The Intent to Homeschool

Autumn is in the air.  If your senses are acute, then you can actually feel the seasons changing around you.  When you start feeling like this, you know that soon and very soon, the summer will be but a memory of the past and schooling, of all kinds, will be in full swing.

It's an exciting thing... a new school year.  there is a lot of "newness" to the season.  With new colors on what used to be green trees, we get a new box of crayons with which to color pictures in art class.  There will be new smells in the air, new books on our bookshelves  new challenges to face, new friends in our lives, even a new scope and sequence to ponder over,  If you are bargain shopping in the stores... there will be new clothes, in new sizes and maybe even new shoes on feet to boot!  The newness that this change in season brings about is exciting, but the thing that keeps us anchored to the tasks we do, especially as homeschooling families, is in being convinced of what it is we are doing... and why.  

Homeschooling as a movement has some very deep, robust roots.  It actually began somewhere at the beginning of time, when father and mother looked at their little one and loved them.  Then they helped the little one learn and grow and, the rest is history.   Babies grow up, seasons change and the earth keeps spinning round and round.... but the roots of love.... love of family, love of life and learning, do run deep, and it is these roots that brought the homeschoolinmg movement we see today to the surface of educational choices in our state.  Homeschooling is not without challenges so, a person needs to have a strong conviction and know in their heart that homeschooling, not public or private school is what they want to be doing.... even if only for a season.   Homeschooling success comes from having these deep roots.

With a new year, it's time to begin the school year afresh and thinking new.  It's time to plan curriculum for winter, have an idea of what your kids will be learning what activities you will aspire to be doing in the months ahead.  It's also time to file your intent to homeschool form with the local superintendent's office, because your intent is to provide home based education.  So, as the seasons change and as you file your intent to provide home based education forms with the superintendent's office,  remember, success in homeschooling comes when our intentions are firmly planted in good and fertile soil.  Our roots go deep.... and sometimes the strength to do what we do as homeschoolers comes from sources that are not found anywhere on the surface of things.    

If you are feeling like you need encouragement...find water for your roots!

This means take some time and refresh yourself, read some books, magazines, web-based articles from homeschooling organizations about the beauty and sucessfulness of homeschooling.  You might want to start by clicking on the links above or the links listed on the right....  and remember, your little buds and blossoms couldn't be in better hands than yours.

You might not be an expert on everything, but you love your kids and want the best for them.  You know in your heart, homeschooling or not, it's a parent's place to lead and guide their children to help them grow into the adult people that they will one day be.  Homeschooling is great way to do just that.

Whatever the season, whatever the changes, truth is, a tree with deep, well-watered roots will not topple over in a storm.... and certainly not in a breeze.  In due season it will be fruitful.  It will produce flowers, be food for foraging bees, and even provide shade in summer as well as color the landscape of autumn.  It will fertilize the ground beneath it with it's falling leaves.  And we Christians have heard it before, we know it is true... a tree planted by streams of living water.... will flourish.

A deep rooted belief or conviction that homeschooling, (and particularly with  a Christian Education,) is a great way to educate your children, will help you be strong.  Good sources for learning will help you be the best that you can be.... and it will serve to give your children not only a good well rounded education, but two essential ingredients as they go forth in life.... roots and wings.