Encouragement for Homeschool Parents

I just finished a long period of dealing with homeschool opposition from my oldest child. Plus, to top matters off I had others trying to convince me to quit homeschooling my kids so that I would have more time to focus on other things. I’ll admit after the week I’ve had I was actually considering doing that. Then I turned to my trusted Homeschool Mom’s Bible, and gained the added encouragement I needed. It dawned on me that not every homeschool parent has that encouragement at their fingertips.

It is my hope that you know that you are NOT alone on your journey with homeschooling your kids. Often times many of us feel like we’re deep in these emotionally trenches alone. The reality is even if you don’t have any other homeschool families close to you or are even a part of the various wonderful homeschool groups on Facebook, you are still NOT alone. God is with you every step of the way.

Often times we have to remember that “a cheerful heart is good medicine.” Proverbs 17:22 Kids do not like to “work.” Sometimes the best thing to get a child engaged and excited about working again, is for us to be cheerful about the work they have accomplished (even if it is only 1 page after several hours of waiting!) Believe it or not, that one page may be far more than he would have gotten done in another school setting.

Homeschooling our kids is actually just extending our roles as their parents. I’ve stated it before that when we’re having a bad day of “school work” that I change the gears. Instead, we work on finding lessons in their everyday activities.

I challenge them to use the skills they’ve already learned and sometimes I try and teach them something new. No one says that we have to be all workbooks, textbooks, and glued to a desk to teach our kids. That’s one of the advantages to homeschooling our kids.

I wanted to throw in the towel during this period of rebellion we were dealing with. I wanted to let the nay-sayers win. However, I choose to homeschool my kids because they weren’t gaining the proper chance to learn elsewhere. I seriously don’t think any of my kids would survive in a public school setting because they have had the luxury of being homeschooled for years now.

Another way I gain encouragement during these rough patches is I visit veteran homeschool bloggers. Their blogs are always filled with valuable bits of information. I am amazed how many of them have done it twice as long as I have and still say they would do it all over again.

I hope that this post encouraged you a bit or at the very least gave you some ideas on where to gain encouragement through the rocky days.

What do you use to gain encouragement through the hurdles of homeschooling?