Homeschooling - The Gift of TIME

The best gift of homeschooling is TIME. Time with our kids. Time for our kids to explore a thousand different interests as they figure out their places in this world. Time for sleep. Time for silliness. Time for books. Time for vacations. Time for visits with friends and family. Time for chores (um, learning a few skills that will be SO APPRECIATED by their spouses, right?!). I’ll be honest: I don’t envy some of my friends’ frenzied/frazzled weekday schedules (lots of alarms and rushing through the days, with playtime and family time scheduled on the weekends). That sort of endless race throughout the school year makes me feel anxious. BUT, I know that some of my friends would break into hives if they had to plan and prep a hundred school lessons for their kiddos. So I totally get the whole pick-your-battles mentality. I choose to battle lesson-planning. Some of my friends prefer to wage war against the daily grind. Either way, we all need oodles of GRACE, right?! We all need to lift each other up. We’re trying our best!!! Whatever path we choose for our kids' education, this mama thing is HARD. And TIRING. So, as we begin another school year (um, hello - where did the summer go?!), let’s try to remember to BE KIND and encouraging to ALLLLL the mamas and kiddos in our communities! We all love our babies, and we're all trying to raise 'em well! :-)

My hope and prayer for the 2018-19 school year is that we'll find the time to BE WITH OUR KIDS. To slow down. To read stories. To make memories. And to HAVE FUN. May you all enjoy a wonderful, joyful school year, friends!