Guest blogger Jenny Fifield recently penned this beautiful poem about homeschooling. It captures every feeling that I’m sure most of us have felt during this journey.
If You’re Willing
If you long for slow mornings; unhurried breakfasts with the children gathered at the table,
If you cringe at the thought of waking everyone up, wishing you could just let them sleep,
If your heart aches at the thought of sending them off another precious day,
If you’d give anything to witness the wonder in your daughter’s eyes as the butterfly squeezes out of her
cocoon, unfurling wet wings for the very first time,
If you can’t resist stopping to smell the flowers, identify them while you’re at it; maybe add some compost,
If your son thrives when he’s outside the walls and outside the box,
If you yearn for them to spend less time in a mowed, treeless fenced-in field and more time in the wild woods,
If you dream of them spending less time at a projector screen and more time in the garden,
If you fancy less worksheets and more wildflowers,
If your kid could really use a midday snuggle to refill her emotional cup,
If you hunger for more home-cooked meals,
If you thirst for afternoon tea, while listening to great literature read by a master narrator from an audiobook,
If you care less about test scores than you do a test of character,
If you ache at the pressure of standardization because you know your child shines in places a test could never
measure,
If you’d sacrifice your very career in order to ensure they learn what they need to know,
If you’re willing to grow in patience, humility and forgiveness,
If you’re ready for sanctification,
If you’re up for the testing of your faith,
If you’re prepared to face the ugly parts of your own self alongside your children, allowing them to bear witness
what it is to be human,
If you’re determined to work through the most prickly parts of your family relationships,
If you’re willing to stretch and grow alongside the little ones as they too are becoming,
You, mama, have the heart of a homeschooler.
You have what it takes.
Raising your children all day, every day is a special kind of work. It’s long hours, days, weeks without a break,
More full and loud and syncopated than you knew you could handle. More beautiful than you ever dreamed.
It’s about hearts and souls. It’s about relationships.
Don’t let the academics intimidate you, that’s the easy part.
I promise.
Because homeschooling in its foundational essence is less about the schooling, and more about the home.
-Jenny Fifield