Right when I think I am starting to get this homeschooling with multiple children(5) down…reality sets in. We all sit down to read the Bible at the beginning of our school day and Luke (22mo.) starts crying about something, Simeon (3) is crying also because he got hurt, the older boys (10/8) are doing head stands and jumping (literally) all over the living room and Ellie (5) is complaining that she is hungry (we just ate breakfast a half hour ago.) This is the reality of homeschooling with multiple children.
I can barely get a word in, let alone hear myself think in the cacophony. I try my best to restore order and make them understand that they all need to be sitting still, keeping their hands to themselves and not. making. a. peep. I manage to maintain a few minutes of silence but eventually someone messes with someone else and my beautiful imaginary world of perfectly quiet, attentive children is laying in shambles.
This is the reality of homeschooling with multiple children of all ages… it is going to be crazy most days…#thestruggleisreal.
I would love to tell you that my children listen perfectly, they never fight with each other and that I never repeat myself or lose my temper, but I am afraid I would be telling you an untruth if I did. I know that I am fairly new on my homeschooling and mothering journey. I realize that I have SO much to learn as a parent and as a home educator, but I can see how God is purifying me and refining me through this process. I also can look back and see how much progress my children have made right alongside me.
Sometimes I laugh (and cry) to myself at the crazy blessedness of being home with all my children and trying to homeschool them as well. I often asking myself these questions in the moments of mayhem when everyone needs me at once and I am feeling stretched thin:
What am I thinking?!
How is this even possible!?
Are they learning all that they need to learn?!
How am I supposed to meet all their physical and educational needs!?
I obviously don’t have all the answers to my questions but I am learning to breathe deeply, take one step at a time, and ask God to give me the grace and strength I need for each moment.
Though there are days where everything seems to go wrong; as the kids keep hurting themselves in the craziest ways possible, it seems like all I am doing is disciplining a stubborn child, no one wants to do their school work, the baby won’t take a nap and I can’t get lunch on the table fast enough. There are also days when everything goes right …well almost.
—-The days when we make a breakthrough in a subject of difficulty, a behavior issue has improved, I hear, “I love you mommy” more than I can count (even when I have lost my patience), I find an older sibling teaching a younger one and when we all have that “aha” moment, as we discover something new together.
Let’s be real. Homeschooling multiple children, while caring for little ones is hard. There I said it. But you know what…it’s okay, because there is nothing better than sacrificing what comes easy for the ones we love.
[Tweet “there is nothing better than sacrificing what comes easy for the ones we love”]
We don’t have to pretend that we have arrived and have everything together. It’s okay to admit that we don’t know what we are doing and don’t get things right most of the time. What is important is that we are willing and obedient to do what is needed of us; however long our season of homeschooling lasts.
We often conjure up unrealistic ideals for how our day and homeschool should run that only set us up for defeat. We think that if we and our children don’t meet our high expectations; we are failing. We compare other people’s children, credentials, school options and homeschools to ours; thinking something must be wrong with us since we just don’t seem to measure up.
The reality is, we can do so much more than we think we are capable of; not because we are qualified, but because God qualifies us.
“It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5(NLT)
Rebekah
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