Overwhelmed Update…

Here’s my update on my Overwhelmed post on Friday…

I’ve been quite stressed lately  because we have to hand in results and evaluations to Le-Amen next week and getting Jesse to finish his bookwork is harder than dragging a donkey to the water. I've also been frustrated because I'm struggling to find material that will help him restore his love for learning. My big challenge is to fix what the system has so badly damaged. Although I have found some material that may work for Misha, I still have no idea how to go about it for Jesse.

I had a big fat fight with Jesse on Friday, because he just doesn’t want to complete the bookwork for our deadline this week & dad still insists it has to be done. Dad just doesn’t see their hurt the same way I do. He feels we “survived the system” in our days and so should the kids,  although in our days pressure at school wasn’t half as bad as now.

My long heart-to-heart with Jesse the previous week also made me realise I hadn’t noticed the extent of his hatred for school earlier thus made me feel guilty for not removing him from the system sooner. Of course Satan had a field day with making me feel that I had failed him for not seeing through his “seemingly coping” facade at school. Forcing the Le-Amen material just fuelled the fire more and made it all worse instead of releasing the stress as initially intended through home educating. I think the stress & frustration at not finding adequate material was getting a little too much. Feeling much better now though. We had another long heart-to-heart on Friday afternoon after I had cried my heart out & agreed although we cannot change the past we will now work together to find a solution for the future.

I suppose if I’d read the SACHS Blog Carnival # 11 – Philosophies of Homeschooling by Linnie Lues at Back to Ancient Ways, when it came out 2 weeks ago this last outburst could probably have been prevented. This was the first time since the Blog Carnivals started last year that I didn’t have time to read the posts & now I know why I was kept so busy that I didn’t get to it. She wrote: “Shirley at Under and English Sky wrote about the heart behind homeschooling, as God has convicted her, in A Vapour in the Wind, It's Simple... They Belong To Jesus... and Homeschooling for Homeschoolings sake? She has experienced the distraction of too many curriculum choices, too many tried and tested methods. Each one of them distracting her from the '”WHY” they home educate. She took a look into homeschooling that goes beyond method, curriculum or style, rather into their families heart, the true reason why they educate their children at home.”  This paragraph and the linked posts have been confirmation to me to follow my heart and that we were heading in the right direction. True to form, Satan will always try to oppose when we’re planning to do what we feel in our hearts God wants us to do, hence all the distractions for me to read these posts...

Fortunately, Dad has finally agreed to allow unschooling for Jesse until August/September next year when the new American school year starts in order to allow him some time find his interests and to deal with his intense hatred towards schoolwork. Jesse has agreed to then put in his best efforts for Gr. 9 – 12 through Alpha Omega Academy or whatever other hands-on material I God brings on our path by then.

So for now it will be Science (with all the necessary equipment needed to do the experiments), Technology, Barry’s Geography, Woodworking and whatever other hands-on-learning opportunities I can lay my hands on. And of course one of those sets we saw at the expo. We’ll be turning our little kitchen into the science lab where they can experiment and build to their hearts’ content. We’ll also take up the guitar lessons again and I may even get some other kids to join them to make it more fun.

Although I don’t have a set approach for next year, I am now resting in the knowledge that God is taking my boys at their own levels & I need to allow them the time to deschool, find their interests & allow God to do pave the way to restoring their love for learning.

I have also been inspired to start formulating our philosophy for home education in the near future. I still have no idea how and when but first of all we will be removing “school” from our vocabulary and replacing it with education. I saw this photo on facebook this weekend and have decided to include it with our philosophy.

So here we go as we take a turn in our home educating journey... watch this space... we’re planning to have loads of FUN education next year... but first we’re looking forward to enjoying a well deserved holiday.