It's been forever since I have been consistant about writing in here, and that makes me sad.
However, there are many wonderful reasons that I have been too busy to get on here. I can name seven of them right of the top of my head.. hehe... but besides the children, there has been teaching.
Let me just say one thing... I love teaching. The girls I have in my class, 2nd - 5th grade, are so awesome. Although I feel like I am crazy busy, I wouldn't want to do anything else right now. I feel so blessed to get to be apart of all of their little lives.
The experience I am gaining from lesson planning (even if it's only one class) has helped build some confidence for future homeschooling.
The way I see it is, homeschooling will be easier, and harder than what I am doing now. At least I think so. Can't say from experience. The part I'd imagine that would be harder would be lesson planning for every class... and managing many grade levels... and doing it with my own kids might be a tad more difficult than someone elses. Being "stuck in the house" will be a bit challenging, because I seem to fall in that rut when we are all home, I don't get us out like I should. I will have to be organized and have a schedule... eek... and follow it! That will be hard.
The good thing, is the hard part isn't impossible and I feel that through the experience I will gain character, I'll have to! We'll grow as a family. Excited about that.
Now for the easier part.... there's a small little thing called "getting seven children out the door, fully dressed, fed, hair fixed, lunches packed, behavior sheets signed, hats-gloves-scarves (in the winter), shoes, backpacks, jackets... with out tears and earlier in the morning than I want to be rushing out the door" that I don't particularly enjoy. Not having to do that... well, that'd be easier. Before anyone says, you can get most of that stuff ready the night before... I do. It's still stressful. Worth it, but stressful.
Another easier thing. Since I do have smaller children, it would be nice to schedule school around nap and quiet times, or just during parts of the day that would make more sense. We will school year around, so if we don't get everything done in a day (although I will always try) it's ok. And *if* I have another baby, although that is not the plan at this point... then I won't be having to do (see above) with eight children, one being a newborn every morning.. haha... we could take a break for a bit. Also, having them in the classroom with me while I teach can be a tad overwhelming at times. I love having them with me, but the hard part would be that we are on a rigid schedule, I can't just stop teaching to deal with a kid and resume at a better time. I could do that at home.
My children will get a chance to learn about taking care of a home... right now with the hectic schedule there is not much time for them to do chores. Surprisingly, Katie is actually looking forward to that part. Although she does not like chores, she sees the significance of them and wants to make that part of life a habit. Right now it's hard.
The best best best part... family unity. I just feel we need this. As a family. With Steven working so much and I doing a lot of the taking care of the kids by myself it's caused some behavior issues to come up. Sometimes I feel it's the influence of friends, and other things, not just Steven being gone, just a lot of things... but I feel we have a very small window of time to shape their little lives. I can't wait to focus on that 100%.
The icing on the cake is Steven won't have to work so much!!! He can be around more.
We'll miss the church school soooo much and I know I'll miss teaching there, but we'll be around a lot. Who knows, we may only homeschool a couple years. We just know it's right for us right now.
I really do see God's hand in this. A few years ago if you asked me about homeschooling I'd look at you and say "NO WAY! I need a break from my kids, i couldn't handle it!!" Things started transforming in me a couple years ago. It started after I read I book called Family Driven Faith. It totally changed how I thought and did things. We started having family Bible studies together (I need to start doing that again!!!!) and praying together as a family.
My next thought on homeschooling was, that I felt it was one of the best options for our kids, but had no desire whatsoever. I was terrified of the possibility. Then the kids started asking to homeschool. We didn't feel that their reasons for wanting to homeschool were the right reasons and didn't feel it was time to pull them out yet. Steven started feeling the weight of working extra to pay for the school and asked me if I'd ever consider homeschooling. I still didn't want to even though I thought it might be best. I felt really guilty about that. In fact I thought about blogging about how guilty I felt that I didn't want to homeschool... I wanted to want to so bad. I didn't blog about it, though, because I was so ashamed that I couldn't say it.
It was May, this year. Something switched in me. I just said... Okay. We're going to do it. Steven got super excited. He really wants to be a big part of it. Having a high schooler, I'll need him to be a big part! I was still scared, but thought I'd start talking to people that are doing it successfully WITH a large family. I have many friends that are doing it and loving it at this very moment. Friends with 5, 6, and 7 children. If they can do it, and do it well... I can too! That's where it took off. I am now SO excited! I do have some healthy fear though.. haha... it will be a new experience and I know it won't be all sunshine and rainbows. The first year will be the hardest. We'll make mistakes with curriculum... some days things iwll just not work out. Overall though, from what I've heard, it will be very rewarding. Not only that, but a number of my homeschooling friends say they'd never want to (see above) every morning, haha!
It was just like God gave me what I needed when the time was right to be able to make this decision. It is well thought out, we've literally been discussing it for a few years and are not even rushing into it this year. With having Joshua being born in the summer and Steven still having to go to school a ton this year we just didn't feel it was the right time. Luckily the church school is an awesome place for our kids. :)
On a side note.... hat business is going great! It's like the first year, again! Last year was slow. I hardly have time to knit, but I am plugging away, slowly.
I started taking piano lessons with Wendy... I LOVE piano lessons. I really look forward to Fridays. :)
Oh and one more thing... instead of Thoughts on Thursday I am going to do Thankful Thursday, I got the idea from Bri, Shelby's daughter... it's such an awesome thing to do and I am totally doing it! It'll probably only happen like once every couple months, but so worth it!
Well, I better sign off for now... hoping I can get on here more often!
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