A place for belonging and becoming is important to this mama. Where hearts find a home to discover, test their limits, dream and hope. Home is base. The place intentionally and carefully built to serve us all. A place of refuge when we need shelter and protection from the harsh winds of the outside world, a safe launching pad that encourages us to try, to take the steps needed to develop skills and ideas, and the heartbeat of all things discipleship, training and refining.
When I think about my home, I envision warmth. Sacred and natural deeply rooted rhythms and traditions that have been intentionally repeated so much that they lead our days into an ever deeper connection with each other, the world around us and God. To build deep, strong foundations takes time and considerable effort. To establish, set in, and anchor hearts to all that is good and wonderful takes a mighty work of the Holy Spirit to come alongside my daily efforts.
How I long for my boys to know the powerful, soul grounding witness of the Lord in their hearts! It is my prayer for them daily. My hope and desire is that our home will be a place where miracles upon miracles are witnessed in all of our lives. May it stand as a monument testifying to the goodness and faithfulness of God to our lives.
My vision for my home is that it would be filled with love, laughter and joy. A space where learning is not only expected, but inwardly pursued, cherished, and evolving as we all change and grow. A place of cultivation rings strong in my heart. The tiling, preparing, and nurture of the souls that live under my roof is a humbling magnificent job that I know I am called to. May God give me the grace and capacity to carry this for my boys.
A place to be. To know without a doubt that they belong, and that daddy and I are committed to their becoming. What holy work!
My boys are currently 5, 3 and 1 and most days, in the chaos and busyness of caring for very young children, this ideal can feel very far away- like an unrealistic and impossible dream. However it echoes so loudly in my heart and I just cannot ignore it. Living with my children and being with them each day is quite an intimate reality to live.
We eat together, rest together, learn together, play, adventure and pray together each and everyday. We frustrate one another, quarrel, love and forgive. It’s all encompassing. A whole life. One that I am incredibly grateful for. I hope to revisit this post in a few years time to reflect on how my thoughts and desires have evolved.
Through [skillful and godly] wisdom a house [a life, a home, a family] is built, And by understanding it is established [on a sound and good foundation], And by knowledge its rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:3-4 (AMP)
Home Education is an exciting and daunting journey that we have embarked on! In this post I am sharing some insights into why we have chosen this path. Our why acts as a framework from which we desire to build a life of deep meaning and adventure with our children and on the days when it feels like I am being completely buried in demands and needs, it helps to anchor me.
Before I became a mother, and even after, I was never the woman who knew that she would want to home educate my children. In fact I had never heard of home education/homeschooling until I had my second son and my husband suggested it to me as a very viable option in introducing them to life and learning.
Although I knew that I wanted to do something different for my boys, I must admit that this really blew things out of the water for me. I felt instant overwhelm at the thought of teaching them and all I could see were my shortcomings and inadequacies. I threw myself into a lot of reading, prayer and thinking about this journey. If we were going to do it, i knew that it would change so much for us as a family.
What helped me greatly during the first few months was to speak with other mothers further along on their journey of home educating. This filled me with great encouragement and helped me to flesh out our personal answers to why we home educate our 3 boys. Our why acts as a framework from which we desire to build a life of deep meaning and adventure with our children and on the days when it feels like I am being completely buried in demands and needs, it helps to anchor me.
‘Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.’ Charlotte Mason
For our family, here are some of the reasons that we have chosen to adventure down the path of home education;
Firstly, to instill a Biblical worldview in them
The whole of our life is built on the truth, hope and life that knowing Jesus brings. He illuminates our days and gives it great purpose, and it is our desire to introduce this in our home as we do life everyday as a family.
We want to offer the boys a different route to “success”. Success is not what mass society tells us it is. There is not one path to it. No to products of the system
I think it goes without saying that success is not linear, and as a ‘product’ of the education system, I didn’t know this! We really want to spend time expanding and encouraging the boys to think and live outside of the norm so they won’t be hesitant or afraid to explore and lean into the gifts that God has already put within them.
Character character character
One of the strong value pillars that we want to nurture as it underpins all that they will do, and the opportunities that will open up for them. Character traits such as respect, compassion, responsibility, integrity, and honesty, are just a few of the areas that help us make good choices, develop self-esteem, and become responsible, caring individuals.
Focusing on the tailoring and personalisation of education based on their gifting and strengths
This is another area that I am excited about! Nurturing the individual strengths in each boy will help them to build self confidence in their learning style and thrive! I love that I’ll have the time to see each boy..
A focus on our home (relationships) and faith as the nucleus from which all things grow and are nurtured. Normalise togetherness.
Redeeming family time is really important to us. Building bonds and deep relationships is crucial. That takes time, investment, intentionality, creativity, sensitivity, vision and perseverance. I just know that the seeds sown into this area of our lives will reap wonderful results and blessings in the future.
Preparing them with life skills from an earlier age as we do life with them on a daily basis
Doing daily life in a very normal and natural way introduces the boys to hard work and the reality of being together as a team. Life skills are normalised from an early age and hopefully enjoyed! ha!
We want to move away from performance driven learning and inspire a personal desire to learn, grow and thrive
This area is a sensitive one because I think that you can either thrive, or crumble when it comes to constant testing. Ultimately though I just don’t believe that it is a true reflection of a person. I do think that it has its place, but when done from an early age it can create a deep insecurity in a young heart and place a spotlight on a weak area to the neglect of the other great areas that are within a child. More will probably be said on this in a blog post!
We want a life of adventure!
The flexibility of living a life off peak is so exciting!
At home, I can make sure we have mastery of subjects, go at the right pace for each child, have one-on-one (not one-on-twenty) teaching, and I can tailor my curriculum to their needs and our family values.
We’ll be sure to tweak this list as our family grows and our needs change.
gracedforhome.com 