Transcript Season

It's transcript season at our house, and I've been reminiscing.  One of my dear girls has started her last year of high school.  We have been through so much and learned so much together.  And most of it could never be reflected on a transcript.

Oh, yes, she has learned to balance chemical equations, to make bread and berry pie, to use imaginary numbers and subordinating conjunctions.  She can play the piano and tell you who Thaddeus Kosciuszko was.  But a transcript could never reflect who she has become.

In the progress of gathering up samples of her work for a portfolio, I came across a notebook wherein lay perhaps some of her most significant work.  It was work that went far deeper than history facts or geometry proofs.  It penetrated her heart and ignited something inside her.  This work hadn't been assigned for an official class.  It was what she had done during the time she devoted to God's Word at the beginning of the day during one of her school years.  The notebook contains the notes she made as she read through the Old Testament books of Joshua and Judges.

As I read through tears of joy, I saw that she had carefully catalogued, verse by verse, what was taking place, grouped the verses into logical divisions, and summarized the content.  She made observations on the overarching themes, and then applied them to her own life and the life of our nation with incredible insight.  God challenged her to align herself with His priorities, and she said, "Yes!"  He spoke, He revealed His faithfulness, and her faith grew.  And mine grew, too, as I read what the Lord had taught her.

Contrary to popular opinions of some, studying God's Word is no dry, meaningless, intellectual exercise; it has been a living and powerful shaping force in her life.  As I observe her attitudes today and hear her speak with passion, I know that the living God who revealed Himself in those passages has molded her faith with His own hand.

As we spend each passing day with our children, let's not forget that the most relevant things they will ever learn are the spiritual truths from God's Word that will anchor them long after they've left home and long after we have moved on to heaven ahead of them.

And more rewarding than anything that could be recorded on a transcript is knowing that our children's names are recorded in the Book Of Life.

". . . You know in all your hearts and in all your souls

that not one word of all the good words

which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed;

all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed."

Joshua 23:14b

Homeschooling with her husband, Scott, since 2001, Carol believes nothing is too difficult for God.  She is a passionate encourager and loves using creative means--including writing music, singing, speaking, and blogging--to encourage others to trust God through all the adventures He calls them to.  You can read more from her at her Unsmotherable Delight blog (udelight.blogspot.com), where you'll find faith-filled original songs, favorite scriptures, family stories, and even a little film about adoption, all designed to inspire and lift your spirit.  Her original 'theme song' titled Captain's Anthem can be heard on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/30769152.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Fall Breaks

To break or not to break, that is the question.

While not as resonating as Shakespeare's version, many home schooling families wonder whether a fall break messes with the just-established schedule or offers a needed respite. I have to admit--I tend to fall into the camp of "we school from Labor Day to Memorial Day."  We break for Thanksgiving and 3 weeks at Christmas (mostly because I could never get everything done otherwise). Otherwise, we stick to the books. We do this because our farm requires a lot of work in the spring and we love summer. To protect those days, I stick to a strict schedule during the school year. But, I'm learning there are benefits to a few days off as we go.

Breaks remind us, "We're still a family." I don't know about others, but--especially as our children get older--between church and kid activities, evenings become full and fragmented. Thus, we're together primarily during school. While we love schooling together, the school focus means we're "down to business" during the day. With people headed to activities at night, we lose the time to just "be" as a family. Breaks recapture these moments. Whether we hunker down at home to a backyard bonfire and nights of Scrabble or take a short camping trip that gets us hiking together, taking three days away can bring some much-needed together-fun .

Breaks provide rest. How many families find a perfect pace? No matter how closely we guard white space for our families, it seems most of us feel stretched. God knows we need regular rest times. He planned Sabbaths and Jubilee years to institutionalize rest. Rather than stealing precious lesson time, a fall break can actually recharge everyone to take full advantage of the enrichment of school rather than it feeling like drudgery.

Breaks provide a different education. Just the other day we went to Angel Mounds in Evansville. We learned the richness of our state's history through the small museum and touring the mounds. More, I was surprised by how uncomfortable my youngest children were by the statues of Native Americans. Instead of engaging, they were scared. Troubling for me as I'm part Cherokee. We took the older children to pow-wows with my grandparents when the children were younger, but with grandparents passing--younger children haven't experienced this side of life.

Though we talk often in our history lessons about the importance of valuing everyone as made in the image of God and accepting them, the trip to the Mounds provided a concrete setting to put those lessons into practice. When we break from the routine of school and explore something else--a hike in the woods, a trip to a museum, a visit downtown--we open our children to new experiences and we discover gaps in our children's ability to apply the values we teach. Filling those gaps may be the most important education we do.

Stoic educator that I am, I'm learning the value of breaks. Rather than a distraction to school--they may prove to be the perfect complement. Who knows--we might actually take a spring break this year!

Tess Worrell writes and speaks to groups regarding issues of family life and living as a Godly woman. She and husband, Mike Worrell, live in Madison, Indiana, where they are in their 14th year of home schooling. She would love to hear your insights. Comment here or email her at tess@YourFamilyMatterstous.com. If you would like Tess to speak to your home school or church group, you can learn more about her speaking at YourFamilyMatterstous.com. #parenting #homeschooling

Unclicking the Clique

"I don't think we're going to be part of the co-op next year," a mom shared over coffee one morning.

Seeing the hurt in her eyes, I asked, "What's going on? Is there a problem?"

"Well . . . the kids just don't feel included. The popular kids don't give our girls the time of day. They joined to find friends--that's just not happening."

Again. A great idea for fellowship and relationship--spoiled by cliques. I have to admit, I didn't expect this in our home schooling group. This was supposed to be a public school issue. Turns out home schoolers are just as likely to form cliques. And the hurt strikes just as deeply.

Whether it's public school, home school groups, church youth groups--any group where kids band   together--the tendency exists to form cliques. Somehow one group becomes the "in" crowd with others looking on hoping to be included; hurt when they are not.

As parents, we spend a lot of our time either complaining about cliques, comforting our excluded children, or encouraging our included children to welcome others. Perhaps, we need a different focus.

Focus on the heart issue. God cares about two things: right relationship with Him and right relationship with others. To ensure we would pursue this right relationship with others, he put in us a longing for connection.

Cliques are a perversion of this longing. Instead of a right relationship with others, we pursue the kind of relationship that gains its value from exclusion of others. God's desires lived out--in a completely ungodly way.

Instead of addressing the clique issue, perhaps we would do well to shift the focus to the relationship issue. Helping our children see that God put a desire to relate deeply to others within them, but that He also instructs how those relationships are to be lived out. When our children gain God's perspective--they can get past their own desire to be "in the clique" and begin to see the value of relationship coming from getting to know, encourage, and serve God with other people.

Give our children these relational skills. The beauty of home schooling is that we truly use every moment to learn how to live life in a Godly way. With their siblings or other people in their lives, our children can practice the right kinds of relational skills. They begin to see their time together as a way of getting to know, encourage, and serve God with the people in their lives.

When we train our children to respond to situations by "putting up" with a relative's perhaps irritating but not harmful idiosyncrasies, by "encouraging" a brother in his math test, by "serving one another" by cleaning up sister's lunch dishes while she catches up on her language. In short as we put the "one anothers" of scripture into practice each day--our children gain a right vision for relationships both at home and in groups. They no longer view others through a lens of "will I be more popular when with them?" They see others as the people God put in their lives to minister to, relate to, and value because they are both growing in Christ.

The conversation with the mom happened in my kitchen several years ago. Her daughter longed to be part of the clique; my son was on the inside. We began talking to our children about the damage that was happening and a better vision for relationships at Co-op. Today, some parents drive an hour to be part of the group because "my children feel so connected here." We can make a change. Children who know how to relate to others in a Godly way don't just have better co-ops; they make a better world.

Tess Worrell writes and speaks to groups regarding issues of family life and living as a Godly woman. She and husband, Mike Worrell, live in Madison, Indiana, where they are in their 14th year of home schooling. She would love to hear your insights. Comment here or email her at tess@YourFamilyMatterstous.com. If you would like Tess to speak to your home school or church group, you can learn more about her speaking at YourFamilyMatterstous.com. #parenting