Changes Can Be Beautiful -thoughts on homeschooling-

Changes come into our lives every year, every day; changes do come and we must have eyes to see the beauty they bring.

We have been homeschooling our children for 10 years now and several changes have happened along the way. Today while I was enjoying teaching my little one, I saw from afar my oldest children taking their online classes and thought of these changes and how much they used to scare me when I  thought about them 10 years ago and how the Lord has faithfully removed them  and has helped me see the beauty in each one of them.

I want to write this post to encourage those families who are today where we were 10 years ago. These words are for you:

Don't fear the changes; God is faithful indeed!

Choosing curriculum seems like an titanic task; there are  too many options, actually, too many great  options; but you want to know a little secret I have learned along the way? When I did not know of all those great options out there and I prepared my classes from scratch; we learned a lot, had a blast and built great memories. My almost 17  years old son still likes to see his old binder with all his notes and drawings; my 14 yo son remembers everything we did together... My daughter recalls every single project we made together... they still love to talk today about all the books we enjoyed together.

And then the day came when I saw all those great and different options and I wanted to use them all, so I bought some resources that we never used, and returned some others that were not as nice as they sounded. So here is the secret...

Don't try to change what is already working for you today. 

No matter how wonderful the rest of the options seem to be, take a deep breath, and if what you are doing with your kids is already working, then don't change to try something else.

Some of the things that used to scare this mama who struggles so much with Math and has survived  all these years using the "rule of three" for every single math problem in her life, were the ones you can easily imagine, "What are we going to do with Algebra, and Science and Logic?"  My kids grew and changes came and the day arrived when we were ready to tackle those; what did we do then?

The Lord walked ahead of us, and the Lord brought to our lives (literally) something we did not know about... a way out to all our fears through such season of changes: A great online school with lots of friends included and teachers that have influenced our children to live godly lives.

Yes, this is a greater miracle than what you might think because, just in case you have forgotten, we live in Mexico and are Mexicans! And here, in our country, very few families homeschool their children and we don't have Christian schools either. So changes did come and the Lord gave us a way to walk through them and also gave us eyes to see the beauty in them.

Alteration... yes, that word that my fiends at three chose for the photo play this week has me thinking...

We have had to alter our initial plans several times; it never occurred to us the option of an online school for example, but through each change, we have seen how the Lord has always been ahead of us preparing  the doorways we would need to walk through.

So, my friend, if you are to change anything this year in your homeschool, be sure you don't change just to have the other option that seems super great if what you are doing is working in your family; but at the same time know that changes will definitely come, sooner or later, without you even noticing them; and when they come remember that the Lord has been walking ahead. He is our faithful Father.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

 Lord, teach us to see that changes can be beautiful!

Note: The second picture on this post is "playing" at You Capture. 

This week's theme is "Doorways"