To the New Homeschooler: You Can Do This
If you had told families across the nation last week that they’d all be homeschooling this week, you would have probably been laughed out of the room. Yet, here we are. Families that never thought homeschooling was going to be their reality are now finding themselves scrambling to figure it out.
What a difference a week can make.
The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has found a way to impact just about every aspect of our daily lives including how students across the nation will be finishing out this school year. This certainly isn’t “just a flu.”
I’ve been at this for a while now – homeschooling while working from home – so our daily routine hasn’t changed all that much. Despite being what you might call a “veteran homeschooler,” I still struggle. I don’t have it down to a science – though I wish I did. We have good days and bad days. Sometimes I feel like I was made for this, and others days I feel like I’ve lost my ever-loving mind, convinced that I’m ruining them for good.
I’ve heard from countless parents over the course of the years how they “could never homeschool” their kids. The reasons varied: they didn’t think their kids would survive; they didn’t feel equipped; they were afraid they’d end up in jail…you know, typical stuff. I remember having a conversation with a fellow homeschooling mom years ago where she told me that when she would hear parents say that they could never homeschool, she would respond with, “It’s amazing what you can do when your kid needs you to.”
It was a bit of a mic drop moment.
Right now, our kids need us to be strong and steadfast during this season. They need us to be the steady in the tumult. They need help staying on task so they don’t lose their learning momentum. You can do that. You can give them a safe learning environment. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t have to look like “school,” but that’s another post.)
“But, Louise,” you say. “You don’t understand. You don’t know me…or my kids. You don’t know what it’s like here. I really can’t do this.”
I would like to humbly submit to you that you’re wrong. {ducks to avoid the rotten tomatoes flying her way}
Want to know why? Paul summed it up pretty succinctly in his second letter to the Church in Corinth:
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
2 Corinthians 9:8 [emphasis mine]
There are no loop holes in this verse, friends. It’s not that God is able to make “some” grace abound to you, giving you “some” of the stuff you need, “some” of the time” so you can do “some” good works. It’s ALL – all grace, all sufficiency, in all things, at all times. That includes this season of sudden homeschooling.
I understand that this was unplanned for almost everyone who now finds themselves at home with their kids. If that’s you and you’re trying to figure out how to settle in to your new “normal,” I want you to know that you can do this.
The Lord is not unaware of these changes or these challenges. I encourage you to lean into him, asking the Lord to meet you in your weakness, your frustration, your fear, and your angst. He is a Way Maker, and he is faithful.
~Louise
