Real Life Homeschooling #6

Today we are blessed to have our 6th post in the Real Life Homeschooling series. This post and pictures are shared by Sara at Embracing Destiny. Sara blogs hoping to bring encouragement to other homeschool moms on this journey.  She loves being at home with her three daughters, ages 11, 5, and 3, and being a wife to Dave.  She is neither Betty Crocker nor Martha Stewart, but she’s learning everyday that it’s okay to be authentic and embrace the destiny God has given her.  Sara enjoys connecting with other moms on Facebook and Twitter. 

I have a few confessions to make as a homeschool mom.  Our days don’t always go as I plan them or as I’d envisioned them to be before I actually started homeschooling for real.  Having worked in a Montessori school B.C. (before children), I imagined a nice, neat little classroom full of brightly colored manipulatives, cute little tables and chairs, and everything in its place in orderly bins in little cubbies.  *deep breath*  I will not covet my neighbor’s organizational skills.  Or her budget to buy all that cool stuff we can’t afford.

Reality check: when school is home and home is school, there’s bound to be a little chaos.  At least in my experience there is.  Can you relate to any of the following?

Sometimes math is delayed because we can’t find the math manipulatives.  Usually because the three-year-old has run off with them to see how many she can stuff in her purse.  Does that count as math time?

Aha, there they are!

Sometimes we don’t finish one lapbook before starting another just because we’ve lost interest in the first one.

Sometimes that book or curriculum we just had to have right now sits on the shelf for a few months before we actually get around to starting it.

Sometimes the only shoes I wear for days are my favorite comfy slippers.  No, I don’t stay in my jammies all day.  What do you think yoga pants are for?  Yoga?  You’ve got to be kidding me!

Sometimes I read other homeschool blogs and marvel, “How does she do it all?  Why can’t I?”

That’s when it gets serious, folks.  We are each uniquely called to homeschooling for many different reasons.  God put us each in our special place and time, with our individual children, for a specific purpose.  Your kids aren’t mine and mine aren’t yours for a very important reason.  God has a plan.  Who are we to second guess it?

I thank God His mercies are new everyday because I sure need Him.  I also thank Him for the precious gifts of my children and the privilege I have in educating them at home, even when real life homeschooling isn’t easy.

Click over to read all of the Real Life Homeschooling series.

Guest Posters wanted:  the response to this post has been so great. ya’ll are great. 🙂 SO, I’m going to open up this series for GUEST POSTERS!! If you are a homeschooler and want to contribute your own “real like homeschooling” post, please email me with your post! I would like to have a picture to go with it. And if you have a blog, I will link back to you! 🙂 If you want to “grab” the picture in the top of this post, I will let you know when your post will go live and you can use this graphic as a teaser and point people here to read! I really think these will be encouraging to all of us as homeschooling mamas! I hope to share one post per week on this series!!