I often ask myself what my days would look like if I didn’t have to worry about the State’s requirements for educating my children. What would I spend my time teaching them if I had zero pressure from outside of the home influencing the content of my lesson plans?
I probably wouldn’t interrupt them from their creative playtime to instead read school books. We wouldn’t cut our morning breakfast conversations short to hurry along and get ready for learning time. I doubt we would waste beautiful days indoors at a desk when we could be enjoying nature and sunshine.
More deep discussions. More snuggles. More games. More laughter. More intention.
Less rushing. Less paper. Less interruptions. Less fear. Less stress.
If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s how precious this time with my children is and how little the State actually cares about the well-being of families like mine. Why am I allowing their one-size-fits-all educational model to distract me from the very individual needs and calling given to me by God?
Every year I shrug off a little more of the “homeschool mom doubt”, because each year my kids grow a bit older and I see the good fruit in what we are doing here. And so I pray that this is the year we finally stop worrying about what other people want us to do with our time teaching these precious babies and we instead fully commit ourselves to doing what is best for them as the individuals we recognize them to be.
Today that looked like skipping bookwork to play chess after read alouds, because soon enough the boy who begged me to play with him won’t be home anymore to have the conversations this opportunity provided. This year has made it even clearer to me that living in fear and doubt is not freedom. The reason we homeschool is to be free.