Homeschool Job Description: Hard Work

When I first began homeschooling, I thought it was pretty easy.  My son just started Kindergarten this year and we were all thrilled to start.  I was organized.  Motivated.  Ahead of schedule.

When I spoke with many of my non-homeschooling friends, they would all say, “How do you do it?”

I thought this to be an odd question.  It seemed so easy to me.  Were they seeing obstacles I was not?  I thought they had it hard.  Waking early to send their kids off to school.  Frustrating evenings filled with homework and cranky kids.

Bleh.  No thank you.

However, as we round out our first year of homeschooling, I have realized that this is hard.  Really hard, and I’m only teaching one child in Kindergarten so far!  Yikes!

At times, the curriculum searching, whining, arguments, mess, planning, and re-planning is almost too much for me.  It’s so much work.  Hard work.  Tiring both physically and mentally.

At times, I envy my public school friends who get a B-R-E-A-K.  Between nursing a 2 month old, surviving my toddler’s terrible 2’s, trudging through the stressful 4’s, and not overloading my 6 year old, I feel as though I’m about to be laid off!  I try to remind myself my children will not be this young forever, but when I’ve washed the fifteenth set of sheets in the same week, I tend to forget.

However, with the lack of breaks and the strenuous days, weeks, and months of my homeschooling journey, an amazing transformation has happened to my husband and me.  We’ve become more diligent parents.  Our marriage has become rock solid.  And most importantly, we seek the Lord because we NEED Him.

In the end, we are doing Christ’s sacred work.  I must remind myself often.  We must teach them to obey.  Not because we want the checker at Target to be impressed, but because it glorifies God for a child to honor their father and mother.

We must have a positive attitude daily.  Not because Parents magazine says so, but because our Savior teaches us to do so.

Homeschooling is indeed a way to teach them, but we are responsible for so much more.  And it is hard.  Exhausting.  A struggle.  It’s okay to admit this to ourselves.  However, it’s not okay to give up.  I have been doing this lately and I must stop.  I must meditate on Scripture to remind me that I am raising and homeschooling our children for the sole purpose to glorify Christ.  Not to win the spelling bee, the science fair, or the swimming tournament.

Here are a few verses I am meditating on when I am tired and overwhelmed and I don’t want this job:

• Proverbs 13:4–The soul of the sluggish craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
• Colossians 3:17–And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the the name of the Lord Jesus.  Giving thanks to God the Father through him.
• Galatians 6:4–Let everyone be sure he is doing his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work well done and won’t need to compare himself with someone else.

I pray you will join me in working hard, day after day.  Homeschooling and training (both potty and character) relentlessly, day after day.  Wiping up spills and snot, day after day.  Encouraging the whiners, day after day.  The Lord is watching…let’s not disappoint him!