Summer!

So it's summer. Schooling is officially on break, but learning is still happening. Here's a little of what we've been doing in June!

We started the month off by going to Taylor's graduation. She is my cousin Lori's daughter. David took the photo.

The youngest 2 stayed with Mamaw & Papaw while Jamie & I went to camp to work. David took this pic of them with Mamaw, Papaw & Uncle Bob!

Jessica playing play dough at Mamaw's.

David watching tv while playing play dough.

They visited us at camp. I was supervising the kitchen crew.

Jessica & David playing at the amphitheater at camp.

Picking Papaw's strawberries.

Jessica riding her bike while David & Papaw tend the fire.

David got to shoot his BB gun & the shotgun while at Mamaw & Papaw's.

Jamie & I went to camp to help get the camp ready for the start of camp the next week.

Jamie washed all the tables in the dining room. We had a crew in kitchen, one cleaning bathrooms & washing windows. We also had crews putting bunk beds together, weed eating, spreading sand on beach & volleyball court, pulling weeds & whatever else needed done.

This is Jamie's youth group that did all the work at camp. They are an impressive group of kids with an incredible work ethic!

We got to have fun while at camp too. Here Jamie is doing the zip line into the lake.

Jamie with her crew leader, Corinne.

The next week, we returned to camp with all 3 kids. This time, they were campers! We love SpringHill Camp!

Jamie with her counselor Hannah.

David with his counselor, Adam.

Jessica with her counselor Maddy & all the friends she had already made!

All the campers at closing day at camp. The kids had a great time & grew in their faith too.

We picked them up on Friday. Then Friday night until yesterday morning, their friends Anna & Jamison stayed with us. Their parents were on a mission trip to Ukraine.

Yesterday at noon, Jessica & David went to Grandma & Grandpa's. They will be attending VBS there & I'm sure having more adventures. Jamie is with me this week as she has lots of practices for youth Sunday.

So our June has been full. I'm starting to plan our next trip with Hubby. We will be visiting the Jacksonville, FL area for several weeks later this summer. So excited to be able to visit more Civil War sites as well as some colonial sites.

Plus, we have a garden. So the kids are busy helping me pull weeds & water. We also help Papaw with his 1 acre garden! Summer is fun but busy. Enjoy the rest of it!!

 

 

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Innocence Lost

I'm sure you know this world is corrupt. I'm sure you know we have an enemy, Satan, who lurks about deceiving people & blinding them to the truth. He also tries to hurt God's children & cause them to fear life & turn from God. Many times our life moves along so smoothly that we forget our enemy is there. But I'm here to tell you that he is real. He wants to destroy families, pervert the innocent & cause us to blame God.

But, (I love that word!), God is bigger & stronger & has already won the war! God is truth! And the truth will prevail. Even when we face our biggest fear, God is with us! And if He is with us, who can stand against us? As we face our fear, we can already praise God & thank Him for standing with us through it!

If you saw your children playing like this, wouldn't you be a proud parent. Your kids love each other & are getting along. They even tell each other "I love you."

Now, add to that a bad attempt at a wedgie. Totally inappropriate especially in public, but totally innocent, right?

But when seen by a man who doesn't know you or your family dynamic, it turns into your worst nightmare. He saw this all as perverted. He called the police!

What followed was a very stressful evening of waiting followed by CPS & police interviews. Thanks to prayers, the truth was seen & the case closed. God was so merciful & provided us with very skilled & professional men to deal with who protected our kids' innocence.

I'm thankful for this incident because it opened our eyes to how unsafe the world is & how foreign & rare a loving family is these days. It also reaffirmed what an Awesome God we serve who comforts us & answers prayers.

I also pray that God will use this situation to bring glory to Himself and use it to maybe help some other family.

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The Insecurity Trap!

I've been thinking a lot lately about insecurity. Why? Because so many of us moms are insecure. Add homeschooling to the mix and our insecurity rises. This insecurity can manifest itself in a few different ways.

Insecurity can make us self-condemning. We feel like we can do nothing right & everything we do is a failure leading us to think our kids will be failures. Insecurity can make us compare ourselves to everyone else. If we aren't doing it exactly like the speakers at convention or the other families in our church then we must be doing wrong. Insecurity causes us to create some ideal, perfect homeschoolers which immediately sets us up for failure. Perhaps one of the worst things insecurity does to us is make us judgemental & defensive. We start judging others who do things differently than us and get defensive about the things we do. We then start attacking other moms instead of building each other up.

It always amazing to me the varied reactions I get from other moms when I say I homeschool. Many of these are rooted in insecurity. The reactions from those who don't homeschool are that they start tearing me down for homeschooling, they try to convince me homeschooling is the wrong choice for me or they start launching into a litany of excuses for why they don't or can't homeschool. Homeschool moms are not much better. Our responses include defending the method of homeschooling we use, attacking each others' methods or comparing methods to deflate themselves or the other mom.

How refreshing it is when I meet those rare women who are secure in who they are. I walk away encouraged & uplifted! I want to be one of those moms! I've made great strides in this area, but still slide back into the insecurity track when around others who are insecure.

So, how do we move past being insecure? Here are the steps I took. I do have to warn you that it's not easy. Many of us have been stuck in the insecurity trap for years. And for some of us, it's been passed down to us from our moms & grandmas!

1. Confess you are insecure! - Tell God you are tired of being insecure & ask Him to change you & your thinking. (Romans 12:2) It also helps to tell a close friend or accountability partner that you are struggling with insecurity.

2. Find out who you are in Christ! - When you study God's Word to find out what He thinks about you & how He feels about you, it changes how you feel about yourself. Go through the Bible and write down every verse you can find on this topic. Here are a few to get you started: Psalm 139, Deuteronomy 7:6, Revelation 4:11 and Ephesians 1:3-7. Put these verses somewhere that you will see. Better yet, start memorizing some of them.

3. Pray! - ask God to show you who you are in Him, what His plans are for you & your children and how you are to fulfill these plans. If we seek God, He will lay on our hearts what His will is for us. Then He will confirm it through His Word and through the advice of others.

4. Proceed with Confidence! - When we know who we are in Christ & the path He has laid before us, we can proceed with confidence, not in ourselves, but in Christ. We can put in place the education plan right for our family, for this time.

5. Realize that your plan is just that, your plan! - It is not your neighbors plan, it is not your friend's plan! God gives us each a plan (Jeremiah 29:11). Each of our plans are as unique as we are. It's ok to do things differently than others. And it's ok that other people do things differently than you! And remember, this plan is for this time in your life. Your plan will change with each season of your life.

6. Encourage others! - This last step is one of the most important. We need to encourage others to seek God's plan for their family. Help them to be secure in the plan God has for them, whether it be homeschool, private school, public school or unschool. Don't belittle their choices! Don't tear them down! Don't try to compete with them. Love them!! Encourage them. Remember that this is not a competition against each other. We are on the same team! We are in the same family!!

Insecurity is a trap! It's Satan's way of defeating us, tearing God's family apart & destroying friendships. We need to seek God & ask Him to lift us out of this trap. It's an ongoing process. It takes constant prayer & hard work on our parts not to slide back into old habits. I'm finding that the more I trust God & remind myself of how God sees me, the more secure I am in who God made me to be. Insecurity then loses its grip on me! It is so freeing! I am free to be me & to encourage those around me to be themselves.

Why am I even homeschooling?

I've asked myself this question several times over the past few weeks. It's an easy question to answer on the surface. But if you think deeper, it's very hard to answer.

My immediate answer is this: I want a higher quality education for my kids. I want to individualize their education. I want to be able to give them a God-centered education not one dictated by the "state". 

But as I dig deeper, I find I'm struggling with this question. I'm feeling so unqualified to teach my kids. I'm feeling overwhelmed with the responsibility of it all. What if I totally screw them up? What if I can't teach them what they need to know? Why am I even doing this? It would be so much easier to let the government school them.

Then I stop & take a deep breath & pray. I pray for guidance & knowledge. 

I am doing this because I love my kids. I want them to have the best education possible. I want them to not just do "school" to get through it. I want them to learn to love learning. I want them to want to explore the world. I want them to ask questions about everything. I don't want them study something just to get a grade. I want them to have the time to be kids. I want them to have time to use their imaginations & dream big dreams.

If my kids grow up & just follow the world, then I've failed. I want them to follow Jesus. I want them stand out from the crowd. I want to open their eyes to the world God created. To be in awe of creation & The Creator! I want them to know God's Word & be able to defend their faith. I want them to be able to pick out the Truth from the lies. This is the utmost reason for why I am homeschooling. In public school, I was taught that Evolution is fact & God is not important. I was fed lies that undermined my faith. I want to teach my kids what those lies are & why they are lies. By the time I finished my freshman year at college, I felt so hopeless & worthless. I had been fed the lies that I was an accident of nature, animals were more important than humans & there was no purpose to my being here. I don't want my kids to experience that. I want them to be able to see through the lies & see that God loves them & created them special & unique. I want them to know that God created them with a purpose!

I also want my kids to know how to study & learn on their own. I want them to know how to do research & question everything in life. I want them to do experiments. I want them to know how to analyze everything & compare everything to God's Word. I want them to know how to think & not just what to think! All my life I was taught to just accept what I was taught & not to question it. When things didn't align right in my head, like millions of years & creation, I was told not to question or "rock the boat". So rather than just telling my kids what's right & what's wrong, I want to study it with them. I want to show them why it's right or why it's wrong. I want to discuss things. I also want to be free to tell them "I don't know the answers, but lets find out together."

I'm also homeschooling because I like the freedom it gives us. Freedom to follow a schedule that fits our family. And getting up at 6am to send them away for 6-8 hours does not fit our family. Freedom to follow tangents & my kids' passions. If they want to study space, then we study space. If they want to know why we have rainbows, we can study that. If they want to know all about frogs, we can study that. Freedom to travel with Hubby & go on grand adventures. We've had opportunities to visit Washington DC, the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and to see mountains and historic landmarks. We've been to small towns & big cities. We've gotten to visit lots of museums. Freedom to spend time with Grandparents who open the door to another generation's viewpoints. They've learned to garden & can. They've learned to cook & hunt. They've learned about the past. They've gotten to spend time with their Great Mamaw that wouldn't be possible if they were in school all the time.

Before I started writing this post, I was struggling with how to proceed with school this year. But I think I'm starting to get excited about all the possibilities that exist for learning. I have all next week to plan for our year of learning as David will be at camp & the girls at my in-laws for VBS. I was dreading the week, but know I'm excited to start laying out a loose plan of learning. 

So, why are you homeschooling??? I'd like to know!