What we've been doing

Well, I read over my journal notes from the last 9 months (I was going to post them, but it would have taken too long) and here is what I saw:  excitement at first, then comes the stress, then the feeling of being overwhelmed with the weight of responsibility, stress, near hysteria, breathe, lowered back to your basic stress, the beginnings of peace, and finally a smidgen of excitement again.



So I believe the conclusion I've come to is that we have been deschooling.  I guess you never know what it's going to look like and since everyone is different, all reactions and feelings are different.



It took almost these whole 9 months for my daughter (child #2) to want to visit the library AND pick out some books.  Child #3 finally wants me to read to him again.  He only attended Kindergarten for 3.5 months... 



Child #4 is my wholly unaffected one.  Never been to preschool or any formalized "school".  What is that called in science?  I should know since I have a degree in Biology right?  Oh!  He is my Control Group. 



Child #1 is my pleaser (and probably the most affected).  Almost any task we ask him to perform he will do.  So he got the brunt of our craziness in the beginning, and to be honest he probably still does.  I have heard and read about this a lot with homeschooling.  The first born is the experiment child and the parents get more relaxed with each one.  It's hard to change this I would think because we are dealing with the unknown with the first child.  There has been no success yet, in the traditional way that our "schooled" minds are thinking.  No graduates, no college, no job or career. 



So we stress.



And then we look for guidance.  After about 7 or 8 months of stressing to different degrees, I have found (some) peace in these verses: 

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?"  (Luke 12:25,26)

and

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of it's own."  (Matthew 6:34)

and finally,

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  (Philippians 4:6,7)



The peace of God....  I like that.