Yes, that's my wonderful, amazing, supportive, respectful, kind, godly, and loving wife. She is the reason I am civil, organized, and sane. God brought us together to compliment each other, although I'm not entirely sure what I bring into the mix.

Every conference morning, we plan out what workshops we will attend so that we get a strategy of meeting most of our needs. Our needs as parents vary from year to year, but each year we seem to find what edifies us at CHEC. I'm starting to realize, however, just how helpful blogging is to me as a homeschooling father. I get a good amount of encouragement and a significant sense of why we are homeschooling just from blogging about it. Thus, at the conference, it was more an affirmation of what we were doing instead of previous years where it was a booster event where we refocus and realign our objectives.

I am not saying we have it all together. Far from it, we are constantly expanding our understanding of what it means to homeschool and how we can do it better.

For example, one of the key concepts I learned this year is this: If you're worn out by homeschooling, then you're doing it wrong, probably because you're teaching for the school district's superintendent and not Christ. If all we do is try to compete with or supersede the public school, we will run ourselves ragged trying to accomplish all that they seemingly do. There are some activities that go on in a class-schooling environment that parents assume should be done in their own home. A friend of ours once told us that on the first-ever day she homeschooled, she had her children sit in their desks, say the pledge of allegiance, and copy everything that went on in a private, Christian school. She literally had taken school and moved it into her home. As a result, she was tired, frustrated, and crushed by her expectations. But what really sunk her ship was that her husband, a private school administrator -- ha! -- was constantly comparing her to a team of teachers he was working with at school.

As husbands and fathers, we have a very real role to fill. We function as principals of our homeschool by setting the tone and guiding expectations. We're the ones who can say if there's too much structure, if we're pushing for the right objectives or the wrong ones. If a husband sees that they are trying to be like a school and not truly taking advantage of the variety and other blessings homeschooling affords, he needs to speak up and help his wife find a way to educate their children in a way that offers less resistance for everyone.

It's like climbing a mountain. An expedition of hikers has to first agree what mountain they are going to climb. Are they going to climb Mount School or Education Peak? If they climb Mt. School, they are going to try to be like a class school and the only route up it leaves very little room for error. It will be long and continually get harder. If they climb Education Peak, they will have a number of routes available to them and they can easily change to another route as they go. As long as they use a compass (the Bible) and a map (homeschooling guides and conferences), they stand little chance of getting off course, especially if both the leader and the assistant -- the principal and the teacher -- work together. If one or both are disengaged, the expedition stands a higher risk of getting lost. If fog rolls in, like a learning disability or a sudden change of circumstances, both can work together to discover a way out. The two most important things are that you pick your objectives and that you work together.

We only have a limited time to set in our children a life-long pattern of learning and study. If we waste it trying to conform our children to a school-based system, we will lose their hearts and minds in the process. Instead, if we guide their learning and cultivate a true hunger for understanding, we raise a person of wisdom and growth. We've set our sights on the right mountain. Now all we have to do is walk the path.