Raising Arrows: Homeschooling with Purpose

You look at her and your first thought is,

“How in the world does she have time for that?”

Your second thought is,

“She’s probably sacrificing her marriage or her children or her time with God.”

Whoa! That was a quick leap from time management to outright negligence!

As I was writing my post on me management (and also my post for Homeschool Blogging on Sour Grapes Blogging), I realized that all too often we project our own feelings and weaknesses onto someone else and sometimes we end up acting downright self-righteous.

I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve done it. I’ve looked at another mom and said in carefully-hidden jealousy (*cough*),

“How in the world did she find the time to do that?”

Maybe she took a gourmet cooking class or clipped coupons and paid $2 for groceries last month. Maybe she wrote a book or had a speaking engagement halfway across the country. Maybe she created a stunning scrapbook or manages to blog at Starbucks every weekend. Maybe she took a shower without 6 little voices talking to her the entire time.

Whatever it is she did, the moment we pass judgement is the moment we elevate ourselves to a pedestal. Just because MY time bandits are X, Y, and Z does NOT mean Susie Homemaker down the street is squandering her time if she is doing X, Y, and Z.

We tend to get a little self-righteous when we see someone else doing the very things we can’t seem to do without sacrificing a massive amount of our time. It feels unfair and in turn, we become unfair in our assessment of the situation.

But, what if

God has that mama in the place He has her for a reason?
God has you in the place you are for a reason?
Her God-given giftings make it easier for her to do the things she does?
Your God-given giftings feel crazy-difficult to her?

God created us each differently and has us each in different places all for HIS glory. It’s not my job to decide if you are or are not where He placed you.

Ladies, we don’t know the full story, but God does. If you absolutely see outright neglect or sin, then by all means address it…in love. But, the first step toward contentment in your own life is stop comparing yourself to others.

God didn’t make me a couponing queen or a scrapbooking diva. He put me 30 minutes away from a Starbucks and gave me 7 beautiful children, several of which talk to me during my shower.

I blog. It’s where He has me…for now.

I want to leave you with a beautiful quote from Jamerrill Stewart of Holy Spirit-Led Homeschooling, FreeHomeschoolDeals.com, and the recently announced co-ownership of The Homeschool Village:

{Jesus} answered my heart’s cry with a ministry right from my farm house kitchen. He also has only increased this passion, creative ideas, and opportunity…I feel the Lord’s pleasure when I blog. Despite what some may say about the energy I put into my blogs, I am in God’s will. He confirms it. He multiplies my time. Jesus is mixed up in the middle of this with me.

PS – There is definitely a flip side to this Self-Righteous Mommy Syndrome called the Defensive Doing Too Much Mommy Syndrome. You’re not off the hook! Coming soon…

This is not my typical kind of post, but if you could have seen me the other night hooping and hollering every time I snagged a freebie from next year’s book list, you would get why I just had to share with all of you!

In my post on affording the large family homeschool, I talked about using free stuff to homeschool. One of the free things I mentioned was public domain works. Now that I have an iPad these are a little more enticing to me. I never wanted to use these before because I didn’t want to lug my 17″ laptop all over the house with me. But having a much smaller and more portable device and the ability to use the Kindle app (works for PC too!) to store the books on Kindle until I am ready for them gave me the idea that I ought to search through my list of books for next year and see what I could find that was public domain.

By the way, we have decided to use Tapestry of Grace Year 2 for next school year, so the book list I was searching was from there and primarily for my junior high and high school aged children. And yes, I promise to write a post about our choice to go back to Tapestry of Grace after all these years.

Please remember these books must be previewed by you, the parent. Also be aware that you do not see HOW I use these materials in our homeschool. I may be skipping sections, giving an overview of the work, or reading the entire book aloud.

So, here’s what I found!

I went with this version of Arabian Nights because one review called it the “sanitized children’s version”.

For those of you unfamiliar with the real “unsanitized” version of Canterbury Tales, this is not a book you read straight through.

Beowulf is not an easy read and I didn’t read it until I was in college, so I plan to skim sections with my children. There is a children’s version available, but not for free.

Not a light read I am sure!

This book, set in the middle ages, is one that I am very excited to be putting in the hands of my oldest son!

Frankly, I’m looking forward to reading this! I’ve heard it is a good read.

If you buy this in the complete version it is $.99, but if you get the two volumes separate, it is free. Go figure.

My oldest son will be earning a Government credit next year. This is part of that credit.

We own a hardcover version of this book as well (picked up from a used book sale!), but I wanted the opportunity for two children to read the book at the same time without needing to share the book.

In order to get Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I had to get this selection rather than just the sermon itself which costs $.99.

The reviews on this particular book won me over as this being the sort of thing I was looking for.

Again, we own this in hard copy, but I wanted to give both my older children the chance to read this at the same time and not have to share a book.

As for the other books on my list, I am saving up Amazon gift cards from being an affiliate and as Swagbucks prizes. I’m starting to list what I need on PaperBackSwap as well with the hopes I can find some there for cheap too. I also plan to utilize my library as much as possible!