At Times I Wonder, Should We Continue Homeschooling?

I love when the Seton books come for the new school year. After 15 years, it never gets old. How I love the smell of the brand new books with fresh ink and crisp pages to
flip through.

I adjust the lesson plans each year and add fun and exciting things to do for the year. Everyone is excited and fall is in the air. I try to hold that excitement in them. Everything is off to a great start—then BANG! Life happens!

When “Life Happens!”

I believe God wanted us to homeschool. Our oldest son almost died as a baby. He couldn’t be around sick people. We “accidentally” found out about Seton. By the way, I don’t believe in accidents. I remember praying every night the Sacred Heart of Jesus Novena for him. I would look at the picture of Jesus in that novena and beg Him to help my son.

I remember one day seeing something about homeschooling on an adoption website. I decided to search the web, and Seton popped up, and somewhere I saw that same picture I had been praying with. I knew it was an answer to my prayer.

Many homeschooling moms wonder every day, did I do enough? We might not have checked off the history test box for the day, or we skipped spelling because the baby kept crying. We will do that tomorrow. How many times have we said that? We have to be easy on ourselves.

Instead of judging yourself on what you didn’t get done today, mentally take note of what you HAVE done. Remember the breakfast, lunch, supper, laundry, cleaning, dishes, etc.? That is half of your day right there! Have fun, pray, and love each other!

Do something good for someone that needs help or is sick. Fit the subjects around all of that. Don’t be so hard on yourself. I treated lesson plans like a must in the beginning. I have learned to adjust them. Take out the lessons they aren’t getting anything out of and have them go to the library and pick out something else to learn.

All of my kids found something fun to learn and to love. You can do it. You are trying to get them to Heaven. Never give up. Tuck them in at night, pray with them, and hug them tight.

Smooth Beginning, but then…

The beginning of every school year starts out so smoothly, but suddenly things get turned upside down. One day, I received a call that my husband was in a terrible accident at work. For two months I couldn’t homeschool. I thought God was telling me to stop. Somehow we caught up.

Over the years, we lost three babies, which was heartbreaking. Somehow we caught up. Something always happens. My son was in ICU once for severe pneumonia, and I had a newborn at home.

No school again for two months. God is telling me to stop, right? All of those days piling up, and the boxes aren’t getting checked off. But, guess what? The other boxes were: compassion, religion, and prayer boxes.

Last spring, the kids and I would try to pray the rosary in the afternoon. My kids kept commenting that I was messing up the Hail Mary prayer a lot. I didn’t notice it, so I just went on. One morning, I lost the ability to talk. It came back.

Fast forward six months and I had a full-blown stroke in my 40s. My “homeschooled” kids went for help. They were “accidentally” home. If they were at public school, I would have lain there with my baby for eight hours until they got home. I don’t believe in accidents.

Again, God is telling me not to homeschool, right? How could I homeschool while paralyzed on the left side of my body?

Seven months later, I am writing this. Since that day, I know what is most important in life.

I thank God I can walk and use my arm again, even though it is harder now. I ordered our new books for the fall and have been working on lesson plans. I like to get an early start so I can enjoy the summer with the kids. So, I got to smell those new books again!

This year school will be different for us. I am grateful for Seton’s flexibility! We are going to do quite a few alternative things to keep it fun. Life is so short, it can be taken at any moment. I want our days to be ones my kids are going to remember.

During this time, my kids learned about turning to God in prayer with acceptance of losing Mom as she had been while being by her side through it all and encouraging her.

They were taught the power of prayer from family, church members, and the Catholic Harbor prayer line who prayed together when my life was on the line. They saw the compassion of people who dropped off meals at the door during COVID.

The Real Focus of Every Lesson

I see how blessed I am because over all of these years of homeschooling with Seton, GOD has been the focus of every lesson in our days. My heart swelled when I heard that my kids and parents were praying the rosary as I was being rushed to the hospital. I believe, with all of my heart, that God hears the little ones. Guess what? No amount of science, history, or handwriting could have taught them that. Fill those in when you can. It’s love that counts.

When bad things happen, it seems like it would be easier to let someone else teach your children, but my kids told me they are so grateful they get to be with family every day.

Seeing what I have seen now, I know it can be done. You can ALL do it!

Just remember, when you put your good-smelling books on your shelf this year, life is going to happen. It happens to us all.

But life is where the learning is.