“We don’t go to homeschool conventions to buy our curriculum. We go to buy our next curriculum.”
~Voddie Baucham
We have been homeschooling from the beginning. You’ve heard how I only knew of one homeschool catalog that first year and how I managed to teach my son to read with only the resources from that catalog.
From there, I began purchasing new curriculum nearly every semester…trying to find the perfect one. I became a little less frantic after I passed the three year homeschool learning curve (that post is a Must Read, in my opinion!), but still I find myself tweaking even today.
And somehow knowing Voddie Baucham‘s family is tweaking too makes me feel better.
That’s why I wanted to address this subject with all of you. I’m sure some of you wonder why nothing ever seems good enough. You wonder when you will find something you can stick with. You wonder what must be wrong with you that you can’t seem to make one curriculum work for everyone.
I’m here to reassure you and tell you that you can’t find that curriculum for three reasons:
1. Your children change – They were little, now they are big. There were 2 of them, now there are 6. They used to be interested in dinosaurs, now they are interested in engineering. And the list goes on and on and on. This is the beauty of homeschooling. You don’t have to remain static and continue to teach from the box. You get to grow with their needs and interests. (Read The Christian Home School by Gregg Harris for more information on delight-directed learning)
2. You change – Of course, a homeschool mom can have physical changes in her life that cause her to need to change things up in her homeschool day, but let’s talk about the spiritual changes a homeschool mom goes through.
I am not the same spiritually as I was 10 years ago when we began this homeschooling journey. Homeschooling causes you to dig deep and teaches you more than you ever realized you would learn. The biggest lessons you learn are the spiritual ones. You learn more about your Bible and your God and you learn how utterly dependent you are on Christ. You go from milk to meat, ever-growing and ever-changing.
Because of that, your ideas about curriculum change too. Often, you find yourself playing it safe and sticking close to the public school guidelines in the beginning, but as you mature spiritually, you find yourself less concerned with academics and more concerned with your children’s spiritual growth. You find you want to bring out different things in your homeschool day…things that lead your children to Christ. And sometimes this means a change in curriculum.
What a wonderful reason to change!
3. You family changes – Circumstances change for families all the time. Rarely do family dynamics remain the same all throughout your homeschooling years. You have to accept these changes and do what needs to be done to work with these changes. Perhaps you started homeschooling with one small child and now you have 10. Perhaps your husband doesn’t have a job right now or you are sending a child to college. Perhaps you are entering the foreign mission field or returning home after years away. Perhaps you have a child who needs some serious shepherding or a family member who must come live with you. All of these things will effect your homeschooling. You have to be ready to adjust as needed.
Ultimately all of this is God.
God guiding and directing the paths of you, your children, and your family. God growing you up. God piercing hearts. God revealing Himself to you each and every day.
You must be willing to say, “Where He leads, I will follow.”
No curriculum will ever be better than God. We aren’t searching for “good enough” because good enough won’t do. We are seeking a God Who satisfies our every need and yes, sometimes He will lead us to new curriculum…our next curriculum
{photo credit Shutterhacks}
In our 10 years of homeschooling, I have attended many different conferences in many different states. However, as a brand new homeschooler, I didn’t know what to expect from these conferences and was blown away when I got there.
