Homeschooling

 

Homeschooling my Gabby was not an easy decision, nor one I took lightly.

I have no special training.  I did not feel equipped.

I worried she might have learning disabilities.  I was concerned I’d limit her potential.

I feared I wouldn’t push her hard enough.

I feared that I would foster dependency.

I feared it would be too hard.

I feared frustration.

 

Ultimately, I feared failure.

I feared her failure as a student and my failure as her teacher.

 

So why then did I keep this child at home with me?

 

Because I realized (with the help of my hubby) that I could search endlessly all over the world, but never would I find a teacher more invested in this child’s well-being than myself.

 

Of course this doesn’t mean the going is always easy.  It can get pretty insane around here most of the time.

The girl has a stubborn streak and a list of excuses a mile long.

 

She’s easily distracted, gets bored quickly, and shuts down when things grow too difficult.

 

I can tell you with great certainty that God is using this experience to strengthen my character.

In fact, I recently began testing out a new theory of mine- God gives more children to those who need extra character building.

I’ll keep you posted.  Let you know if I find a correlation.

 

Oh how easy it is to be the loving, encouraging, fun, understanding, and compassionate teacher when everything is moving right along and going my way.

When children take turns needing extra help, focus diligently on their work, and kindly interact with one other; I can almost see my family pictured on the front cover of a homeschool magazine beneath the headline- ‘Mother of the Year’.

Almost.

Then it all comes undone.

The chocolate milk goes flying off the table, two siblings are having an altercation in the other room, my ‘potty-trained’ toddler is pooping behind the loveseat in his underwear, my four-year-old can’t find her markers, my teenager wants to know if I’ll ever correct her assignments, and Gabby is attempting to spell the word ‘spear’ for the fourth time.

There isn’t enough Calgon in the entire world for this, folks.

I become the ugly monster that’s frustrated and unkind.  I’m suddenly impatient and aggravated with the same little girl I claimed to love to the moon and back.

 

She’s successfully recalling all of the phonics sounds she recently learned by plucking a duck one-by-one from the pond.

 

 

 

She’s playing ‘Go Pick-A-Sound from the Merry-Go-Round’…

 

 

She’s completing lists of 40-50 words that she needs to read, write, and spell.

 

 

She enjoys listening to the soundtrack from ‘Tangled’  while she does her copy work.  Makes everything better apparently.

 

 

 

 

She’s spelling 5-letter words and adding them to her ‘word wall’ with a smile on her face.

 

 

We add illustrations when the going gets unusually tough…

 

 

 

 

 

She’s an official itty-bitty-book-light-carrying member of the O’Melia family.  This is a privilege reserved for ‘readers only’.

 

 

Oh boy, is she ever proud!

What a living, breathing miracle she is!

I pray she always sees herself as the happy, beautiful, kind, encouraging, smart, and funny girl that God created her to be.