Apr. 28, 2008 - Thankfully, I'm still here...
Well...so I am not completely banned from the homeschool blog, nearly 2 years later, I truly AM still around. So many things have changed since I first wrote, and I was actually intrigued by the newness in my tone of voice at the time.
Many things are the same--my attitude and commitment toward homeschooling, but new and improved changes have come about as well. I am full-swing into homeschooling both of my children, and that alone has prompted a huge difference in this journey. It is such an honor and a blessing to be educating as a family...and living life, teaching at all moments of the day and night together. It is truly our lifestyle now--and honestly, that is just something I don't think anyone could have explained to me before I started. Sort of like trying to tell someone how it feels to be a parent or to be in love. Impossible until you do it yourself.
This is my second year leading a special needs support group at my home. I have moms that are currently homeschooling, or simply considering it...fed up with their public or private school situation. We started out trying to be more informative and structured, but it became clear after the first meeting that these women (much like myself) needed to be encouraged rather than taught things. They needed to be prayed for and with...and to know that they were not alone in their journey.
It has been such a blessing to be a part of that ministry. The irony of having two public education degrees (speech and special education) and eventually using them to minister to and encourage homeschoolers has not been lost on me. God also prepared me for my own family...and I try to speak that out loud to myself over and over when I can't think how I'm making any progress or difference in their lives at all.
We recently bought a poster from the local teacher store for our schoolroom. "No two flowers bloom the same." This is definitely the "mantra" in our house. I want both of my kids to know that they are special just as they are, and God intended them to be different--and different from all whom they know. I want my daughter to be thankful for the ease with which she learns information. I want her to give credit where it's due (to our Heavenly Father who has very specific plans for that brain)...and not to herself. I think it is quite easy for us as parents, and even as homeschoolers, to feel some type of self-satisfaction when we see their success, but we really have little to do with the overall picture. I, for one, have spent countless hours with my son on a given topic...and far less with my daughter because of her effortless learning. One time taught and she has the concept.
Well...as I said two years, I really will try to be better about blogging. Things are busy with my husband deployed this year. It has certainly opened up many challenges in our family, but overall we have been so blessed. He is home for the moment on his 2-week R&R, but leaves tomorrow for his final three (or so) months from home. In the end he will be just weeks shy of a year. We are praying that will be the last.
Be encouraged in your journeys and efforts against the current. Blessings!
Jill
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Jul. 28, 2006 - The Journey Continues...
Well...I continue to feel the pressure to blog, but my dull life 
has prevented me from being too clever.
This actually is so ME, but I must take the time and get in the habit.
Let me first start off by saying what a complete and utter miracle (and blessing of God) it is that I actually started homeschooling THIS WEEK! Yes, as in July 24th. Okay...in the Powell household (tell me I'm not alone!) we have to take things in ssslllooowww doses. We did an hour of math and reading. Period. I think Wednesday we succumbed to the pressure of a public school neighbor still out of school who wanted to attend one of those free summer morning movies. I would have said field trip, but nah... Today (Friday) we got a lot of activity prior to a bribed Blockbuster trip. There was downright completed work with a smile to boot.
My daughter (4 1/2 turning 22) is beginning some kindergarten work. She is under the misguided assumption that SHE is in control of what she does in her school day. Now, I know that many homeschoolers employ this tactic, but her main goal in life is pretty much cutting and pasting. I gave her some lower-case letter activities to work on, and for a natural artist, she could care less about letter formation. She knows them all, so that's it. Practice is redundant. I pretty much reminded her she has been begging for school to start and THIS IS IT! She gave me the look. You know..."you're not really more intelligent than me. You know this, right?"
I'm hoping to really get down on my knees and do our Sing, Spell, Read & Write with her. Maybe this afternoon. My son is really DONE by noon or 1 most days (I'm really praying this year to lengthen that span), and I'm hoping to catch some one-on-one time with my daughter after that. She is actually pretty good at working independently while he and I are doing intense stuff, and I hope that continues as well.
To conclude, I thought I would echo Kim's "Goals for the Year." Hmmm....I'm not terribly familiar with the tagging process, but let's just say if you're reading this, you're TAGGED to do your own goal list if you haven't already!
1) To foster a great relationship between my kids (did I copy that?)
2) To be more patient!!!
3) To remember 1Cor. 13 in my daily interactions. (I don't think sarcasm is listed.) Maybe in the book of Jill, chapter 66.
4) To take the growth and progress that I get as God's timetable for my family. Fortunately He is not nearly as concerned about the rigorous academics as I am! (Do you think that statement would work for the social worker?)
5) To not be lazy! (Wow, this snuck in big-time to my house last December and had a hard time weaving its way back out. I will attempt to re-evaluate what truly constitutes a day's work...and it will not be defined by my kids!)
I think that it's for now. I will prayerfully consider more.
Take care, all you homeschool veterans and rookies (such as myself), and many blessings on your adventure(s) for the 2006-2007 school year!
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Jul. 13, 2006 - A Beginning...Finally
Well...after enjoying Kim Murphy's blogs for months now, I am finally taking the plunge at a meager beginning.
If someone had told me just two years ago I would be blogging in a homeschool forum, I would have choked on my oatmeal. Not that the urgings and convictions and subtle promptings were not there already...but I really didn't think I had it in me to take the plunge. I had heard about homeschooling for many years as a public school educator. Most of the things I heard were not entirely negative, but "those people" were certainly viewed as radicals and out of the mainstream. And of course it will come as no shock to anyone that they were interested in isolating their children from society at large because we were such BAD people! (When you're in society, you think you're completely innocent and perfectly immune.) I remember thinking that there was no way they had adequate materials like we did in the public schools. Then I would go and spend half my annual salary at the local school supply store and improvise (pre-Internet) on lesson plans everyday. Hmmmm...
In 2000, God placed an incredible woman-and eventually one of my best friends-into my life while we were stationed in the Army in Pennsylvania. Trishia was one of those homeschool freaks. And yet...surprisingly normal and devoid of any anarchistic, anti-social tendencies. She was originally from Tennessee like me, so she couldn't be all bad, right? She admitted to always feeling like she walked to the beat of different drummer, and thinking that homeschooling was nothing but following the same course she'd always been on in her life. I paid close attention to her those years. I learned many things...not the least of which was to respect homeschooling parents during school hours. Many public school moms dumped on her because she was always at home, for example. She couldn't possibly be doing anything that urgent!
To make a long story longer, I began to see some issues in my son. He had a great personality, but was overly active and didn't seem to have some of the reasoning and good language skills that others his age had.
I became pregnant with our second child by the time my son was in preschool. I was excited about walking down that path of the dutiful stay-at-home mom and had great aspirations of being a room mother and setting up playdates and parties. The notes home everday were painful...not listening, not attending, not sitting still, not participating in crafts or written activities, etc., etc. No one was noticing what a go-with-the-flow, sweet-natured, eager-to-please child I had. I began to retreat inward a bit, I admit. I then battled through one of the worst nightmares in our parenting experience...potty-training...and thought after that I could handle anything.
So, I ignored the inner thoughts of homeschooling him when I couldn't decide if he was ready to start kindergarten or not. If there was indecision at all, what was my problem?! But nevertheless, I decided that life needed to go on...and my dream of recreating the life I had as a child must go on, so off he went to kindergarten. I absolutely dreaded contact with the teacher. It was never positive. It's very difficult to see good attributes in a child who doesn't love schoolwork and is constantly chattering and moving. Particularly if you didn't give birth to them. If you didn't love them.
My husband got out of active duty military service, and we moved to South Carolina in Dec. 2003. My son was mid-kindergarten, and I was stressed to the max over the transition to an all-day school which had been in session since the first of August, from the northern half-day class that didn't start until after Labor Day. Homeschooling? I still just couldn't wrap my brain around it. He was beginning to show signs of really needing some positive social interaction--he was quite immature--and school was definitely the best place to get it...right? Well, it made sense to me...plus it was following the dream path, so that had to make it right. I had a 2-year-old daughter at home who needed some mom time, too. Right?
If Kindergarten was difficult, first grade was a complete and utter nightmare. The scant homework attempts in K became three-hour torture sessions the next year. My son was mentally fatigued at the end of the day...it was written all over him. If I let him run and play after school, I couldn't get him to regroup and do homework later. If I made him do it right after school, he was practically busting out of his chair to not have to be forced to SIT ANOTHER MINUTE!
Well, I had pretty much reached the breaking point, but homeschooling seemed like such an unattainable goal for a special needs child. I needed the network of support that only a public school could provide...Resource, Occupational therapy, speech, blah blah blah.
My husband dropped the bombshell that he thought there was only one person qualified to teach our son...ME. Now, I know most homeschool moms would give anything for the loving and prayerful support of their husbands, but instead of embracing this, or even accepting it as yet another sign that maybe this was the right thing--I panicked and went into attack mode. "YOU homeschool him if you want him homeschooled!" I just thought the responsibility was way too incredible. What if I screwed him up? Who would come knocking on my door looking for progress reports? What if I couldn't show them any progress?
Long about this time (fall 2004), my friend Trishia--now living in Tennessee--comes to SC for a visit. My great hubby kept the kids while we spent an entire day doing the carriage ride/seafood thing in Charleston. Over a delectable hot fudge-smothered Oreo dessert I was lamenting/venting/commiserating (as I do so well) about the woes of first grade and the teacher not really able to do her job. Suddenly she poked her finger right in my face (after listening to me for years without saying a word about homeschooling), and said that she felt I was being convicted to homeschool and maybe I should do something about it once and for all. Kim, mark the date...I let the tears fall down my cheeks. I knew it as sure as I was sitting there.
Thus began my quest to figure it all out. I told my husband that I would research all the rest of the school year and see what I could find. I secretly thought that maybe time would pass and so would the feelings. I read everything I could get my hands on. I went to Kim Murphy's up the street--she made me one of her infamous lattes and I just listened and chatted. I looked through her books and listened to a typical day in their homeschool. I felt that it sounded doable, even though I knew I might send him back the following year after I allowed him to "catch up."
Slowly but surely I was hooked. I wanted to devour everything on homeschooling and get started. Going to the North Carolina Curriculum Fair that May really capped it. It was so awesome being around all those thousands of families who were so confident in what they were doing. The special needs workshops were full of people just like me. They were sick of the way it was being done, and realizing that just maybe we could reach those hard-to-reach kids better ourselves!
Well, brevity is an art I have not (and may never) master, but I will end for now on the note that homeschooling is one of the best decisions I ever made. I actually feel that God spoke to me directly (at least a thousand times) about it...and didn't give up on me. This is truly a journey not just for my son (and soon, my daughter), but for me as his parent.
I will make the effort to have short blogging quips from now on, but wanted to share my story. I really have a burden for special needs kids (my background is specifically with learning disabled, ADHD, behavioral, head injuries, etc.) and would love to hear stories. My daughter, who will be starting some kindergarten skills this year, and already knows more than me is going to challenge me in new ways. I'm sure I will be seeking advice and help on all fronts as the new year approaches!
For now...I'm done.
