I have been home schooling now for approximately fourteen years. So, depending on in what life season I find myself or even what home schooling struggles I may be experiencing, my reasons for attending the Convention vary.

At times I have attended simply to hear conference speakers who helped me with new ideas in organizing school schedules, house management, and more. Because we have six very unique kiddos, there were times when I searched through the Convention schedule, seeking out speakers dealing directly with teaching tools, methods, and ideas to help me teach to the learning style and special needs of each child. In the incredibly overwhelming, busy years, I sought out conference speakers and topics that would soften my burnout and re-motivate me to persevere in the important task to which God called me: home schooling.

Not only have my reasons for attending varied each year, but my companions at Convention have varied as well. Some years I go it alone for a time of recharging and rest. There have been several years in which my enthusiasm for the upcoming Convention vacation piqued the interest of a home schooling friend who had never attended, and we turned it into a girls’ weekend of shopping, learning, and laughter. My husband and I have used it as a “date” weekend to spend time together in uninterrupted conversation and to plan for the next school year. Finally, at other times our family of eight attended, registering our family through the entire spectrum of adult conference, Teen Program, and Children’s Program. (As a side note, the Teen and Children’s Programs are wonderful, but you must Early Bird Register, because they fill up fast. We missed the Teen Program one year because we waited too late to register.)

I admit that the Exhibit Hall full of vendors can be overwhelming with so many choices and opportunities meshed together in one location, but consider approaching it prayerfully, asking God to bring to your attention the items pertinent and needful to your family. My husband brings great clarity for me in this area. As we peruse books and curricula, he seems to have a better eye for what will work for our family. Even a friend or family member, whomever you are with, can provide a “second opinion.” What is incredibly helpful about the Exhibit Hall is that it provides a good overview of everything that is available to home schoolers, such as a plethora of curricula; Houston-area choral, band, karate, and sports groups; colleges and universities all over the country; field trip opportunities; and more. Another plus is that many vendors will give Convention discounts and/or free shipping on items ordered.

The THSC Convention has also become a “Convention vacation.” THSC has masterfully created Add-On events for families, so there are opportunities for discounts at varying local venues, such as Moody Gardens. We bought Add-On tickets to the Bob Smiley Comedy Show last year and the Tim Hawkins Comedy Show the year before. These shows were much-needed times of setting aside our serious schedules and concerns of life and laughing as a family—laughing so hard we cried! As much as I enjoyed the comedy shows, the look on my children’s faces and their laughter will be forever ingrained as a treasured memory in my mind.

When my children attend the Convention, we ride the free trolley from The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel to The Woodlands Mall food court for lunch at least one day of Convention. The trolley ride provides giggles and laughter from some little boys who think it is incredibly cool, and it also gives riders a glimpse of The Woodlands area, passing by local shopping and restaurants and the Cynthia Woods Pavilion.

Another fun Convention lunch tradition our family has is what we call the “THSC Picnic Lunch.” Families who choose to bring their own lunch to Convention congregate picnic style in the walkway between the parking garage and hotel. Our boys enjoy watching the cars and activity on the street below, and there is a feeling of family and community as many home schooling families all enjoy lunch together.

If a trolley ride or a picnic lunch in a walkway does not sound attractive, or a walk through traffic is not appealing, there are waterway taxis that run along the waterway surrounding the hotel. These boat taxis will pick you up and “ship” you back and forth between the hotel and The Woodlands Mall for a small fee.

Some additional activity options for Pre-Convention fun include the Riva Row Boathouse, which offers kayak rentals for paddling the waterway, and spray-and-play parks in the local city parks, which provide free fun in the sun and playground time.

THSC Southwest Convention & Family Conference is so many different things to so many people. It is affirming and informative for those considering home schooling. It is knowledge building for those in the thick of their home schooling years. It is encouraging for those who feel beat down by the daily grind, who lose their focus or merely their energy to do what needs to be done, and it can change those feelings of inadequacy by giving you tools of capability. It is family fun and is full of memory making that will last through generations.

Wherever you are in your home schooling adventure, I encourage you to come to The Woodlands, catch a glimpse of the diversity of all of the other families who have also chosen to home school, and be encouraged that you are not alone in this journey. Come and enjoy. I’ll be there.

Pertinent and Helpful Links

THSC Southwest Convention & Family Conference

The Woodlands Waterway Marriott

The Woodlands Trolley

Spray & Play Parks:
Timarron
Sawmill

Kayaking on Waterway

The Woodlands Mall

Boat taxis

Woodlands Waterway (literal waterway)

Cynthia Woods Pavilion

The post Healing Tradition appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

I recently read a book titled The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith, and I am now in the process of completing The Good and Beautiful Life by the same author. These books help readers take a hard look at what we believe about God and about how we are to live our lives, teaching us that we are people of narratives, or stories. We think and talk in stories. For example, if growing up someone had a father who was angry and mean, that person may picture God as an angry God waiting for them to mess up so He can punish them. They may harbor an attitude of just waiting for lightning to strike if they do something wrong.

In The Good and Beautiful God, Smith challenges his readers to go to God’s Word and check the scriptures to see if the “story” they are listening to really depicts who God is or if it is simply something that past experience—or even a lesson from a parent, a teacher, or a preacher—has brought them to believe.

When we examine and challenge our untrue stories about God and about ourselves, it changes the way we view God; it also opens up a whole new way to live. I once saw an object lesson that drove home this point. First, we were shown an old cardboard box with a candle inside, closed up tight, which represented the times we try to keep God in a nice little neat package with which we are comfortable. As a result, all we see is this bound-up box, which represents a bound-up life. Next, holes were torn in the sides and top of the box, representing our lives’ imperfections and the struggles we have walked through with God. Finally, the candle in the box was lit, and because the box was torn, the beautiful light shone from within and illuminated the room.

A main point of that lesson is that we as Christians are not bound by the expectations of others or even our expectations of ourselves. It is in the struggles, in the hard times, in the day-by-day and in the transparency of who we really are–not in some made-up version of perfection–that God’s light shines through us and transforms us into joyful people, even in work, and into loving people, even in busyness. That light does not stop after it changes our lives; it reaches to anyone with whom we come in contact. It is a life lived in the moment, where we actually experience where we are right now and what God has in store for us, as opposed to constantly focusing our attention on the next upcoming event. It is walking outside and realizing that the clouds look like a painting and stopping for a moment in gratitude for something so beautiful. It is living in such a way as to be present in the moment and expressing gratitude to the Lord for His provision and blessings in our lives.

This whole putting-God-in-a-box mentality affects many areas of our lives, not just our spiritual walks. I would venture to say that many of us try to package our home school in a nice, neat little box too. We tend to take our past experiences, whatever they are–public school, private education, a book we have read, or something someone told us as fact—and we try to fit our schedules and our schools into that box.

When we first started homeschooling, I set up our school just like a public school. We started at a certain time, and we did every subject at a set time, keeping a rigid schedule. We were bound to our home during public school hours, and I believe I just about “worksheeted” my kiddos to death. Trust me when I say we had pure frustration throughout our household, which caused me to begin to question whether I was even capable of doing this home schooling thing because it just was not working.

Little by little through the years, God began to open my eyes to the world out there. The lid of the box was opened, and I realized that just about every step we take in a day is a learning experience. Driving down the road, if my boys saw a combine harvester, we began to talk about what a combine is, which led to discussions about farming and different crops. They will probably remember that discussion much longer than if they had read a little story about it and answered multiple-choice questions for a good grade.

This realization of mine gave way to the excitement about the freedom and flexibility we have as home schoolers. I mean, really, pretty much the sky is not even the limit! I began gearing our schooling more toward the individual needs of each of my children. I began to pray that God would fill me with creative ways to teach my kids—ways that did not even look like “school” to them. There are so many creative and fun ways to teach that do not fit the traditional mold.

A sweet friend of mine decided to pull her son out of public school around the first grade. He was constantly getting into trouble. He had difficulty paying attention and had begun to ask her questions like, “Am I a bad boy?” So she withdrew him from the school and began to homeschool him. She quickly realized that he had difficulty reading and eventually found out that he was dyslexic. It was an incredible struggle for her to get him to read anything. She worked and worked to get him to do his schoolwork, with very little success.

Then . . . she began to think outside the box and try new things. One idea she had was to plan elaborate, long treasure hunts. Her son loved a great adventure, and as far as he knew, these treasure hunts had nothing to do with school; they were play. She did not simply write a few clues on some pieces of paper. She spent a great deal of time creating intricate treasure hunts that helped her son develop his reading skills to a much greater extent than if she had tried to sit down with him and “do reading.” He is a high school student now and achieving great success academically. He no longer sees himself as a “bad boy.”

Looking at life this way is definitely a learning process that continues for the rest of our lives, a decision to venture outside the norm, to open our eyes to new possibilities and opportunities to instill in our children a love of learning and a love of life instead of surrendering ourselves to a routine or a requirement that frustrates even the best of us. With each day there is a new chance to start over, a new day to enjoy and embrace whatever God has in store for us at that particular time, on that particular day. My hope is that at the end of my life there will be no box at all but instead I will have learned to embrace life in the freedom that God intends and the faith in the One who created me and has my future anyway.

The post Breaking the Proverbial Box appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

But consider what happens when those honorable, admirable, even prayed-over schedules, lesson plans, menus, and goals become the driving force behind your family’s daily experience in a negative way—when helpful tools become what dictate your daily actions, words, and attitude.

Do you start each day desiring to model kindness and love to your children and others but end your day frustrated, overwhelmed, and possibly even angry? Do you start each day desiring to speak blessing over your children and end the day as the woman that scripture speaks of who tears down her own family, cursing her very own blessing?

When the “tools” of household management and education become what commands the path we follow, it is easy to become completely overwhelmed and ashamed of the fact that we are not “that wife,” “that mother,” “that teacher;” and we end up emotionally and spiritually unavailable to our family, friends, and even strangers.

Thankfully, God’s ways are different from our ways. The quicker we realize that and release our tight grip on the way we think it should go or to what we think we should measure up, the quicker God’s peace and free-flowing love infiltrate our very being and overflow to those around us.

I am not suggesting that life-planning and goals are worthless and should be abandoned. I am suggesting that they should not be allowed to control our daily living.

This past year I accepted a friend’s challenge to live in the moment, to presence myself in the moment. At first “presence yourself in the moment” sounded like some New Age jargon.  I just did not get it. I was firmly in the habit of checking off my “to-do” list and schedule to the point of always working toward the next item on the list, the next activity that needed to be accomplished, instead of enjoying and savoring the very moment I was actually experiencing. Not to mention I was modeling this example for my children as well.

Could I really pay attention to each moment? Could I be present right in that very moment when the dryer is buzzing but my five-year-old wants me to look him in the eyes as he quotes lines from a Disney movie for what seems like the fiftieth time? Could I block thoughts of all the things that need to be done and just listen to my husband as he talks about his day at work? Could I actually care about and listen to the checker at Wal-Mart who is burdened and lonely? Could I get off-schedule because a friend calls and needs prayer? Would life fall apart if I did not stick to that schedule? Will my children fall behind academically if we do not complete the “critical thinking” section of our lesson plans today?

You may laugh at the absurdity of some of these questions, but the truth is these are a few of the many fears I had of relinquishing control of my day and  the schedule to follow God’s way and not my own.

So, after committing to this “presence yourself in the moment” challenge, I quickly realized that just like any other discipline, living in the moment takes conscious effort and does not come naturally. It takes resolution to focus on what is happening now and practice until it becomes a quick, automatic response. My tendency always to be looking ahead not only leads to many missed memory moments with my husband and children but mentally places me in an ever-failing, never-measuring-up battle that keeps me from expressing gratitude to God for the daily gifts with which He surrounds me. I become like a horse with blinders on, that can only look forward and never see the all-encompassing, beautiful creation in my peripheral vision.

In this home schooling journey, what is your goal? Do you desire for your children to grow up, go to college, land a well-paying job, and hopefully raise a family in the suburbs—or do you desire for your children to live for Christ, to follow the bent that God has for them individually, and touch the lives of others in the process?

I recently read the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It was as if God said to me, “Let me help you along in this journey: Read this!” The book is an ugly, yet beautiful, descriptive journey of learning how intricately connected and important focused gratitude is in our daily walk with God.

I would love to say that I have accepted the challenge, read the book, and learned the lesson—thereby mastering the discipline of living in the moment. I must tell the truth, however, and say that it is a continual work God is patiently allowing to sink into this incredibly head-strong brain. It is a beautiful work that is removing the blinders of rigid schedule—following a plan but not being bound by it—and allowing me to embrace each day’s moments, all creation, with attentive eyes and deep gratitude to the Master Scheduler and Planner.

The post Removing the Blinders (Or, Being Present in the Moment) appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

Could we look at it from the viewpoint of the water as a home schooling parent, the pan as the boundaries, and the heat as lesson plans set for the day and our idyllic expectations of what our day will entail?

Home schooling can in many ways be challenging, especially if a family has children of various ages and grade levels. Teaching only one child is a full-time job, much less teaching multiple children. It is a challenge that takes prayer, planning, and effort, but it is very possible to achieve great success. We know it is possible because countless families conquer this challenge year after year. There are many “experts” who have written books that tell you exactly what you need to do for your family (some are even laid out for you like a ten-step system). Yet, I believe that, while you may be able to glean helpful hints from their books, you are the only person who can find what fits your family.

God created each of your children as incredibly unique individuals and chose you, not the “experts,” to parent these amazing creatures. He has and will continue to give you the ability to teach them, train them, and encourage them in the path He has for each of them exclusively. I wish that was something that I had realized when we first began to homeschool. Instead, I sought out every book, program, curriculum, chore chart, etc., to solve the problem of chaos in our household. Each time a new purchase did not play out as expected, I took a hit in the “Good Home School Mom” category and felt like a failure. I cycled through this routine again and again. I admit it may take me a while to catch a clue, but finally the cycle was broken. A steadfast decision was made that I would not purchase another thing . . . and I think I even stomped and pouted at that particular moment.

At my rope’s end—that is usually when we do what we should have done from the very beginning—I finally began to get up in the morning, usually before my kiddos, and spend time with the Lord in prayer and/or reading and meditating on His Word. When my mind was so filled with the day’s “to do” list that I had a hard time concentrating in prayer, I began to journal my prayers. This particular discipline is a huge help for moms like me who have a difficult time with “Be still and know that I am God.” I used the A-C-T-S acronym to remember how to write out my prayers. “A” stands for Adoration and is the perfect place to journal your love for God; “C” stands for Confession; “T” is our opportunity to Thank God; “S” stands for Supplication and gives us an opportunity to tell God our needs. I added “I” for Intercession to reserve a place in my journal to pray for others. Using this system brought focus into my prayer life, and it also fostered gratitude. Instead of talking to God about something and then forgetting about it, I was able to look back and see the many ways that He had answered my prayers.

This routine of prayer and reading God’s Word was not an overnight sensation, but I resolved to follow through and seek the Lord for guidance for life in general and specifically for help in teaching—in a loving way—so many children at so many different grade levels with their own individual needs. Once I made time with God a number one priority, I gained clarity for each day. I will not say the chaos was eliminated, but I was definitely more like the cool water in the pot and better prepared to handle the chaos.

As the light of clarity shone brightly on our home schooling days, another realization dawned. Apparently I had many expectations of what our day should look like, and when I took a hard look at those expectations, it became obvious that the majority of my expectations were unrealistic. There it was. Clearly I was that “someone” who was the main culprit in turning on the heat under the pot and scalding many in my family. When I expected that the day would adhere exactly to my lesson plans and ideals for that day, I put pressure on myself and on my children to fit into the perfect pot. However, as many of you know, seldom do our days turn out the way we expect. The end result, I can assure you, was not pretty. I was constantly frustrated with myself and with my children. Nothing ever seemed to work out as planned.

God began to show us that lesson plans are a necessary part of our day, but they do not rule. We have learned to live more in the moment, to accept some spontaneity, and to be flexible to explore further into areas of interest that present themselves throughout our day. When we begin to feel frustrated with our schedule, we change it. There is a well-known idea that moms, many times, are the thermostat of the home. Relinquishing extreme expectations and learning to go with the flow takes a lot of pressure off. These strategies lend themselves to a more loving, enjoyable atmosphere in the home.

As we begin to remove the top of the pressure cooker by placing God as the number one priority in our home schooling journey, we gain clarity in what each day will look like and what each individual child needs. When we learn to be flexible and move as God directs, His lessons are rich, lasting, and perfect. Instead of taking it all on ourselves and heating up, boiling over, and cooling down over and over again, we become cool, refreshing water to each child whom God has given us the privilege to parent.

The post In the Pressure Cooker, Just Trying to Stay Cool appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

In a similar fashion, when a child turns eighteen and prepares to leave home, a similar trauma occurs that I call emotional amputation.

Emotional amputation can be gut-wrenchingly difficult. That “body part” that has been present for seventeen-plus years is now being removed. The baby who needed diaper changes and constant care and cuddling grew into the toddler who was constantly watched and protected during the bumps-and-bruises stage. That toddler became the elementary-aged child with a sponge-like interest in life, looking up at you with big, loving, curious eyes. He was the one you had to make sure had clean underwear or you might end up at church and realize that he had gone commando (without underwear). That same child sprouted into the preteen who wanted to be treated as an adult and incessantly bugged you until you taught him how to drive a car, but he still ran around and played like a child. Then he matured into the next—but not final—season, the teenager who sometimes amazingly, sometimes clumsily, made their own independent way.

As parents, many of us, at one point or another as our children grow older, begin to think more long-term about our children’s futures. We all give lip service to the desire to raise independent adults who will follow God’s leading in their lives, make wise decisions, balance a checkbook, maintain a job, pay their own bills, and wash their own laundry, but when it actually comes down to releasing them to college or adulthood, it is a difficult task (for dads and moms alike).

Everyone knows this is how life goes, right? This, it seems sometimes, is what we are striving for, is it not? Many times, though, emotional amputation hits us like something unexpected, and as parents we may find ourselves surprised by the heavy effect this new loss has on us.

Our family has graduated the oldest two of six children—one within the last year and one five years ago. Our only daughter was the first to graduate, and she made a slow, easy transition into adulthood while she lived in a garage apartment next to our home and paid her way through her first year of community college. She eventually moved out on her own and has since completed an associate’s degree. She has already begun online courses toward a bachelor’s degree and is heading to Full Sail University in Florida to pursue a film degree.

The transition toward independence has been slow and easy with her; we have patiently found our way in allowing her to make decisions on her own without always feeling the need to give advice on what to do and how to do it.

If the story ended there, we could continue in our fairy-tale ideology of the perfect family transition and experience. However, when our son graduated, there was no easy transition. In fact, I have related his journey toward independence as something akin to a karate-chop (hi-yah!) for which neither I nor my husband was at all prepared. Our son was not completely rebellious or disrespectful, but he definitely asserted his adulthood from the exact point of his eighteenth birthday. He even at one point said, “Mom, Dad, I want advice, but I would like some non-biased, non-parental advice.”

There were tears and shock and then anger at the audacity that he did not appreciate the sacrifices we had made for him. We had potty-trained him, for goodness’ sake.

We wondered why no one had prepared us for this and asked ourselves if our son was completely going off the deep end and forgetting every ounce of advice and godly wisdom he had ever been given. Why would he, all of a sudden, stop listening to us?

Is it not funny how we become overdramatic and slightly panicked and confused as soon as our children begin to make their own decisions instead of doing what we would think or do? Yet, is not this what we have said all along that we want: independent adults?

My husband and I met with our pastor to try to get a fresh perspective on the situation and really seek out some godly advice and wisdom on how to “fix” our son. Unexpectedly, instead of advice on “fixing” our son, we gained insight into the fact that we now had a new role as parents. The truth was that we needed to adjust our attitudes and replace our anger and feelings of being unappreciated to the realization that we had entered a new season, a place of transition that was necessary. Our son had to find his way, and we needed to be there for him yet allow him to grow in independence.

As soon as the light bulb clicked on, the heightened sense of drama in our home dissipated. The choice to sit down, calm down, talk with our son, and trust that our God is in control (and that He has a love for each of our children that surpasses the love of doting parents) was an anesthetic to the new change in our family.

We now have a fourteen-year-old son who has already begun making his own preparations to move into independence, but the story does not end there. Children are brought up, they leave, and parents are left feeling like a part of them is missing. Praise God that it does not end there. This emotional amputation season is not such a dud. It is just different. For us, the loss endured has actually turned out to be a blessing.

The transition has not necessarily been easy or perfect. As parents we have had to relinquish old habits of micromanaging our adult children, changing from directing (telling) them what to do to simply taking on the position of a coach/counselor/prayer warrior, allowing them to make mistakes and learn from them. The blessing is in getting to watch them from the sidelines (and not the bleachers), witnessing their thriving, growing, and touching the lives of others for Christ in the environments in which God has placed them.

Our family has decided the season of emotional amputation is not so bad after all. Our friends have informed us that the next season is weddings and grandbabies—a season that cannot be topped. As we move forward in life as parents, we have determined to tread on the solid ground of knowing that nothing is unknown to God, and even though the process seems shaky at times and we are tempted to worry and fear, God’s will is perfect, and our family is comforted and protected as we trust in Him!

The post Emotional Amputation appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

I found there was a lot of truth in what she was teaching that night. As our daughter graduated and left home to pursue her special something, we knew without a doubt she was headed in a direction that followed her God-given passions and giftings. Next in line was our oldest son. Since the speaker had included that “twelve or thirteen” age limit in her teaching that night, I took that in hook, line, and sinker. As a result, I struggled for years with “my job” to locate our son’s special interests that I knew he would need on the path God had for him. I even began to worry a little because I could not pinpoint what it was. I was failing as a parent . . . or so I thought.

This past year we decided to give a birthday surprise to our thirteen- and eighteen-year-old sons, who had never flown on an airplane before: tickets to fly. After searching the Internet for cheap flights to wherever (we are on a budget, you know), we were blessed with ninety-nine dollar tickets to Little Rock, Arkansas. It was an amazing trip. We flew out to Little Rock on a beautiful morning and spent several days there sightseeing. Of course, being home school parents, we had to make it educational. Therefore, to enhance our sightseeing adventures, my husband thought it would be a great idea to purchase bus passes instead of renting a car so that the boys could plan out the routes we would need to take and which buses to hop on at exactly the right times. It was “educational,” to say the least!

As our trip came to a close, we found ourselves back at the airport for the flight home. Because the plane was crowded—and I assume because my eighteen-year-old Jordan wanted some independence, which did not involve sitting next to his mother on the plane ride home—my oldest son sat at the very back of the plane. It was a peaceful ride home and a soft landing, but before I could retrieve our carry-on bags to exit the plane, I was introduced to a man and his family who were seated next to Jordan. Apparently the man was a pilot who had jumped into one of the last seats left—hence, the back of the plane. This man and my son talked the entire flight back about being a pilot and all of the particulars and pros and cons that went along with that occupation. Because of Jordan’s interest, the pilot spoke with the flight personnel and got Jordan into the cockpit.

I stood back and watched as God gave me a glimpse into my son’s special interest. What I thought I had to search out and locate in Jordan, what had made me worry and feel like a failure, this job as a parent that I had to take on and make happen—it was all just a spark that happened right there in that short plane ride home. My son is now a high school graduate, and—you guessed it—that spark has turned into a brush fire that has brought on a desire and a plan to attend LeTourneau University to pursue an air traffic control degree and pilot’s license. As I write this, I do not know where God’s path will take Jordan exactly, but I have a peace knowing that he is headed in a direction that is not of my prompting but from a desire placed in him by the Creator.

This journey with our older children has taught me to approach parenting in a slightly different way. I have come to realize that I do not need to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34) but just walk out each day asking God to direct the teaching of these beautiful, amazing children, watching instead of seeking out that “special something.”

As their interests are brought to my attention, it is my goal to support and enable them to follow those interests. Our thirteen-year-old Wyatt has had an interest in falconry. He has read books on the subject but has never even seen a live birding demonstration. Earlier in our home schooling years I probably would have blown off falconry as an “I want to be a (fill-in-the-blank) when I grow up” interest that would change. Instead, now I am approaching his interest with a belief and trust that God may have falconry in His plan for Wyatt. I do not know why or what that might look like in the future, but I realize my job is not to know the whole story but to believe in and encourage my children where they are.

We helped Wyatt establish what his first goal should be in order to be successful in this area. This past year he saved up his money and joined the Texas Hawking Association and has located and read books on falconry. Then we helped him establish his second goal. He has now been in contact with a falconer in our area and will finally have the opportunity to see a live birding demonstration and hunting event.

You see? We do not need to have the entire high school and college plan figured out when our children are young, which is something that could raise the blood pressure of any home schooling parent. We just need to seek the Lord on a daily basis for each of our children, be obedient to whatever He calls us, and then keep our eyes open to catch a glimpse of another “brush fire” of excitement when God opens those doors and allows our children to walk through them.

The post Created for a Purpose appeared first on Texas Home School Coalition.

There were some signs that concerned us slightly as early as first grade, such as confusing b and d, p and q, 6 and 9, and 5, 2, and S; flipping letters and numbers; reading ending sounds first; and not being able to recall a letter, sound, or even a word he had just learned or struggled through one sentence prior. He had a hard time concentrating and focusing on the task at hand. Because of the concerns we had, we spoke with various people and read many articles trying to determine if our concerns were valid. We were informed by multiple people to wait, that most children are not even tested for learning disabilities until they are in third grade, and that many times children will outgrow some of these issues.

We continued to monitor our son throughout first and second grade, but his difficulties did not lessen, and he did not outgrow them. He became more and more frustrated, especially in the areas of reading and writing. It was obvious to us that he was quickly beginning to lose confidence in his ability to learn. Our school day resembled one of the battlefields we were learning about in our history curriculum. As a result, we began to research what tools were available to determine what the exact learning issues were and how to help our son, to ensure he had the best educational path available to him.

Through our research and much prayer, we developed a plan. The first step was to have his eyes checked. We needed to ensure that his vision was not the basis of his struggle to read. There are vision therapies that can be helpful for some students who have eye muscle weakness or convergence problems. Once we completed that testing, we checked into what avenues were available to have him tested for possible learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc. We determined we could make an appointment with a private screening company, a psychiatrist, or our local independent school district’s Special Services department and put our tax dollars to work.

School districts in Texas have funding that gives them the ability to offer “special services,” such as help with visual or auditory impairment, speech difficulties, learning disabilities, autism, etc., to private school and home school students, not just those students who are publicly educated. Because it was most cost effective, we contacted our local school district and made an appointment to meet with the Special Services representative.

When we contacted Special Services in our school district, we were informed that they had helped other home schoolers who had speech issues but they had never helped a home school family in addressing other learning disabilities. Through research on their part, we were given the option of full evaluation and were also provided with a specific reading curriculum to use until we could further assess the situation. It was obvious that our son met many of the criteria for a diagnosis of dyslexia. We began to incorporate the reading curriculum, with accompanying computer software, into our daily lesson plans.

We were also informed that children with dyslexia basically need to work twice as hard, if not more so, to learn and retain information. Repetition and consistency became a daily necessity. The fact that our son needed consistency caused us to see the need to have regularity in our school year and not take off long periods of time for various holidays and summer vacations. Another important aspect in teaching dyslexic children is to teach in a way that encompasses all of the senses. This is referred to as a multisensory teaching approach. For example, we had our son use his fingers to write his letters in a box lid filled with cornmeal. He would hear the letter spoken, say it himself, feel the letter as it was written, and see the letter written. We also used a math curriculum that incorporated manipulatives to give him that hands-on understanding. As parents and teachers, opening our minds to embrace such a multifaceted approach to learning opened up a world of opportunities to be creative and have fun with our teaching methods and not be tied down to strictly “book learning,” which was not meeting the needs of this particular child.

We also decided to locate someone who would be willing to read with our son several times a week. The idea was to have someone, other than Mom or Dad, be a fresh face to work with and possibly relieve some of the “I’ve already done that” or “You are making me do too much” attitude we were encountering. God provided just such a friend. Instead of only reading with him, she began to use a borrowed dyslexia curriculum that incorporated various evaluations to locate his specific issues and began to teach him from it. In addition, we have been using a wonderful computer curriculum called My Reading Coach.

Our son has come a long way and found much success in his ability to decipher words, the fluency of his reading, and his ability to comprehend the stories he is reading. He has even picked up a book on his own without prompting and read of his own volition. He has much more to work hard toward and accomplish, but we have overcome the initial “stop sign” that halted his ability to really move forward in this aspect of his learning process. He is now on a road that is still full of curves and bends, potholes and bumps, but he is moving forward at a steady pace.

As for his parents, we have learned much alongside our son. We have learned to fully embrace learning and not limit it to a classroom-type setting. We have also learned to set aside our pride and ask for and accept help from others, to the benefit of our family. We have realized that a bumpy road is sometimes the best because it grows each one of us in our dependence upon our Creator, Who created each of us so uniquely, and it draws us closer together in community, in helping others, and in accepting help from others.

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