Feeling So Encouraged

I think this post is more of a big THANK YOU to all the homeschooling families that have come before me. All those parents who felt so strongly convicted that they took this path less traveled and in their journeys have paved the way for so many others. They made my journey so EASY compared to what the pioneers had to do and face. It parallels how I came to be a sign language interpreter in a way. So many children of deaf adults paved the way for me to have the career I have so enjoyed. In the early days, small children, sometimes, were forced to interpret for their parents in all sorts of scenarios that are unimaginable to me now. They would interpret for their parents when they were doing their bank business, buying a car, parent-teacher meetings at school. You name it. Places where children are not meant to be. Then they grew up and started teaching others and so it began that interpreters were on their way to the infancy stages of a profession. And it's like that for me now with making the choice to homeschool my son. So many others have been brave and learned hard lessons along the way and they now teach new homeschoolers and create resources for us that they wish they had had when they were doing it....alone.

I sometimes get frustrated when others seem to think I am choosing this path because I think I am the perfect teacher or that I think my son is perfect too. On the contrary! I am scared that I will make my son stupid some days! I worry about how I will teach advanced math courses and chemistry and, and, and. But if I let all my fears prevent me from doing what I KNOW to be right for my family then I really will have failed. I think it's a harder road than sending James to public school but that's not why I chose this path either. I just keep remembering that "the right thing is never the easy thing" which applies to so many things in life. And for me, homeschooling is that right thing. So sometimes I WILL feel like quitting. But I won't. Some days I won't have the patience I need to do my very best. I will try again tomorrow. Some days I will feel like I don't have the time. I will have to make time. And I will have to make time for adult friends and me time. I will hear friends snicker at my choice and think I am trying to hide my son from world and to BE the only thing in his world. I will remember all the reasons I am taking this path and put those negative things out of my mind. I will be relentless in my pursuit. Even though, there will be days when I think I am just not cut out to be a homeschool mom and I am ruining my kid.  Here's a great article that made me laugh and nod in agreement. I think this woman has been spying on me! Why I am not cut out to be a homeschool mom

And when all the self talk fails, I only need to open my eyes because.....Here is the biggest reason!

I love this kid!