When our oldest was ready for 8th grade, we put her in public school to give her a year of transition before High School. We encouraged her to focus on the "systems" of school. How to get your locker open, stay organized, get to class on time, catch the bus and deal with bullies. It was a crazy hard year for her and us. I still had 3 kids at home and living in two worlds for a couple years til the others were ready was a lot of work. Two very different schedules and in fact I really was burning the candle on both ends to make it all happen.
So this was the year of transition for everyone else. Our second daughter was ready for 8th grade, but what we learned with the first was it is good to have a buddy. So our 3rd child was going into 7th and it just made sense to send them together. However that left only one at home and trust me, he's not a kid who can be homeschooled by himself. So in one year everyone was gone.
Wow! That really hurt. My heart was so sad when they all left that I just slept most of the day while they were gone for the first 2 weeks. I would get everyone out the door and then just go upstairs and fall asleep for 4 hours. Sadness has not been a travel buddy of mine. I prefer anger. But there was nothing to be angry about, it was just sad and I missed them.
God was gracious to blow out my knee so I really didn't have the option to just get busy with something else. I needed to just sit in it and heal. The healing was surprisingly deep. I was tired from the homeschooling, but I was also tired from all the rest of life that is hard to balance and manage when you put homeschooling at the center of your life. I had ministry scars, a scar on my knee from surgery, scars on my marriage and still a wealth of scars from my past. I was just so worn out. More so than I ever realized. I won't say all the homeschool moms I know are in that boat, but I bet more are than you think.
We are massive overachievers by nature. I think that is why many of us undertake the daunting task of our kids education. Honestly, I think that is great, but it does catch up with us over time and especially if we are not holding tightly to the hand of Jesus. Chris Rice has a song that says "freedom from myself will be the sweetest rest I've ever known" when singing about heaven. This sums up my year. I have finally found some freedom from myself. I like it. I am a tyrant on many days.
There are many great stories from this past year. But the bottom line, is everyone is doing great! They all found their way into the honors classes by mid year and we could not be prouder of their academic success. But what we really love is how they love their friends and teachers. This gives us a special feeling of success. I never set out to raise really smart and talented kids. I guess I assumed those are more gifts from the Lord that he doles out as he sees fit. I wanted to raise loving people. Children who knew they were loved by us and God and thus could love the broken world around them. It seems like we are on the right track. Thank you Jesus.
So that is another homeschool success story we praise God for everyday.
