Homeschooling Part I

This is the first in a series on homeschooling.
Part I
Warm yellow walls dressed with colorful maps outfitted my homeschool room. A long yellowed oak table pushed up against the wall served as multiple desks. Wiggly bodies shuffled in for their first day of school as the complete Guire family, the year-2000.

“Sit down,” I said inviting them into the classroom. Audrey, Amerey and Hunter(the old Guires) complied immediately. Damian, Gregory and Ania (new Guires) took their seats only to hop up moments later and wander around the room.

“Sit down,” I said again.

“Nyeh (No)!” replied Damian and Gregory.

This wasn’t my first day of homeschooling, nor my first encounter with resistance. Many parents would consider this scene a GREAT reason Not to homeschool. I see it as a perfect reason TO homeschool. My newly adopted children had failed the pre-test in obedience. It wasn’t the end of their education, it was the beginning.

“The will, too, is of slow growth, nourished upon the ideas
proposed to it, and so all things work together for good to the
child who is duly educated” (Vol. 6, p. 132).- Charlotte Mason

Many people tell me they don’t have the patience to homeschool. In other words- it’s too hard. Anything worth doing is difficult and contains many obstacles.

“Adults living in households with children under 6 spent an average of 2.0 hours per day providing primary childcare to household children. Adults living in households where the youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 17 spent less than half as much time providing primary childcare to household children–0.8 hour (47 minutes) per day. Primary childcare is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as physical care of children and reading to or talking with children.” -2008, www.bls.gov/news.release/

Forty-seven minutes per day. Why do we have children? For less than an hour a day to spend with them? How do I influence my children in this short amount of time? Help them to direct their will? To overcome life’s hurdles? To grow in the midst of troubled times?

Watch for part II! The article “Homeschooling” will be printed in its entirety in my upcoming book- Positive Adoption.