I am always amazed at how God leads us in our decision making specifically in the area of homeschooling from year to year. Just recently, my second son Jonathan and I were out in the garden weeding in the blazing hot sun for a long stretch of time. With nothing but the buzzing of an occasional fly or bee to interrupt us, I started thinking out loud with him about his upcoming junior year.
Each of our kids is different and I have only helped one to the finish line so far in my homeschooling year. Kid #2 is clearly not like kid #1 so my cookie cutter K thru 12 plan was not going to work quite the same way the second time around. After plodding thru the weeding of the cucumbers and tomatoes, I methodically went down the line in my mind the high school subjects Jonathan has covered and realized this math/science bound kid has had an overdose of History! What a revelation…I had been praying about his load and how we could lighten it academically to give him more time to pursue more science and math courses.The light bulb went off drop History…He can be done with this subject!
Earlier this year, I stumbled upon a DVD Constitutional Law series from Mike Farris which – paired with all the political campaign volunteer work Jonathan is doing this summer and the apologetics club he participates in during the school year – could easily accumulate enough hours of work to equal a high school credit of work in Government studies. I had been mulling his school year plans over for months and in between the tomatoes and the squash , the two of us concluded that laying the history book down and being creative with the way we do his government coursework would give him just the room he needed to dig into some new science and math turf and prepare himself for a future in engineering.I know God led us to these decisions this summer day in the garden as we discussed all he enjoyed studying , what he wished he could spend more time on, and what we’d like to improve from last year.
Each year of homeschooling amazingly comes together as we mull these decisions over one by one, kid by kid, looking at what didn’t go well and what needs improving and evaluating the gifts and challenges of each child. I am so encouraged by God’s faithfulness to help me put the pieces of the puzzle together year by year as I commit each issue to prayer. Proverbs 16:1 says to,” Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.” He is the Good Shepherd who loves to lead us and guide us in the nitty gritty of school planning!
