.  When my kids were little my life required a lot of physical work.  As they have grown into 14, almost 13, 11 and 8 I find I now spend more time and energy on emotional things.  I no longer change diapers, rope them in for nap time or feed them with those sweet baby spoons.

Now I spend my energy tightly curling back fingers that I have woven into their lives, allowing them to grow into the person God wants them to be.  For me, this means learning to let them fail within the safe confines of our home so when they leave they do so as strong, God-loving adults.

I know many moms struggle with some of the same voices I do.  We often feel entirely responsible for our children, their grades, their dress, their friends, their attitudes.  But I’m learning, ever so slowly, to remove myself from their lives in healthy ways as to allow them growth and maturity.

And again I find God leading me through these unchartered waters.  From Scooper:    Allow me to share what I’m discovering:

  • Sometimes God leads us through His word. This was one of the ways he confirmed, for us, the decision to homeschool nearly six years ago.
  • Sometimes God leads us through prayer and meditation as we seek answers.
  • Sometimes God leads us as the Holy Spirit moves and leads in powerful and unmistakable ways.
  • Other times it is a still, small voice.  Sometimes God leads through wise counsel.
  • Sometimes God leads through the guidance of our spouse.
  • And sometimes God leads through circumstances and common sense.

For me it’s been the prayers and love of good friends, words from my husband, circumstances and God slowly opening my eyes to see that he has something better for my family than “the stuck place” I’ve felt we were in.  The merry-go-round of life.  The beating my head against the same wall and expecting different results.

I tend to glorify our years of homeschooling when I think back.  Yes, they were precious and they were sweet as we intertwined our lives with the sweet families God placed around us as “our people”.  There were park days and field trips and snuggle days with Barney, Blues Clues and lunches filled with jelly beans and PB&J.  There were also times I wanted to bang my head against the wall and scream, “I’m only one person!”  With four children depending upon me I took it upon myself to be their all and all.  Dare I stop her to ask myself, “In what way was I serving myself and not my kids?”  How does that get all messed up inside?  When did I depart from God first; me, my husband and my marriage second; and my children third?  When did they become the rulers of my universe?  Why did I let them?

I’ve never been one to say I need to be needed.  But as I dig deep within myself I wonder……”Did I need to be needed without even realizing it or did I accept the role of caretaker of the universe because I felt it my duty?”  Or maybe it just made me feel important. (ouch!)

The transition from homeschooling to school has been so difficult for me.  However difficult I’m beginning to learn to walk in the FREEDOM God has set before me.  I’m taking baby steps.  It’s hard.  Sometimes I cry all the way home from dropping the kids off at school and walk into a quiet house and wonder what to do with myself.

The Lord cautions me away from busyness.  He calls me into quiet.  There are days I feel I’ve accomplished nothing and days I feel successful.  And I wonder about the labels we place on things.  What is success?  I think back on Scooper’s words: “Trust that God has the right training ground for your kid and it may not be the one you’d planned. Your hope is not in a formula; it’s in a Person. Though we lead and guide our children, we too are led and guided by our own Shepherd.”

I’m holding tightly to my Shepherd’s hand as I continue down the path into the realm of the unknown.

Follow me on Facebook:  RaisingThreeKnightsandaPrincess and JulieRiddleWorthy

 


On School, Grace and Tears

My blog has been quiet the last two weeks.  In that time we’ve gotten three children who’ve been homeschooled for five years or more off to school and the other child, who did go to school last year, enrolled and started at a separate school.  Life for me, as I have known it, has changed.  A few of my BFFs from VFA (very far away) have texted or emailed to ask, “Did they start school yet?  You haven’t blogged about it.”

So here is the blog saying, “Yes, the kids have started school.”

It’s a huge adjustment year for us all.  Each one of the six of us are being remolded, shaped, squeezed and loved upon by our Father.  I have to say that although God has prepared me for these changes, taking upon the role of mom, prayer warrior and guide is hard.  No longer are my children fully dependent upon me for all they do in a day.  I sit in the afternoon and try to figure out their homework right alongside of them.  I’m back in school, no longer the teacher, but the student.

I drop them off curbside and instead of four getting out five hop out.  The extra traveler is my heart.  It marches into the school right behind my kids.  Then for 6 hours without them I’m on my knees.  Not always physically there, but in my heart and in my soul I’m there.  I’m raw.  I’m happy.  It’s not that it doesn’t feel right, it’s just hard.  I scramble to try my best to cook, clean, rest, iron, be happy, patient and loving.  Somedays I’m that mom.  Somedays I’m not.

Yesterday I snapped at my husband.  I spoke angrily to my oldest.  I picked them up from school with a few goodies I never buy for them to let them know I missed them yesterday.  I was glad to see them and wanted to give them an extra treat.  Then one of them says the grape juice tastes like medicine.  And I slightly begin to unravel.  Do I get an “A” for effort, at least?

How long did it take me to learn to live life with a grateful heart, with an attitude of thankfulness, realizing I have to CHOOSE gratitude?  I think I was in my 30’s.   I actually feel my brain stop, switch gears and tell my heart to be thankful….to concentrate on all around me that is good and to let the little things slide.  I wish and pray for this in my kids of 13,12,10 and 8.

“Thanks for cleaning my room or making my lunch or getting up 15 minutes early to make breakfast or putting a note in my lunchbox.” This fantasy world I sometimes long for isn’t necessarily realistic.  I was a selfish stinker as a kid.

Sometimes, tho, the little things feel like big things.  A tired mom maketh an overwhelmed mom.  A mom who has homeschooled doesn’t understand why they (school) can’t get done in 7 hours what I can do in 4 hours.  And why send home homework?  Who invented homework?  You (the school) has them for so many hours.  Can’t they be mine after 3pm?  Can’t families enjoy one another for a few hours between dinner, football practice, baths, packing lunches and getting to bed early enough to do it all over again at 6:30am the next morning?  Where do they learn balance in all that?

Frustrated, yes.

Having to live with it anyway, yes.

Glad they are at school, yes.

Trusting in God’s plan for our family this year is what gets me through each day.  Today is rest for me.  I sit on my bed covered in a blanket and preparing for a nap.  My good friend, Scooper, told me yesterday that one or two days of work equal just as many of rest for her right now.  She so eloquently writes:

God uses a day gone awry and a life run amuck to show me that plans, the little ones and the big ones, are to be held loosely. Control is an illusion. Middle School brings anxiety. Life defies expectation. Beauty blooms out of brokenness.

God has been so faithful to encourage me and my children through this transition.

One of these days I’ll sip coffee on the back porch with my husband and the illusion of control will be there, if only for a moment.  We’ll look at one another and smile.  We’ve walked through yet another patch of raising kids His way and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Scooper is right.

It’s ALL GRACE.

Every single bit of every single day is nothing more than abundantly lavished grace on thirsty children in need of The Father’s love.  Whether we realize it or not.


Can LearningRx Work After 50? A LearningRx Review

God brings many interesting people into our lives.  One such person, loved dearly by my entire family, is Ms. Kathy.

Ms. Kathy was a teacher for many years and has her M.ED. in Education and tutoring. Presently, she tutors children in reading, and tests homeschooled students to determine whether their performance is in compliance with state standards.

When Ms. Kathy tested my daughter, Danielle could not even finish the test for the grade level below her grade! When we explained to Ms. Kathy that we had just enrolled Danielle at LearningRx for one-on-one brain training, she suggested we finish Danielle’s brain training first, then bring her back for state testing.

Over the coming months, our progress with LearningRx piqued Kathy’s interest as she listened to me talk about the results I saw in my children.  Since Kathy comes in contact with many children in the course of her tutoring, she was curious whether LearningRx would be a good resource for other families as well. Kathy decided to take the LearningRx brain skills assessment so she would understand the process a child goes through when walking through the doors of LearningRx.  When Kathy got the results of her assessment,  she discovered that she had amazingly high scores in Short-Term Memory, Logic and Reasoning, Visual Processing, Auditory Processing and Word Attack. She was deficient, however, in Processing Speed and Long-Term Memory.

Kathy, 63, looked in amazement at her scores. They pinpointed recent frustrating struggles in her life. Kathy hated that she would walk into a room and forget what she had gone there for. She hated her increasing need to write things down or she would complete forget them.

Kathy decided to try LearningRx’s Max Online program.  Instead of training at the center she would train online at home.  After faithfully spending an hour a day with the LearningRx intensive online program, life took an unexpected turn, and Kathy left the country to spend several months with her daughter overseas.  Once she returned to the U.S. and settled back into a routine, Kathy decided to take a second cognitive assessment to see exactly how much LearningRx was improving her memory.

I crossed paths with her in the parking lot at LearningRx just a few weeks ago as she was going in to take her assessment. She was nervous, and hoped her assessment would show proof of the improvements she felt she was experiencing in real life. I talked with her a few days later to learn that her assessment scores were amazing! Ms. Kathy had increased her Processing Speed by 40 percentile points and her Long-Term Memory by 25 percentile points!  She was so excited!  I knew all along Kathy would do great.  She is a determined and purposed woman with a real zest for life.

I asked her what real life results she was seeing at home.  She said that the biggest thing that she has noticed is that she can find things now.  She had been spending way too much time hunting for things throughout the day. Now she remembers right away where she’s left things.  She is also taking a couple of college courses for recertification and is finding that she has to reread things a lot less and can work through the curriculum in a much more linear fashion.  She also sees a big difference in how quickly she processes information while she is driving.  She foresees a flood of her friends who are sixtysomething flocking to LearningRx once they hear of her experience.

Kathy is my first friend who is over 60 and a graduate of a LearningRx brain training program.  I am so excited to have played even a small role in her new relationship with LearningRx.  Since she has discovered what LearningRx can do, she refers many of her tutoring students to LearningRx, too.  LearningRx brain training is proving to be a blessing not only to me and my family, but now Ms. Kathy, her friends, and the struggling students she works with now and in the future, too!

(Read the beginning of our family’s LearningRx story here! Our daughter just tested and her scores were amazing!!  I can’t wait to tell you about each our three children’s progress!!)

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


From Homeschooling to Public School: What I’ve Learned About My Kids and Myself {Guest post}

Hi! I’m Scooper and I blog at a la mode: a little scoop for every slice of life. I’ve known Julie for nearly 10 years. We have journeyed through a myriad of highs and lows together–raising children, navigating marriage, and making tough decisions about the ways we educate our children. Here is my story. She asked if I’d post it here today and truly, I’m honored.

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Sharing our journey from homeschool to public school is a scary topic for me. First of all, the way each family chooses to educate children is a deeply personal decision. We toss around words like “conviction” and “calling” because our deeply-held desires for our children flow out of our values and beliefs. And that’s as it should be.


The second reason I’m scared is because I am so all over the map on any given day. One of my closest friends {who homeschools} knows I can’t really talk about homeschooling right now. I can’t dish about curriculum like I used to. I’m still a bit fragile over the whole thing. Homeschooling was more of my identity than I’d realized.


My own convictions are not that cemented, which makes feel wishy-washy. I’m afraid that if I write about how public school has been great for my kids {and for me} and then we bring one or all of them back home in the future, I’ll have to eat my words. And my big fat pride just hates that.


The third reason I tread very lightly on this topic is because when one person’s conviction is not another person’s, well, things can become dicey. Sometimes educational choices can feel like religion or politics. We can become cliquish, dogmatic, self-righteous, and graceless. It doesn’t always start out that way but it’s easy to understand why this happens.


When you homeschool, you’re in the minority and you desperately need community and encouragement. It’s hard, it’s still sort of unchartered territory, it’s not “normal.” You need your people. And in some circles or certain churches, public schooling {or private schooling} can place you in the minority. You need community and encouragement too. Because it’s also hard and you need your people.


For nearly five years, I had my people. Oh I still had plenty of friends and acquaintances who were doing public school. But for very practical reasons, our lives did not overlap as much. So now I have my people who are still homeschooling and my people who are public schooling. I know what it’s like to do both. And because my family’s “way” is very much in flux and that is so uncomfortable, I cannot even begin to tell you how unsettled I feel.


My homeschooling community was amazing. I actually had friends in various homeschooling communities but we all did that weird thing of not sending our kids to school. Being “weird” is what bonded us all. I went to practicums and conferences. I read lots of books. I researched. I felt inspired. But in retrospect I’m realizing that I was also indoctrinated. Yes, that sentence was passive. The truth is, I indoctrinated myself.


There is a fine line between inspiration and indoctrination. It’s not always one or the other but we need to be wise in recognizing when it shifts from the former to the latter. I tried to be wise. I am a natural-born skeptic. I tend to be analytical and discerning. But sometimes our emotions trump our brains. I think that happened to me a little bit with homeschooling.


I still love the idea of it. Love. I know {and envy} homeschool families who do it beautifully and who have raised the most amazing, equipped kids. And because The Man and I reserve the right to change our minds, I may be a homeschool mom again.


But I won’t be the same homeschool mom.


I know myself better. And I’d pay myself better too. I’m also more able to recognize when inspiration shifts to indoctrination and I will run the other direction. Fast.


But I don’t just know myself better. I know my kids better too. And do you know why?


Because I sent them to school.


That sounds counterintuitive. In fact, plenty of homeschool families told me that homeschooling allows you to know your kids better. And it does. But moms and kids can also fall into ruts when they’re together all the time. Familiarity can breed contempt {or at least annoyance} but it can also create blind spots. At least it did for me.


I’ve learned that my son is infinitely more motivated when he’s surrounded by lots of people. A true extrovert, he is inspired by social energy. At home, he was smart but sluggish, capable but distracted. Going to school brings out the best in him and he has a way of bringing out the best in others.


He loves his classmates and his teacher and they love him. He is full of compassion, near tears when he tells me about the kid who gets in trouble the most. He has an uncanny ability to see past kids’ behavior and analyze the ways in which home and academic struggles influence poor decisions and leave certain kids at risk. It sort of freaks me out. He’s only 8.


But he’s totally normal too. When he comes home from school, he tells me what he’s learned but more importantly, how many interceptions he caught during recess. Today he informed me that he’s #5 on the Heisman watch. {Who knew that 2nd graders have a parallel football universe?} We spent last week at the beach and when we returned on Saturday, he told me that he couldn’t wait for Monday. What’s Monday? I asked. School! I just can’t wait to see everybody, he replied enthusiastically. I’ve no doubt he’ll cry on the last day of second grade.


I’ve learned that my daughter is crazy about science. She has recently declared that she will one day get a PhD in Biology and a Master’s degree in teaching. She’ll be an artist on the side. And though she will likely change her mind 17 times before she has to make those decisions, it’s exciting to see her excited. The girl has become enthusiastic and driven, thriving on the social and academic culture of school. She loves having different teachers who teach their subjects well and passionately. I’ve also observed that she studies for tests by recruiting a willing family member to be her “student” and then teaching the poor hapless victim her test material for as long as he or she will sit. It seems to work.


Though she can be quiet and appears shy, she’s demonstrated that she can be assertive when she needs to be, both with kids and with adults. She’s confronted meanness, frustrating group assignments, and missing {stolen} chocolates from her lunch box. And through all of this she’s learned that plenty of kids have home situations that don’t afford them the luxuries of two parents, intentional discipline, protection from things that 11-year-olds shouldn’t have to face, and a truffle or two in one’s lunchbox.


We’ve been able to process frustrating and unfair situations through the lens of grace. And this has been such a gift for both of us. In the words of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird,


You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.


Sharing these observations about my kids probably sounds a bit braggy and indulgent. That’s not my intent. Truly it’s not. I’m simply bringing to light the qualities I couldn’t see so well when they were at home. Oh my word, my children have got their issues. I’m their mama and I see their mess in all of its glory. Sometimes their mess overwhelms me and like any other mama, I worry about them. I fight fear, I fret over grades, I desperately want them to do well. But that is no longer the primary goal.


Learning to climb into others’ skin…this is more important than learning math in just the right way or understanding history from a classical perspective. It’s more important than reading the greatest of books or being a National Merit Scholar.


Don’t get me wrong, they are learning math and history and science in ways that are engaging and effective. But they’re learning so much more. And so am I. The irony is that this sort of learning, this exposure to certain influences and unsavory topics, this is the stuff I wanted to protect them from. I still do.


But this is the world they will one day navigate without parental supervision and tutelage. So every day they get to practice being brave and true, loving and discerning. They will fail. They have failed. We all do. But every day they come home to me and we revisit the day. We “walk around in skin” and their father and I try to point them to truth and reaffirm our values. In many ways, we’ve become more intentional about these sorts of things since they went to school.


You see, we are still homeschooling but in a way that feels surprisingly richer and, I daresay, right. For us. At least for now. And I do know that come August, I may turn tail and run headlong back into homeschooling and want to delete this whole post. It’s possible. But this is where we are today and I’ve quit trying to predict the future.


One year at a time, one kid at a time, seeking God’s face all the time. That’s the motto The Man and I have adopted.


God gave us these kids years ago and we dedicated them back to Him, recognizing that we are mere stewards. He goes with them every single day.


I had not planned it this way. I thought I knew best. I don’t regret a single day of homeschooling and the lovely, messy days of togetherness we experienced. Writing about it in the past tense brings tears to my eyes.


It’s just that sometimes real life re-routes us in ways that feel like failure but are actually grace.

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Thanks for allowing me to share my story here with you.


Homeschooling year by year!

When we began homeschooling we knew that we would take each year as it came and pray for what God wanted for each child.

We’ve had one go to K4 and K5, one to 2nd and 6th grade and one to Montessori school for 1st grade.  Otherwise, it’s all been at home.

Most of you who follow my blog know that we’ve spent quite a bit of time and money at LearningRx this year.  It’s been that year for us.  Homeschooling and LearningRx.  Not much else, has happened otherwise except football.

Oh, I did forget we moved twice.  How could I forget that!  And we’ve had several deaths….my mom, a best friend’s daughter, my brother-in-law’s mom.  But all of that is another story…..I wander.

Back to school.

This year we tried many things for my 7th grader that did not work.  We began with one math curriculum and ended up with Teaching Textbooks which my son LOVES.  We also began one Language program, tried another and then made our own.  We’ve taken a lot of what we learned from IEW and applied that to our language this year.

Grammar?  We tried Grammarlogues but my son didn’t like it.  So we moved onto Vocabulary Cartoons and have used that for spelling, vocabulary and stuck Grammar in with language.  Back to pronouns, nouns, diagramming.  All those things boys LOVE!

My son also does not like fiction so the “normal” books don’t work for us.  He’s read ALL IN by Gene Chizik, Auburn’s coach and  Tim Tebow’s book – Through my Eyes.  Now, it’s his Science book he reads for reading time.  We’ve tried several nonfiction books but besides Diary of a Wimpy Kid, nothing has ever worked.  He’s a fact guy.  He’s practical.  He also spends a lot of time reading his History Book (Abeka 6th grade) for pleasure.

School has always been different for him.  He doesn’t conform to the norm.  He’s a very intelligent but he’s very different.  Thus, my gift from God on Christmas Day.  Born 12-25-98, nine days past due.

This year God has placed on our hearts for the children to go to a private Christian school.  We don’t know how we are going to afford it but we know if it’s God’s will he will provide.  He always does.  I don’t know what He is preparing the kids for.  I don’t know what he’s preparing me for, but I trust Him completely.  (Might I clarify that with “as completely as I can at this time and place in my life”).  It’s hard to let go of my chickens and intrust them to another where learning is concerned, however, I feel it’s His will for next year.

What will the following year look like?  Who knows.  I have trouble going past today.  I’m thankful that He keeps me reigned in to today, for it’s all He’s given us.  I fondly remember these days….

and these….

I am trusting that the One who does this:

…..can do just about anything HE so desires in the lives of my children.


Mom’s Night Out


Unlock the Einstein Inside – LearningRx

Did you know you can download Ken Gibson’s book Unlock the Einstein Inside for free? Are you like me and love free things? This is one of those must reads for moms, anyone looking to get Sartre or understand the brain better.
Click here to download the free ebook!

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


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