Category: Encouragement

Parenting Inspiration from Hannah

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She sought to lead his thoughts to the Creator.
She sought to lead his thoughts to the Creator.

From Shiloh, Hannah quietly returned to her home at Ramah, leaving the child Samuel to be trained for service in the house of God, under the instruction of the high priest. From the earliest dawns of intellect, she had taught her son to love and reverence God, and to regard himself as the Lord’s. By every familiar object surrounding him, she had sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator. When separated from her child, the faithful mother’s solicitude did not cease. Every day he was the subject of her prayers. Every year she made, with her own hands, a robe of service for him; and as she went up with her husband to worship at Shiloh, she gave the child this reminder of her love. Every fibre of the little garment had been woven with a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true. She did not ask for her son worldly greatness, but she earnestly pleaded that he might attain that greatness which Heaven values,-that he might honour God and bless his fellow-men.

Mother and Daughter Reading Together
She may make straight paths for the feet of her children…

What a reward was Hannah’s! and what an encouragement to faithfulness is her example! There are opportunities of inestimable worth, interests infinitely precious, committed to every mother. The humble round of duties which women have come to regard as a wearisome task, should be looked upon as a grand and noble work. It is the mother’s privilege to bless the world by her influence, and in doing this she will bring joy to her own heart. She may make straight paths for the feet of her children, through sunshine and shadow, to the glorious heights above. But it is only when she seeks, in her own life, to follow the teachings of Christ, that the mother can hope to form the character of her children after the divine Pattern. The world teems with corrupting influences. Fashion and custom exert a strong power over the young. If the mother fails in her duty to instruct, guide, and restrain, her children will naturally accept the evil and turn from the good. Let every mother go often to her Saviour with the prayer, “Teach us how we shall order the child, and how we shall do unto him.” Let her heed the instruction which God has given in His word, and wisdom will be given her as she shall have need.

-Excerpted from The Bible Echo, June 1894 by E. G. White

A Leap of Faith ~ Cassandra’s Homeschooling Testimony

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My homeschool journey began when our daughter was attending SDA church school. She was in third grade and getting away with all types of negative character/behavioral issues because her grandmother was her teacher. Her classmates did not particular care for her because of this. Grandma would allow her to act out with no consequences. I would speak to my mother in law about this to no avail. I was constantly pulling her out of class because of her behavior and fights. It started to get old very quick. I believe in SDA Christian education, done right. My husband attended church school from the kindergarten to college. Our circumstances dictated that we do something different.

At that time, I was the school secretary where our daughter attended. These were some trying times for me. We had two children. Our daughter attended where I worked and our son attended the other church school. Both had to have uniforms, lunches etc…Our son had to get to and from school by whomever we could work out transportation with. The cost…can you say mortgage payments. My husband would say if it costs the much now what is it going to be like when it is time for college.

Our daughter’s behavior was getting worse and the spankings increased. I had attempted to homeschool our daughter when she was kindergarten age, but I allowed my mother in law to talk me out of it.

One day my friend and her children came by my job. They had been on a field trip and (they were homeschooling family) they looked so content in this situation, so I started ask questions and they began to explain to me where they had been and so forth. I was complaining about my daughter’s behavior and  both my friend and I thought that I needed to pray and ask God for guidance.  The expression “Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome” came to my mind. So we both began to pray. I got my hands on a book by the Moore’s , read it and I was convicted. But I had not spoken to my husband yet. I wanted to be armed with info first. Then I found The Adventist Home Educator, this is when Sis. Judy was doing it. We purchased the book,  and DVD’s.

My husband and I talked and prayed about our decision because we would be down to one income. I was not making much. I only took that job so I could be where my daughter was not because of the money. Because our finances were already stretched with both children in church school, becoming a one-income family was scary to us. Nevertheless, we took a leap of faith and we did not put her in CF quotechurch school the following year.

Our daughter finished high school last year. And our son will finish college soon Praise the Lord! I can tell you for sure it has not always been easy.  Do not think for a minute that we did not get feedback from church members, family and the so-called friends, we did. Some of these people would make you feel like you do not know what you are doing. They tell you your child will be isolated, that they will not have any friends or that your child needs to be socialized. They would ask why you would do this to your children. Actually, some of them were worse than the people who were not of my faith. I even had people come to me and say that I thought my children were better than theirs were. This was just the beginning. I had to learn not get angry every time I was confronted, so I armed myself with info regarding homeschooling. Sometimes I thought I was losing my mind or I felt like I was not doing enough. The one-on-one praying and teaching worked for us. The spankings she received because of her behavior ceased. Our prayer time and devotions were amazing. Having school all day was a thing of the past. Just a few hours a day and we were able to do other stuff like gardening, cooking and learning to sew etc…Our bond grew tighter. Nothing but God! One of the first scriptures we learned was Psalm 46:1 -“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” KJV

My journey of homeschooling has ended for our children, but I will help anyone who asks me how to get started. You cannot just turn it off. I pray for homeschool families weekly. It is not an easy job but it is so worth it.

by Cassandra Folson

Don’t forget- GYC starts today!

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gyc

There are many AHE families in Orlando for  GYC  that starts tonight.   For those who are not able to be there in person, don’t forget that you can watch the programming on 3ABN.   Never heard of GYC?  Click on the image above to learn more.

John 3:16

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God so lovedImage Source

Motivation Monday

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“Those who love God should feel deeply interested in the children and youth. To them God can reveal his truth and salvation. Jesus calls the little ones that believe on him the lambs of his flock. He has a special love for and interest in the children. Jesus has said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me [let no one place any obstruction in the way of Jesus Children-02the children’s coming to me]; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus has passed through the trials and griefs to which childhood is subject. He knows the sorrows of the young. By his Holy Spirit, he is drawing the hearts of the children to himself, while Satan is working to keep them away from him. The most precious offering that the children can give to Jesus, is the freshness of their childhood. When children seek the Lord with the whole heart, he will be found of them. It is in these early years that the affections are the most ardent, the heart most susceptible of improvement. Everything that is seen and heard makes an impression on the youthful mind. The countenances looked upon, the words uttered, the actions performed, are not the least of the books the young read; for they have a decided influence upon the mind, heart, and character. Then how important it is that the children come to Jesus in their earliest years, and become lambs of his flock! How important it is that the older members of the church, by precept and example, lead them to Jesus, who taketh away the sin of the world, and who can keep them by his divine grace from the ruin it works. The better acquainted they become with Jesus, the more they will love him, and be able to do those things that are pleasing in his sight. God has sanctified childhood in that he gave his only begotten Son to become a child on earth.”

Review and Herald, December 17, 1889

Encouragement for a Rough Week

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This hymn is for the homeschooling parents out there having a rough week. From personal experience, it helps to listen at least twice in a row.

Homeschooling/Hindsight

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Ever read a blog post that you just want to share?  Here’s one.

Many thanks go to Angela at Pearls of Price for sharing her blog post with AHE.

Homeschooling/Hindsight

I heard a man speaking yesterday about how schools kill creativity. Everything about the typical school system undermines creativity rather than nurturing it. Everything is turned upside down in importance…. the arts and creativity is usually relegated to the bottom of the stack right after science, etc… What they are actually finding is that little kids all have the capacity to be divergent thinkers…. but in studies it shows that as the children get older (more educated) that capacity deteriorates… It shouldn’t be this way.

Okay, not a new concept to us old homeschoolers, probably. That’s part of why we homeschool /ed our children.  However, I think the temptation to do “school at home” and follow the pattern we’ve known is pretty strong in a lot of cases. There’s a picture in our head of what “educating” our children is suppose to look like. . . and it looks a lot like a kid sitting at a little desk studiously looking at the open book and a pencil in their right hand. Doesn’t it?

And if you don’t follow the “norms” for good solid reason because you’ve really studied the book Education, or because the Moore Formula just totally makes sense to you, it doesn’t automatically exempt you from feeling like you just might mess up your kid. Insecurities abound. Especially when one of those kiddos of yours still isn’t reading at age 11 and the other one at 12… 4th grade math is a DISMAL failure -so bad you throw the books out in November and skip math altogether the rest of the year  because it’s crazy making. And well, you remember when you were 13 and homeschooled and STILL trying to learn the times tables.  The abstract concepts of grammar beyond nouns and verbs might as well be in Chinese. You send your little herd off to get started on their “school work” while you do the breakfast dishes and change the laundry, and get distracted by an email, (good thing they didn’t have facebook in my day) and you come back to reality two hours later and find out they have been drawing and painting and sorting seeds. One child is found planning next year’s flower garden and has smuggled the bunnies into the rec room, while another child is missing altogether. You know she probably has the camera and is taking 6 thousand more close-up photos of that blue English banty crowing his head off. There’s not a book in sight. And you think, “If people ONLY KNEW!”

I was NOT a model homeschooling mom by most standards.  In my heart I believed I knew that I had the basic concepts of homeschooling right, but I was plagued with thoughts of needing to do better than I was.  Sometimes I felt guilty. Sometimes I really worried… like the year I threw out Brianna’s 4th grade math. Unlike her sisters, she was a non-conformist in so many ways. She would study ONLY that which interested her – which was everything under the sun, except what is on the typical school menu. I would sometimes push her and I could sense I was crushing her spirit. I mean, there was a certain amount that was expected – like it or lump it, but for this child only the MINIMAL was ever accomplished. Since I did not use a canned curriculum or set program she got away with not doing very much seat work…. partly because she was too busy being creative, and because she knew I wouldn’t stop her if she were actually learning something even if it wasn’t on my agenda. She was forever painting, drawing, making, collecting. She horded things like feathers, seeds, and quail eggs. She played her violin, she had garden projects and half dozen varieties of game birds. She always had the camera with her…

Hind sight is awesome. rear view mirror
It so makes me want to tell parents to chill out.

Makes me wonder now. IF I HAD MADE HER conform, if I had been one of those people who could always follow a schedule and lived by the clock, etc… WOULD Brianna be who she is now? Or would she have lost some of that free-spirited, artistic, creative flair that so characterizes her whole person? 

As it turns out, somewhere in her teens math was suddenly intriguing.  Vanessa ran into some math person at the college today and the guy was still talking of Brianna’s appreciation of calculus and trig. She learned to read at age 11 when we figured out she had a tracking issue and did something about it.  She has recently discovered she loves writing a LOT. She writes all the time. She is a pretty unflappable public speaker. She could be an engineer, or a business woman, or a farmer ( or a mom someday)… She is still working on figuring out what she wants to do, but her journey is leading her towards writing, videography/photography, agriculture, and a hundred other interests and talents that are competing for her time.

Would I have done anything different in my homeschooling  knowing what I know now? 

The answer is a resounding Yes! 

Yes! I WOULD have done something differently.

I would have quit worrying, stopped feeling guilty, and given up comparing myself with other homeschooling moms.  

 
I would have celebrated all the creativity more.

 
****
{There are a few more things on my list of what I would have done differently if I could have. I would have made that kid learn to spell even if she “couldn’t see what the point of it was.” Yes, those are Bri’s  very words. I tried, actually. Really tried. That’s her regret.  And I would have persevered in finding out why reading was so hard for Vanessa. That is my  greatest regret. } ****

 
I still wish sometimes that I could homeschool the twins. Their creativity is broken and I would love to help them discover that dimension of life…. It’s one of the saddest parts of what has happened to them. Instead, we must continue to sacrifice the journey to creativity on the altar of finding ” normal” all for the sake of peace.

-You can find Angela at Pearls of Price