What a difference a week makes!
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:53 pm
If any of you read my blog last week, which was our first week of the World Geography guide, then you know it was kind of a rough week. I will admit that I found myself in tears and really wondering if my ds was going to be up to the challenge of doing HOD for high school. My dh and I had long discussions and God and I had even longer discussions. God led me to something that really spoke to me. There was a Focus on the Family podcasts where the authors of a book called "No More Perfect Kids" were speaking. They said 3 things that pierced me right to my heart. The first was that we need to parent the child that God gave us and not the child we wished we had. Another thing was that we should expect excellence from our children not perfection. They said that for some children excellence is an 80% and for others it is a 99% on a test. If a child does his best and truly works towards his excellence then we should be very pleased with that. They also said that when a child is learning to walk and they take 2 steps and fall down that we still cheer. They asked why is it when our older children take 2 or 3 steps and fall down we are disappointed. I realized that I had been comparing my ds to the other kids who are are doing his level of HOD. I look at week in reviews or read threads here and it seems they are way ahead of where he is. That isn't fair to him and it isn't at all what God wants me to do. I realized I needed to rejoice in the progress he is making and keep in mind that it is a process and he is the way he is for a reason and take joy in who he is.
So this week I went in with an entirely different attitude. I did tell my ds about expecting him to do his best work whatever that might look like. I also made sure he knew that if he struggled with something that was ok we would work through it together. He took it to heart and this week has been soooo much better. He is getting into a groove with many of the independent boxes and he is working towards his version of excellence in almost every subject. I also had to remind myself that the just because a box is supposed to be Independent doesn't mean it will be that way at the beginning of the guide. So I am teaching and helping him to draw out information from the readings as needed. Literature is the subject that requires the most help, but even with that he is making progress.
I just thought I would share this in case anyone else has a less than stellar start with a new guide or someone who has a child that isn't the infamous "gifted homeschooled child". Just hang in there, spend lots of time in prayer, and enjoy your dc the way God made them and it truly will help everyone's attitude and school experience. Oh and just because it's highschool doesn't mean it can't be fun. We have had quite a few smiles and laughs the last few days, now that I have loosened up some.
So this week I went in with an entirely different attitude. I did tell my ds about expecting him to do his best work whatever that might look like. I also made sure he knew that if he struggled with something that was ok we would work through it together. He took it to heart and this week has been soooo much better. He is getting into a groove with many of the independent boxes and he is working towards his version of excellence in almost every subject. I also had to remind myself that the just because a box is supposed to be Independent doesn't mean it will be that way at the beginning of the guide. So I am teaching and helping him to draw out information from the readings as needed. Literature is the subject that requires the most help, but even with that he is making progress.
I just thought I would share this in case anyone else has a less than stellar start with a new guide or someone who has a child that isn't the infamous "gifted homeschooled child". Just hang in there, spend lots of time in prayer, and enjoy your dc the way God made them and it truly will help everyone's attitude and school experience. Oh and just because it's highschool doesn't mean it can't be fun. We have had quite a few smiles and laughs the last few days, now that I have loosened up some.