What a huge responsibility children are! I fail so many times as a mother. My children don’t always obey and I am not always patient. I am thankful that love, mercy, grace and forgiveness abound in our household. I am certainly not homeschooling in my own strength. I need the strength of the Lord every single day to be able to do this.

These early years of teaching my daughters are so precious. I don’t want to take for granted the fact that I get to spend my days with my children, teaching them the three R’s. More important than teaching their minds though is the fact that I get to teach their little hearts about the truths of God as we go about our days. That right there is the foundational reason why we have chosen to educate our children through homeschooling them and the lens I will look through when the days get tough.

I know good homeschool days and bad homeschool days are ahead. I am trying everything in my power to prepare for the year by making wise curriculum choices that will fit the needs of my daughters but I can only do and prepare so much. The days will happen as they happen and we will deal with the bumps along the road as they come.

I technically have one student but this one student is one of a kind. There were some days during Little Bug’s PK4 year where I threw up my hands and thought to myself, I used to manage a classroom of twenty students or more and yet I can’t handle just ONE kid who is my daughter?!

I love this girl with a fierce love and she sometimes brings me to the brink of insanity! She is strong-willed and has a mind of her own, which I know, later on in life, will allow her to do great things. At the age of five, though, it causes a lot of conflict! Our first day of PK4 was an absolute disaster, but our year overall was absolutely wonderful. I am already trying to think of ways that I am going to avoid another beginning like that one this year!

- Elaine