Today marks the first day of school, but not in the home schooling sense. No, actually the kids are going to public school this semester. I guess you could say we are trying every possible kind of school we can. [Smile…]
On the contrary, this decision was one that we thought and prayed a lot about. Coming back from Africa, I was very confident in our decision to home school. Of course, most of this responsibility fell on me, but I was ok with that. The one thing I did not realize was how much emotional energy it would take. I came back from Africa literally exhausted, physically and emotionally.
Since I was doing the bulk of home schooling, we shifted around some responsibilities so I wouldn’t have so much on my plate. That helped some but I just have still felt that I didn’t have the emotional energy to put into home schooling. I felt I was doing good to get through the curriculum for the day. Definitely not what I envisioned it to be like.
So we felt it was right and ok to put the kids in school for this season so that I could better engage this sabbatical and have the time to process. I’m not totally ruling out home schooling for the future necessarily. Jeremy quoted me R. Fulghum recently, “The examined life is no picnic.” I do believe that to be true. It’s not a picnic to be in a season of really examining your life. Why? Because it’s hard work! It takes a lot of energy. Now the end result makes it worth it but in the middle of it, it’s hard.
Quite honestly, we’ve both been feeling restless. We’ve been back in the states for 9 months and we’re restless. I know God is doing things and that there are upgrades happening. Having an extra 35 hours a week is going to give me more time to process the things God is bringing up. That will be a good thing. And, thankfully, the kids are excited about their new adventure. School is only a block from our house, classes are much smaller than in Africa, all good things in starting this transition. Thanks for your prayers, once again…
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