New Year, New Attitude!

Christmas was great this year and we were able to celebrate Christ's birth with family and friends. One of the greatest gifts we received was ..... a break from boatschool! The kiddos and I, mainly me, were getting a bit burned out!

After a 3 week sabbatical, we have started back with our lessons this week and are thorougly enjoying homeschool again:) It is true what they say about when mama is happy, everyone is happy.

I had begun to feel overwhelmed and out of my depth regarding the responsibility of educating our two little angels. However, I have had a break which allowed me to really consider the why's and what if scenarios about our homeschooling vs traditional school choices. It was a time of enlightenment for me!

I only opted for the homeschool option in the first place because of circumstances regarding boat life and travel and it seemed the best for the children in their primary years. I thought, "how fun!" I loved singing with them and teaching them their letters and fingerpainting etc. Recently, after our 5 years of "let's go sailing for 5 years and then return to a house and normal life" had run out 2 years ago I had begun to resent homeschooling. Hey, I had been railroaded in my mind and it wasn't fair because I NEVER wanted to be a teacher and this was all getting a bit overwhelming. My 10 year old has a will like her mother and the school work is getting a little more difficult and takes longer to teach and ultimately I didn't choose this, it just happened.

I read a book recently about homeschooling and realised just what an absolute ungrateful cow I had been in my thinking! Instead of looking at the positives I had begun to get caught up in society's teaching of "do your own thing" "be yourself" and as Frank Sinatra sang, "MY Way" mode of thinking.

Instead of thinking, "Wow, how could I be helping society more and being in the workforce" or "I never wanted to be a teacher anyway" "I should have been thinking, "Wow, what a blessing I have and honour to educate our children and truthfully what else would I be doing?" How many mothers have expressed their desire to be able to do what I do and cannot because of finances or unsupportive husbands etc.? I am able to help my children on an individual basis academically and when my son is sad about math taking too long (because he was singing, "Grandma got ran over by a reindeer for half the day", he can have a little cry on my shoulder and then feel better and get back to work. Perhaps a school teacher would be kind enough and give him a cuddle but I would be missing out on that cuddle from my 8 yr old boy!

When I thought of putting them in school, it was not so much for them, as for my own selfish reasons. It was getting overwhelming and I questioned my abilities and especially my enthusiasm for teaching. I thought, "It is too hard and I would get more respect as a Waffle House waitress then I do around here." But when it comes down to it, there are many teachers in our public school system that are burned out and have been burned out for years. There is no guarantee that my child wouldn't have a teacher like that at least once or twice througout their school years. Personally I had many teachers like that. Plus, as I read about sex education being taught in the schools, it scares the cuss words out of me! I am grateful that I will be able to discuss this with them at an age appropriate level and from a christian view.

Family is about love, support and sacrifice and God has blessed me with such a wonderful life that I am truly begining to see my blessings rather than get bogged down in my own self pity.
Since becoming catholic, and realising all the christian values that I haven't been living for a while I have had some radical changes in my attitude towards my family and life and God. I think that the dangers of the selfish modes of thinking that our society teaches as a whole are extremely anti family and anti God really. Now with really thinking about the options before me, to homeschool or not to homeschool, I know that I would choose homeschooling.

In homeschooling I get to teach them about scripture, astronomy, literacy, history etc but also about family, kindness, love, patience etc. We are a very close knit family and I realised just how close over the Christmas break which we spent with extended family. I love that we learn together, pray together, eat together, play together. It would seem that most of the time we are in a little cacoon and rarely get an opportunity to see how other families are living. 1 in 2 marriages ends in divorce in the United States. Most families, eat on the go and rarely sit down together except for Christmas. Most families have much busier schedules then we do and not enough time to chill. It is a crazy world out there and I have oodles of respect for the families that are striving to live a faithful life and have traditional values in a material, largely secular world. I have never been so happy to come home to our little hovel of a boat! .... and people think we are strange:)

My New Year's Resolution this year is to be the best homeschooling mother possible to our wonderful kiddos and with God's grace anything is possible!!!