A Heart for Homeschooling

I cannot believe it is the end of another school year. It felt like such a big year going into 2023 – it was going to be our sixth year homeschooling! I had no idea what the year was going to hold, and I had quite a few hopes and dreams for it, but then God pivoted our family toward a whole new direction: moving back to our home city, my husband becoming a pastor, and learning what it means to be a ministry family.

When Life Changes

If I look back at what I had hoped we would achieve and the reality of what we got done, I am tempted to feel very downhearted. I started off 2023 wanting to delve into a “proper” Charlotte Mason year – but lasted less than a term. Very quickly, there was so much upheaval and change as we went through interviews, prepared the house to sell, then on the market, then buying in a new city, then moving – all within a three/four month period. Once we were in our new life, it was then adjusting to what it meant for us to have Dad as a pastor, working in a large church/staff team, and how to create new routines. I tried (sometimes at my best, but a lot of the time, half-hearted) to keep lessons going amidst all this – but it was not easy.

It’s been a huge and wonderful year. And I’ve felt like a failure at times.

My Plans vs. God’s Plans

Yet, as I pondered about it as I prepared my End-of-Year Report, I began to see that we did get homeschooling done within all the upheaval – we read books, we progressed through the basics, and we enjoyed a lot of extracurricular activities. These things were really good. But what God showed me what was the most important thing we learned through this year was this:

We grew in faith as a family.

All of us saw God reach out and turn us in a completely different direction. Tim and I were open to the children from the get-go, so they saw how clearly He was working in the situations around us to get us moving. We prayed a lot together as a family, we talked about the ways in which it was important to trust God and follow Him – even if it wasn’t what we wanted. We saw Him move powerfully in the selling of our old house and the buying of our new one. We witnessed love and grief and care and the love of the church family, no matter where we were. The children saw their parents wrestle and work through hard decisions.

God Owns My Homeschool

Friends, what powerful lessons we have learned this year as a family. And though there was progression “school-wise”, what we learned outside of academics has been profound. It is clear that this is what God wanted our homeschool to be about for the year 2023 –

He is the captain of this ship, and though I man the masts and steer through the waters, He guides us to the port He wants us to head to.

As I turn my eyes toward the new year, with plans in full swing, these lessons – and the many others over the past six years – I keep in my heart and mind, knowing that prayer, trust, and grace are what keep our homeschool going. It is an exciting thing to see what God wants for us and, depending on the year, what He wants us to focus on more – life lessons or academics, or a balance of both.

What did you and your family learn most in 2023?