Who’s Watching?

How do you go the distance?  Is homeschooling just another alternative to education, or is it truly an opportunity to shape YOUR family with YOUR vision?  Before long the summer will be coming to an end and a new rhythm will begin. Have you taken time to think about your desires, your goals, your picture for the new school year?

I want to encourage you to focus the remaining weeks of July on YOU!  Are you prepared?  Is your soul ready for the demands, the schedules, the new relationships?  Have you been able to take a break and think through the desires that you want to see accomplished this year with your children/family?  If not, now is the time to look at your calendar squares and put time into them for your personal reflections.

I have been pondering the truths that were part of my story of training and homeschooling five children over a 24 year span. Here are several lessons I learned along the way.

1. Do not walk alone
The task of educating your children will always require the support and understanding of someone else. There will be many challenges and days you will want to quit; so find someone who can help carry the load.

2. Pace Yourself
Raising children will take many years and there will be many life challenges. You must pace yourself and take time to know when to rest. You will NEVER be able to do everything, but you will always have time to do the right things.

3. Be an encourager
Though the role of teacher requires you to teach, you must balance that with your greater role as a parent to encourage and cheer your children on in their strengths and gifts. At the end of the journey, will your children know that you are their greatest cheerleader? Will they have confidence in who they are so that their character will be strong enough to learn from others?

4. Grow openly
The greatest lessons that your children will learn will be what they learn from watching you walk through life. Mom and Dad, how are you doing? Are you disciplined, people of character? Do you have a cheerful spirit? Do you reach out and serve others? Are you the same person behind the door at home as you are in public?

Your children are watching you and they are learning how to live their lives according to what is important to you. As I sit with my precious five grown children, the lessons they remember the most are the lessons of my life.

In closing, I want to share the words that our precious Elisabeth wrote to Jim in a thank you card the night before she was married. “Dad, you were the first man I ever loved and the only man I ever watched.” Parents, don’t ever lose sight of the fact that your children are watching you very closely.

Don’t get hung up on choosing all the right curriculum this summer, rather take time to really think about what conversations you want to have together as a family when the children are grown. What things do you need to change NOW? Will you be brave enough to even talk about it?

I stand today at a sweet place. The relationships have changed but the years of homeschooling will always be the cornerstone of this family and I am so eternally grateful.

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1. 

   Stacey says:

   July 10, 2011 at 11:16 pm

   I really needed this Linda! Especially the part about “what conversations ” I want to have with my girls this week, this month, this year!