Reflecting on a Year of Home Education (2022-2023)

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

One of the requirements of a Florida Home Education is that the parent compiles a portfolio showing each student’s progress for the year. I just finished putting ours together and I’m grateful that it’s forced me to reflect on the last year and see all that God has done.

Choosing to homeschool is a calling. I never imagined that I would be that parent. I looked forward to the day that all my kids were in school so that I could focus on my own personal ambitions, Deeply Rooted Magazine being one of them.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

Oh, has this become a life verse! 😂

God gave me what I wanted for a season but when Ethan went into full-time ministry, we learned to adapt to an entirely different schedule. We realized that our kids spent the best portions of their day away from us. By the time they got home, they were tired, we had more schoolwork to do, and there was a lot of emotional unpacking to do from their day. (We found this to be the case both at public and private schools.) By the time homework was done, it was dinner, and then bedtime. Add lots of church-related events, hospitality, and soccer practice. It was too much.

In addition to the chaotic schedule, we recognized that someone else was doing the primary discipleship. For 7-8 hours a day (not including the bus) they learned from their teachers, whatever books their teachers assigned, and their peers. In public school, every aspect of their learning was divorced from the knowledge of God. Although our kids did have opportunities to share the Gospel and we had many awesome opportunities to witness our kids discern through topics (like evolution), we knew this wasn’t a great long-term solution. But even private schools came with a myriad of issues and inconsistencies. (Additionally, we found that our kids were learning way more inappropriate things from their friends at the Christian school than they ever learned at the public school.)

The choice to homeschool gave us the time we wanted back and it also gave us the opportunity to custom-tailor their education. Not only could we be intentional about what they are learning, we could also consider each unique personality, interest, and learning style.

The beauty of homeschooling is that it offers so much flexibility. Some days were tough. A friend told me that sometimes school is less academic, and more discipleship. This is true when you are with the same people 24-7. But! Homeschooling offers more time for those deeper conversations. Some of the greatest lessons my kids have learned are not academic but involve spiritual, everyday application. Also, whenever an idea wasn’t clicking (or even when it was) we made the time to explore a little bit longer and linger on a lesson. Even better, we took what we learned and got hands-on with it, whether by working with our hands or physically exploring ourselves.

All in all, we have no regrets about our decision. Homeschooling is both intentional and strategic, utilizing the God-given gifts our kids have been entrusted with. It can work in harmony with a family, deepening family bonds and benefiting the home. I can personally testify that my children are happier and less stressed. I have seen such a positive change not only in my kids but in our family as a unit. There have certainly been days where I’ve felt inadequate and questioned my ability to teach my kids, but overall, I’ve loved learning alongside my kids and teaching them truths that are rooted in the knowledge of God. 2022-2023 was a great year and I’m excited to see what the next one brings. Soli Deo Gloria.

We planted these from seeds and had so much fun watching them grow and eventually produce vegetables.

They helped me build our garden beds!

Ethan taught the kids how to chop wood and build a fire.

We used Simply Charlotte Mason for most of our curriculum. I plan to write a review on it!

These are some samples of their written narrations.

Kaiden was able to play at our local public school and Ethan was able to still coach!

Our Trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains

I don’t think I realized how much we needed this trip.

We hit the ground running when we moved to PCB last September. While our time between then and now has been sweet and filled with nothing but good things, it has been a very full season for our family. The first few months included adjusting to a new location, settling into a new home, countless meetings for Ethan, and getting to know our new church family. We also jumped into homeschooling, and Ethan made the final stretch to complete his doctoral degree. We’ve also had a number of family members and friends either stay with us or visit. And while much of that list was simply for that season, this year has been filled with various speaking engagements and ministry opportunities outside of our area. Homeschooling gave us the flexibility to travel alongside Ethan, but these trips weren’t always restful.

A few months ago, we debated whether or not we should travel to Liberty University so Ethan could walk the aisle in cap and gown—this being more my desire for him than his, lol. Still, after evaluating the cost and time to get there, we decided a better investment would be a trip focused on our family recharging together. We found an affordable Airbnb in the mountains of Georgia, and this highly anticipated trip turned out to be everything we hoped and dreamed of! We had spotty cell phone service, which made for the perfect excuse to unplug from our phones and simply enjoy God and one another in His beautiful creation.

The week before the trip, we read weather reports that said it would rain all week. We decided we would make the best of it and packed our rain gear, but in God’s kindness, the weather shifted, and even while it was raining in the surrounding towns around us, our area remained untouched.

We hiked, made s’mores, played in the creek, picked wildflowers, read, painted, hung out in the hot tub, made delicious meals, went antiquing, and lost track of time.

My favorite parts were when Ethan taught us all various survival skills like how to chop wood, start a fire, make a shelter, and forage edible plants. For so many years, we haven’t taken advantage of his background and experience in survival, but our kids are finally at an age where they are excited to learn and grow in this knowledge. Watching Ethan teach our kids and seeing their excitement as they put their knowledge into practice made me fall more in love with him than before. It’s one thing to be gifted in the myriad of ways that he is, but it’s another to have the strength, character, and faith that he does.

While we were sad to say goodbye to the mountains, we arrived back home with some incredible memories and deeper bonds than before. Praise be to God!

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A few have asked where we stayed. This is the Airbnb. Christian and Jen were incredible hosts who truly thought of everything and showed incredible hospitality. Please note: We don’t recommend this trip for smaller kids (as the creek is freezing and the rocks are slippery.) Also, there is no cell phone service driving through the mountains so you need to download your own maps and be ready for steep and windy roads. :)

Jesus: The Solution to All Resolutions

The New Year holiday has become a time of hopeful expectancy. Some find joy in a new, crisp and clean planner hoping to be more productive and fruitful than ever. Some view the new year as an opportunity to start over and erase any ugly memories from the year prior. Of course, there are also the realists who recognize that a date change doesn’t wipe a slate clean; they enter into January 2023 with the knowledge that December 2022’s baggage has come along with them. But no matter what camp one may resonate with, most people desire to be better and to do better. This leads us to form a variety of goals and resolutions.

There are few disciplined enough to follow through on some of their resolutions for all 365 days, but for the rest of us humans, we will likely reach a point where we fall short of our own standards. Our self-discipline declines, our patience tested, and our hearts grow restless and weary. Once more, we may find ourselves frustrated that we are stuck in the same old patterns that enslaved us in years prior. Do you long to be a “better” woman? wife? mom? Homemaker? student? worker? local church member? Do you long to see lasting, inward transformation? We need more than man-made resolutions to hold us accountable; we need supernatural sanctification. The answer to our problem is simple: Jesus.

Trust in Jesus

Why do we desire to want to do better and be better? It’s because we know we are broken and we want to fix ourselves. The message of the Gospel is like a sledgehammer to the chest confronting us with the reality that we are separated from a Holy God. It tells us that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). On top of that, we cannot earn right-standing with God. Our attempted “good deeds'' fall short of His standard and no rule, law, or resolution can cure our total depravity. But the Gospel also tells us that God through the person of Jesus took on flesh, faced every temptation we’ve ever faced yet did not sin, and fulfilled the law perfectly. He died the death that we deserve and paid the penalty for our sins. If we repent and believe in Him, we are united to Jesus in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, thereby breaking us from the curse of sin and death! We now have a righteous standing before God because His righteousness was imputed to us.

The Gospel is the greatest reminder we can cling to during this time of year. This gift of salvation declares us instantaneously righteous! We are now new creations in Christ. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit and our hearts of stone are exchanged for a heart of flesh. Holy living is now made possible.

Abide in Jesus

The world attempts to emulate many of the fruits of the Spirit, purporting that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so forth are attainable if we just try harder, plan better, or remove ourselves from the negative situations that trigger us. But Paul offers a lasting solution. He tells the Philippian Church that the secret in the high’s and low’s is Christ who gives Him strength (Phippians 4:12-13). The secret is that joy-fueled living and increasing holiness isn’t born out of zero adversity or the start of a new quarter, it comes from the One who was tempted and suffered but never sinned. Yes, we are new creations but our ability to live holy lives is not done in isolation. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the life source, the vine, so we too cannot bear fruit apart from Christ.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” — John 15:4-5

In order for us to abide in Jesus, His Word must abide in us. Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you…” Oh, how many times I’ve felt the pressure to be in God’s Word because I felt like it was something I should do. My motivation for quiet time became an obligation. But Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that the Scriptures are “…living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” In other words, Bible reading isn’t so we can say we read the Bible in a year. It’s not so we can put a check on our reading plan. It’s not even so we feel like we are a “better Christian.” We need God’s Word to rightly understand who He is, who we are, and how we should then live with this knowledge. We don’t live by bread alone but on the very words of God (Mat. 4:4). Scripture is our life source!

Additionally, Scripture continually emphasizes that there are those who distort and twist God’s Word out of selfish ambition and a desire to profit from the poor souls who fall into their deceptive traps. This life-giving book provides us with discernment and protects us from falling into error. Grasping these truths will fuel us to always be on guard while also preparing us to be ready for those who ask for a reason for the hope within us (2 Peter 3:15).

If we love Jesus, we will keep His commands (John 14:15) and He has most certainly revealed His will for us within the pages of Scripture. The beauty of studying it and meditating on it is that the Holy Spirit will illuminate it and help us apply it. Our delight in God leads to right desire and right living.

In Conclusion

We can make all the resolutions in the world but none of them will bring about true, lasting change. No resolution can turn our hearts of stone to a heart of flesh. Salvation is a gift we don’t deserve, can’t earn, but may freely receive if we repent and follow Him.

God offers change through means far greater than resolutions. Of course, not all resolutions are bad but following them religiously places the burden on self and will only leave us frustrated when we fall short of our own standards. We have been given a standard in the Word of God and Jesus is the only One who could fulfill it.

I’ve never been a fan of picking a “word” for the year, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Jesus—the Word who took on flesh and the only way to salvation—is the only “word” I need for this year and every year to come. In Jesus, I live and move and have my being (Acts 16:28). Apart from Jesus, I am nothing (John 15:5.) He gave me salvation, maintains my salvation eternally, and secures my spiritual inheritance so that I can live as God calls me to because of my union with Him. Every resolution finds its solution in Christ!