It is easy to get caught up in [...]]]> The first 6 weeks or so of the new school semester have passed.  This is a good time to reflect on what works and what doesn’t regarding home schooling, but it’s also a time to slow down and be thankful for family and fun times.

It is easy to get caught up in perfectionism this time of year with so much to do – holiday planning, children’s programs, and general busyness and still teach our children well.  Often we begin to doubt that we can accomplish all we set out to do, and then we must remember to take care of the most important areas of responsibility first.

What do we do when we feel inadequate for the job before us?

Do you feel like you lack ability?  Do you fear failure?  Are you afraid of making mistakes?

Many new home school moms are hard-wired for perfection and feel a conflict within themselves: “How can I teach my children without having mastered how to be a home schooler.”

I am currently reading Life Equity, by Marsha Blackburn, a state senator from Tennessee.  In it she quotes an article written by world champion athlete, Rayona Sharpnack, who was interviewed inFast Company magazine. Her observations about perfectionism are quoted here:

“Women in particular tend to have confidence issues.  So I’ll go around the room and ask people how many of them would like to have more confidence as a result of being in the class.  Almost all of the hands go up.  I say, “Okay, I’m going to make you a deal.  I’m going to make you a counter-offer.  I’m not going to promise to give you more confidence.  I’m going to promise to give you more competence.  And I’m going to ask you to look and see where confidence comes from.”  Then I ask how many of them think of confidence as a prerequisite – how many of them will do something if they feel confident enough to attempt it.  All of the hands go up.  Then I ask them what they are confident about in their lives and how they got to be confident about those things. Whether it’s horseback riding or shipping products or developing software code, they all got confidence by doing something over and over again.  “Oh, so then confidence is an aftermath, not a prerequisite?  Bing, bing, bing, bing!” (p. 27)

If you’ve been waiting to feel confident (in your home school), be assured that confidence comes from competence and competence comes by trying and yes, occasionally failing.  If you wait until you are confident in your abilities before you take a leap, you never will.  Acquiring mastery and confidence requires being willing to risk failure.

Take time for holiday planning and special traditions now.  You may want to take a day or two off from your regular school schedule to make plans or just re-group in anticipation of the coming months.  Learn to be flexible – and learn from your mistakes and victories.  (Yes, I said your mistakes.  I am giving you permission to make mistakes!)

The secret to keeping a happy home is to keep Christ at the center.  Husbands and children truly appreciate a joyful mom, so keep the love of Christ alive in you.  With Him you can accomplish all the things he wants to do through you.

Philippians 4:13 (New American Standard Bible)

¹³I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Competence leads to confidence.  Do hard things and don’t be afraid to fail a little or take a few risks.  You will find joy in the journey.

With much love,

Sue

We are still in the process of re-scheduling the meeting we missed in April, so be patient a bit longer please.

Last Saturday my oldest son received his Master’s Degree from Baylor. It was a very moving moment for me. I am not the first mom in the world to [...]]]> Dear New Home School Moms,

We are still in the process of re-scheduling the meeting we missed in April, so be patient a bit longer please.

Last Saturday my oldest son received his Master’s Degree from Baylor. It was a very moving moment for me. I am not the first mom in the world to have her home schooled son receive a Master’s Degree – but it was my first.

My husband and I were very proud – we struggled home schooling him. He was a high-energy, bright boy – and I always felt inadequate to be his teacher. So my husband very plainly made me use workbooks – simple and cheap School of Tomorrow workbooks – and told me to be the overseer of his learning and not the teacher. This meant he taught himself at his own pace – and even took his own tests – grading them himself with the answer key. If he got more than 2 wrong, he had to show me – otherwise – he just moved on to the next chapter.

My friends were more hands-on with their children’s home school and thought I was really out there being so hands-off with my children’s academics. But it worked for us. All three of my children are self-motivated, high-achievers. When my children came to me and said – “I don’t know how to do this”, my reply was, “read the directions”. If they said, “I already did and I still don’t know how to do this”, my reply was, “read them again”. They soon figured out that I was not the source for the academic answers. So they busied themselves reading and re-reading to find the answers to the questions they missed on the tests – which they graded themselves. (This went for math and advanced math too!)

But what I was very hands-on with was their spiritual training. Our jobs are not to raise academic geniuses but Godly men and women for the Kingdom of God.

My son has a Master’s Degree – that is good and makes us proud. But more than that, he loves God and seeks to do His will in his daily life. That is what will set him apart and give him a unique place in this life and in the next.

Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek Ye First The Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added…”

I Corinthians 10:31 says, “in whatsoever you do – do to the Glory of God”. Teach your children to do all things to the Glory of God and they will excel – both spiritually and academically.
Deborah Korpi, Coordinator
New Home School Families

It is our sincere prayer and desire that you were each blessed and encouraged at our recent gathering.  And, how wonderful to have Mrs. Pritchard come to help mentor as well.  Thank you ladies!

Great thanks to ALL who helped with childcare.

We had an interesting experience in our Comenius School (the name [...]]]> Article from Mrs. Ainsworth’s outline:

It is our sincere prayer and desire that you were each blessed and encouraged at our recent gathering.  And, how wonderful to have Mrs. Pritchard come to help mentor as well.  Thank you ladies!

Great thanks to ALL who helped with childcare.

We had an interesting experience in our Comenius School (the name of our Home School) this week.   My youngest is now doing dual credit and is taking his first college class – Sociology.  What an introduction to college!  He had to write a paper on society and its responsibilities to end world hunger.  His paper, was, of course, shaped by his Christian World View – which has been taught to him in our Home School since he was a little guy.

He answered from that Christian world view – and was immediately attacked by his professor.  This shook him up a bit.  He came straight to us and wanted to talk through his answer and her attack.  Home School still at work.

At 16, he is NOT YET READY to fully take the burden of defending the faith. But we are still readying him and he is getting closer.  K-12 is barely enough time to prepare our children for this world.  Don’t waste a moment – tomorrow they will be out on their own.

Remember that Jesus was “Home Schooled” – he was at home, under the authority of his parents, until he was fully equipped to enter his adult ministry – He was 33.  Mary and Joseph did not send Him out too soon.
Sometimes Moms tell me that they want their children in school to “tell others about Jesus”.  I tell them no – they are not equipped and the risk is too great that you will lose them to the world.  It’s like sending military men from boot camp to the front lines.  Too soon and they die. God does not ask us to sacrifice our young – He asks us to train them in the way they should go so that WHEN THEY ARE OLD – they will not depart. I’m no Greek scholar – but I think that means – when they are adults and ready to start their own families.

Moms – prepare your children while they are young to be the salt and light in this world – if you don’t raise up Godly children – there won’t be any.

Remember there is a “Home” in Home School and make it a sweet, sweet dwelling place for your children as you raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord – and, let your home be your husband’s castle. Let him be greeted by his “arrows” with glee when he comes home – model for them the value you have for the position your husband holds in your home – put your arms around him and thank him for enabling you to have a position of privilege as his wife, mother of his children, and keeper of his home.

God Bless you and do not become weary in well-doing!

One thing we must guard against is over-activity.  It robs us of peace and time – which makes us tired and cranky.

Let us also remember there is a “home” in [...]]]> I regret that we did not have a separate get together this month – but, alas, the month has been very full with activity.

One thing we must guard against is over-activity.  It robs us of peace and time – which makes us tired and cranky.

Let us also remember there is a “home” in Home School.  It behooves us to spend some quantity time there.  Home is where the heart is.  Home Sweet Home.  There’s no place like home.

As our second semester draws to a close, I’d like to also give an admonition that we are not called to Home School in order to turn out academic geniuses – although we may do that.

We Home School to raise Godly children – that is the reason God gives us children.  Malachi 2: 15-17, “You were united to your wife by the Lord.
In God’s wise plan, when you married, the two of you became one person in His sight.  And what does He want?  GODLY children from your union.”  This of course, implies, that UNGODLY children could be the result of your union.

God’s Word has much to say about raising Godly children.

Proverbs 5:1&2, “My son, attend to wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding; 2 that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge.”

Proverbs 6:20-25, “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:  21. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.  22: When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.  23: For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: 24: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.  25: Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.”

This is important because we are raising sons and daughters to adulthood.
When I was teaching these things to my sons and daughter, it didn’t always seem relevant – and some days I felt that we needed to focus more on
academics.   But, in hindsight, the great teacher, has shown me that the
most important thing I taught them to help shape their values as young adults – was God’s Word.  And they must have had enough academics along the way to get them in and through Baylor with honors (the oldest two).

When we began Home Schooling, 21 years ago, we claimed these two verses as our foundation because we wanted our children to grow to have Godly wisdom.

Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.”

Proverbs 1:5-7,  “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel;  6. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; 7. but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

We did not feel that our children could rise to this goal spending 20,000+, K-12 hours away from home in any public or private institution under the tutelage of strangers.

Thus began the Korpi’s journey of journeys – the adventure of a lifetime.
Of all the courses we could have chosen for our lives, NONE has been or could have been more challenging; more rewarding; more frustrating; more fulfilling; more awe-inspiring; more gut-wrenching, more delightful.

18 years+ of your child’s life – literally flies by.   The investment we
make in their lives now, will yield an eternity of benefits.  It may, in fact, change this world in which we live to be a better place because we are raising future leaders–Wise and Godly ones.

Galatians 6:7-9, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  8. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.  9. And let us not be weary in well doing; for in  due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

God give us all wisdom, knowledge and understanding to continue to be faithful in the high calling to which he has called us.  He does not call us to something He does not also equip us for.

Deborah Korpi, Coordinator
New Home School Families
GWCHE
newhs@gwche.org

”These home schooling years pass so quickly.  My two children have been homeschooled all the way through and now we are into the high school years.  All too soon they will be graduating and leaving the nest.  Enjoy this precious time with your children.  Be sure [...]]]> Here are some thoughts from a veteran home school mom.

”These home schooling years pass so quickly.  My two children have been homeschooled all the way through and now we are into the high school years.  All too soon they will be graduating and leaving the nest.  Enjoy this precious time with your children.  Be sure to include lots of fun learning activities together.  We did mostly unit studies during the elementary school years and they have left us with so many wonderful memories – the digestive system that we made out of the park jungle gym with our co-op families, the Medieval Feast we served, the Jewish Passover meal we prepared, all the wonderful books we read snuggled together on the couch, etc.  That is what the children remember the most and will take with them as they begin their own families one day.  Having that wonderful history together in their younger years has nurtured a closeness that has continued on into these teen years.  Watching Mom learn things right along with them has given them the perspective that learning is a life-long process and is enjoyable.  Pray daily for your children and your homeschool and watch as God uses this time to do a marvelous work!”