CrAzY Working Mom: Being a Home School Mom Has Endless Rewards

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Being a Home School Mom Has Endless Rewards

My students and I.

You know moms have a hundred or so titles: nurse, chauffeur, chef, maid, etc. In addition to my "mom titles" am also the office manager for my husband's plumbing business. I take care of the billing, accounts receivable, and try to field service calls when I can. I also sell Scentsy. In January of this year, I added a new title to my name. I am also a home based educator. That's a fancy way to say that I teach my kids at home.

What an adventure it's been so far! I must say that I went into it as scared as any parent would be. Now, their entire future depends, in part, on not only how I raise them, but also how I educate them. At first, that was a very scary feeling. Now, I only chuckle to think that I was leaving this up to numerous other people who, although many of them very well qualified and caring individuals, only dealt with my children for a short time and had no long term investment in their future. (I am NOT knocking public school teachers...my kids had some of the best in our district!!)

It is a different adventure every single day, I promise. There are no two children alike. None of the three of them learn the same, and they are all such unique and individual personalities. It is amazing how much I have learned about them in the last 10 months. Don't get me wrong, it's not always tiptoeing through the tulips. Some times, I want to go hide in the closet and plug my ears. I may or may not have actually done this before. But, the reward far outweighs the alternative to sending my kids back to public school I have seen such a change in them since we began to home school. Yes, they still fight but they do get along a lot better than they used to. Their imaginations are unbelievable. I don't hear "I'm bored" anymore. Perhaps it's because they don't want me to make them write a book report, but still!

She brought me an apple to "school" a/k/a the kitchen table. ;)

Yesterday, something happened that made me so very proud of the young lady that I am raising. My oldest (6th grade) does her math on the computer, Teaching Textbooks is the curriculum we use. I LOVE it, by the way. It's a perfect fit for her. She had to do a quiz, so I gave her a little incentive that if she made a 100% that I would reward her. We don't usually weigh to heavily on "grades", mostly just rely on the fact that they are understanding what they are doing. But, I thought it would be a fun change of pace. She was excited and went into the office to work on her quiz. She came out later and said she'd completed her math and proudly proclaimed that she'd made a 100%!! I was happy for her, but I know her well enough to know that she was not being honest. I asked her if she was telling the truth and she hesitated and said yes. I told her I was proud and then asked her if she used a calculator (she's not supposed to use one). She dropped her chin and began to sob and said, "YES!" Bless her little heart, she couldn't be dishonest even if she wanted to. I told her that I was glad she told the truth, but the fact that she "cheated" by using a calculator meant that she wasn't getting a reward. I thought that we were finished with the incident and then later on she came out of her room (long after we were finished with "school") and handed me a folder filled with a page full of sentences: "I will never cheat again." I don't know how many times she'd written it, but I suppose once her conscience felt clean she stopped. When she handed me the papers I told her she didn't have to do it and she said she had to be punished somehow! So, I told her that as long as she asked God for his forgiveness that's all that mattered. I didn't think bad of her and I knew that she was an honest person.

As I retold the story to my husband later that night, I realized how proud I was of the little lady that I am raising. Although she might mess up sometimes (like we all do), she does have a big heart and she has the love of Christ dwelling inside her. I couldn't ask for more! I am very proud of my kiddos and I know that as time goes on, I will only become more proud.