College Success Begins at Home: Seasoned Homeschoolers Share Their Experiences
College success does begin at home, whether your children are homeschooled or attend public or private school. A parent’s involvement in homework, being interested in the education of his children, getting to know the classroom teachers and helping out occasionally, or homeschooling your children at home all tell your child that you value education and you believe it is important.
The Old Schoolhouse magazine has just released a new e-book designed to show families that they CAN have success in homeschooling their children through the high school years.
Our oldest begins junior high this fall. We are so excited! Even though a lot of what we will be doing for school will be similar curriculum as last year’s, we are bumping it up a bit in skill level and challenge so that she can continue to advance academically.
When my husband and I first felt led to begin homeschooling our children, we decided that we’d take one year at a time and evaluate our options for our children’s education.
However, after I had been teaching the girls at home for several years, I began to think, "If the girls end up going to high school away from home, it will be like taking the fruits of our labor and throwing it to the wind, where we won’t get to see the daily academic successes of our teens. Instead, other teachers would be viewing what was going on, and we’d be ‘out of the picture.’"
Some day, this will happen, after they have graduated from high school. And I’m okay with that. Our goal is to raise godly women who will go out into the world and have a biblical impact wherever the Lord may take them. Sure, it won’t be easy for me. But that is our goal, and I’m okay with it.
I had hinted to my husband a couple of times in years past about maybe homeschooling the girls through high school. He hadn’t said much but didn’t seem very favorable toward it. Instead of bringing it up anymore, I decided to let the Lord take care of it: either change the desire of my heart to homeschool them through high school, or change my husband’s heart so that he strongly wanted them home for their high school years.
In August 2006, Elmer and I were attending our annual statewide Christian homeschooling conference. During one of the keynote speaker’s presentations, Elmer leaned over and whispered into my ear, "We ARE going to be homeschooling them through high school, aren’t we?" I think I have shared this before on my blog here; I nodded my head "yes" and tried to stifle a huge grin. "Oh, thank you, Lord!" I thought inside as I did pray silently and praise the Lord for changing the desire of my husband’s heart. It was so rewarding to turn this over to the Lord several years before, not say anything to my husband about it, and be at peace with whatever the Lord would bring our way.
The Old Schoolhouse magazine has just released a new e-book designed to show families that they CAN have success in homeschooling their children through the high school years.
Our oldest begins junior high this fall. We are so excited! Even though a lot of what we will be doing for school will be similar curriculum as last year’s, we are bumping it up a bit in skill level and challenge so that she can continue to advance academically.
When my husband and I first felt led to begin homeschooling our children, we decided that we’d take one year at a time and evaluate our options for our children’s education.
However, after I had been teaching the girls at home for several years, I began to think, "If the girls end up going to high school away from home, it will be like taking the fruits of our labor and throwing it to the wind, where we won’t get to see the daily academic successes of our teens. Instead, other teachers would be viewing what was going on, and we’d be ‘out of the picture.’"
Some day, this will happen, after they have graduated from high school. And I’m okay with that. Our goal is to raise godly women who will go out into the world and have a biblical impact wherever the Lord may take them. Sure, it won’t be easy for me. But that is our goal, and I’m okay with it.
I had hinted to my husband a couple of times in years past about maybe homeschooling the girls through high school. He hadn’t said much but didn’t seem very favorable toward it. Instead of bringing it up anymore, I decided to let the Lord take care of it: either change the desire of my heart to homeschool them through high school, or change my husband’s heart so that he strongly wanted them home for their high school years.
In August 2006, Elmer and I were attending our annual statewide Christian homeschooling conference. During one of the keynote speaker’s presentations, Elmer leaned over and whispered into my ear, "We ARE going to be homeschooling them through high school, aren’t we?" I think I have shared this before on my blog here; I nodded my head "yes" and tried to stifle a huge grin. "Oh, thank you, Lord!" I thought inside as I did pray silently and praise the Lord for changing the desire of my husband’s heart. It was so rewarding to turn this over to the Lord several years before, not say anything to my husband about it, and be at peace with whatever the Lord would bring our way.
College Success Begins at Home: Seasoned Homeschoolers Share Their Experiences ($12.45) was sent to me as an e-book to read and review for TOS. I was hoping that it would outline important steps to take before and during high school to prepare our children for either attending college, or being involved in ministry or another job after high school. However, this particular e-book is different than what I thought it would be. Instead, numerous stories from a wide variety of homeschooling families told about basic elements of how they homeschooled their teens and prepared them for the world, and working with their talents and skills.
At first, I was disappointed. I wanted a step-by-step plan! But then, I realized that this e-book will provide great encouragement to the many homeschooling families who are so stressed out about the future of homeschooling high schoolers, that it will give them confidence and hope.
I know that I can teach the girls through high school. What I personally don’t know myself, we’ll learn together. It’s worked in the past, and it will work again. I have confidence that what the Lord has begun in our family, He will finish. He is a God of finishers, not giver-uppers!
But for those of you who see the high school years coming and are very afraid, College Success Begins at Home: Seasoned Homeschoolers Share Their Experiences will provide you with the peace and confidence that you need. It will also, most importantly, show you that your child’s high school years at home can be made to fit your child’s needs, desires, and future plans in a way that public and private schooling will never be able to accomplish.
Then, you can buy the book that I want to buy, by Lee Binz, about how to homeschool well through the high school years, and feel confident in what you are doing!
I know that you will be blessed by College Success Begins at Home: Seasoned Homeschoolers Share Their Experiences, especially if you are finding the thought of homeschooling high school to be daunting.
Keep on trusting in the Lord, and you will not be disappointed!
© Copyright August 2009 by Julieanne Miller
DISCLOSURE: I occasionally receive free products and services in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of cash for my reviews. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences on the products and services that I receive.