Homeschooling, unschooling and school

So I noticed that I’ve not been sharing pictures since the month of March. So we have the whole Summer time to share pictures and talk about. I will do a little bit now and then I’ll write another post on Summer time too. And here my post for today:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

Eclesiastes 3:1-8

Less than 2 weeks ago Logan, Larissa and Lance started school.

Here is a long story on how it all begun

Even before I got pregnant, so some 15 years ago, I was teaching Portuguese to a family of four children. I wasn’t teaching them at school but at the comfort of their own home. I noticed that these children would sit around the kitchen table and have all their books with them and daily had a routine and learned at home, they were kind, courteous, polite and It was called homeschool! A new word to me and a whole new world opened to me as I started to learn more about it.

Since I was from Brazil , homeschool wasn’t known to me and I thought that going to school was the only way that a child could learn but seeing those children I was amazed at how could they learn at the liberty and comfort of their own home having their mother as the main teacher.

As a teacher myself I loved the idea and decided that when my children were born I would do the same.

Well as an elementary teacher the first years were easy with no major problems I enjoyed having a relaxed routine and going for walks, having the children helping with chores and doing a few homeschool lessons here and there. I tried to follow a curriculum and I did for a few years but when the third child came, six years later than Larissa and eight years later than Logan, homeschooling became a little bit harder. I didn’t have those enjoyable restful nights of sleep but instead was breastfeeding a few times during the night and would wake up feeling tired but still had to care for 2 older children. Luke was at home most of the time when Lance was born and that was a plus in our lives. After moving from three different countries in one year we finally arrived in Ireland at the end of the year 2016 and Lance was turning two years old. Now I had a toddler, a 8 year old and a pre teen ten years old. I had no idea on how to deal with those years as I was an elementary school teacher and loved to deal with little ones but those pre teen years started to hit me in the head plus having a toddler which was almost like a first child because he was the younger one after so many years.... Luke was now working a full time job and I saw myself falling into a pit of despair.

We were used to having no television at home by then, we moved to Ireland only having our backpacks... Logan and Larissa were learning how to read. I bought a curriculum and so lots of books to study for Logan and Larissa still didn’t know how to read very well. Logan learned how to read between the age of 9 and 10 as I was always encouraging them to first develop their motor skills and then the intelectual skills. If we don’t develop the motor skills first like running, jumping, playing with mud... our hands and body, our muscles won’t be in accordance with our brains and so we won’t have the coordination necessary to play sports or to hold a ball, however we will have high intelectual children but with no manual abilities. Not sure if I made myself clear enough in this one.

So when Larissa was at the age of nine or ten I bought a set of books for her to encourage her to read. It was a beautiful illustrated old version of learning to read books. She showed no interest until the age of 11 and I really tried to force her to read but I would get no results. Around the age of ten we started a reading program online that really helped her to succeed in reading and from then on she was showing more interest in learning . We tried to follow a maths curriculum online but she would only do what was interesting to her.

Not knowing we were practicing unschooling as this was a new word I learned here in Ireland. It doesn’t mean no school at all but it means that the child learns in its own pace. Logan was succeeding at studying daily a curriculum online and by the age of thirteen he was able to do his own computing programming. Larissa was exceeding in Arts as her main subject she could get anything and transform it in a beautiful colored or painted picture. Lance was learning how to write his name and a few numbers and now Lily has come along and was the new addition to the family.

Again I couldn’t give my best to the children as my restless nights of sleep weren’t helping me to cope with stress and so was my husband and our actions speak louder than words! And so our family was unbalanced! Luke is still working a full time job for years now and the idea of homeschool is brilliant and beautiful but in reality the teenage years that I haven’t learned how to deal with have consumed all my energies. The rainy and windy and cold days have ceased all my outdoor activities and giving up to the television I couldn’t compete with it.

Logan and Larissa were best friends until they became those 12 and 13 years old. They argued every morning at the breakfast table, our nature walks are no longer enjoyable and the evenings we spent as family time were wasted in front of the tv. The lack of discipline, balance and respect were at its high peak and I was searching for God in prayer.

After we bought our house we had many plans for the children to work outside and start a garden and plant our own food! Many projects in mind but as the weeks pass by and the months run by, and everything still the same until a knock at my door and I learned that there was a school very near my house. I never thought about sending them to school before they were 16 or 18 years old as I was really hoping they could learn at home and then do an apprenticeship when they’re older and from there choose for themselves to go to college but the sibling rivalry was daily getting on my nerves, the bullying between brother and sister was becoming a bad example for the younger children and I just couldn’t cope with it anymore.

I had thought and visited the primary school for Logan and Larissa but learned that Logan was now too old to go to that school. It wasn’t on my plans to send Lance but it just worked out. I searched for a high school or secondary school for Logan and in one week was able to get him enrolled and for an induction day for all first year students. I felt a relieve as the week went by and the children were thanking God for the new school and the new friends they were making.

I thought to myself that just as I enjoy spending time with friends so they do too. We haven’t found any friends for the older children since we moved here to county Kerry. Larissa had the landlord’s daughter to play with in the other house we were living and so she would share with Larissa how school was nice and wondered why Larissa couldn’t go and Larissa felt the need of going to school and inquired me about it. So one year later I reluctant but believing chose to put them in school and I pray that this choice will have a betterimpact in their lives than just to stay home with unbalanced lives.

As I was reading my devotionals this morning it said:

Far Above Rubies, with a lot of curiosity I started reading it to find that I needed those words for today.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.” Proverbs 31:10, 11.

The happiness of the family depends much upon the wife and mother.

Married life is not all romance; it has its real difficulties and its homely details. The wife must not consider herself a doll, to be tended, but a woman; one to put her shoulder under real, not imaginary, burdens, and live an understanding, thoughtful life, considering that there are other things to be thought of than herself.

A knowledge of domestic duties is beyond price to every woman. There are families without number whose happiness is wrecked by the inefficiency of the wife and mother.

Every girl should learn to take charge of the domestic affairs of home, should be a cook, a housekeeper, a seamstress. She should understand all those things which it is necessary that the mistress of a house should know. “(This text is from the book The Faith I Live By by Ellen G. White.)

My children may be at school now but the home duties they will always have to do. Cooking, cleaning, helping to mind little brother and sister, kindness and love are traits of character that can only be taught at home and with a balanced home influence. And that home influence depends much upon the wife and mother

“A prudent wife is from the Lord.” Proverbs 19:14. “

So sometimes decisions must be made in order to prioritize our health and the balance of our lives. To be prudent means also to make decisions, I was really charging myself a lot about their education and their future, I wasn’t happy that they were arguing and that I was scolding and yelling at them as I had no idea how to deal with it . Now I don’t hear much more of arguing between the children but now they share the differences between their school and colleagues, the plans they have and the lessons they’re learning. In the house we still have an evening family worship where I take the smaller children with me and teach them and daddy stays with the older ones and teaches bible lessons.

I’ve read the other week that God does not have problems, He has plans and I know that He has something better planned for us. I pray that I won’t regret making this decision.

I believe that there is a time to everything in life.

And here goes some pictures of us and our walks nearby the house and things we’ve been doing. Like I said earlier I haven’t been sharing posts About our days since the month of March So I’ll write a bit now.

Larissa did my hair! I cut the bangs and she did the hair in length. Here’s the YouTube video. She was very courageous for doing this and I appreciate Logan for recording it.
https://youtu.be/227_r3ymZ50