School days will soon begin in our lively household! The RECOMMENDED "weekend get away with your husband" or "schedule several hours of quiet time at home" (???) or "dedicate an entire week annually" to plan for my multilevel student family… these events have not yet occurred! My nights are becoming my days in my midnight oil attempts to be prepared for a great year of school! Just the planning process is overwhelming, yet I must hold to the fact that God has led us to direct our children's education from home. In short, a miracle of God is needed to accomplish this step of preparation which includes prayerful consideration of many things:
setting goals (Get through the year! -ha!)
individual learning styles, interests, and needs (We are all different – fearfully and wonderfully made!)
age gamut (preschool-elementary-junior high-senior high -college) All I'm missing is a newborn (and yes, this is a life adjustment not having a baby around!)
curriculum choices (Thankfully, there are countless options available in our day!) You are welcome to download my Curriculum Planner page I'm trying out this year.
co-op classes (Thank you, Lord, for bringing us a teacher to help with English and Spanish!)
research and study (I enjoy this.)
extra curricular activities (youth group, sports, music, etc…)
field trips & special meetings (I think a trip to the Smoky Mountains would be a great field trip, though costly!)
acquiring equipment & supplies (mainly computers)
expenses (never-ending part of life)
schedules / routines (I dream about them actually working!)
daily home maintenance (chores)
home arrangement most conducive to learning (I really miss our Kansas schoolroom!)
meal planning (for 10 – times 3 daily)
part-time jobs (Several of us need one, but my hard working husband and teen sons are at this!)
ministry opportunities (We should first minister to those God entrusts us with 24-7. I have a husband and 9 children – whom God has called me to minister to. It is a wonderful thing when God gives opportunities to minister to others as a family.
Throw in an ongoing cross-country/mid-school year unpacking job, several urgent parsonage and vehicle repairs, (Life Skills 101), summer events, middle age, and exhaustion… a sure-fire formula for the mentality: "I can't do this!" When these "I Can't" thoughts flood my mind, I must go back to the question, "Does God want me to do this?" If the answer is yes, then I must regain my view of God as the Most High – the God of the impossible! He is MY God! He can teach me what I need to change, comfort me when something doesn't work, provide aid when HE thinks I need it (I pray for a handmaid all the time!), give me strength when I am weak in any area, and He can make good out of my challenges. He knows what my children need at this time – He can see the big picture that I humanly cannot see. If He can save me and love me, He can help me with this one task. He is a great God!
"Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?" – Ecclesiastes 7:13
"But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." -Matthew 19:26
"And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." -Mark 10:27
In my planning quest, I found this great free printable – "A Homeschool Mother's Miracles Come in CANS." from Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling. This one has blanks to personalize things that "I CAN" do through Christ! Scroll back on her website to find a completed one.
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." -Philippians 4:13