Taming the Homeschool Mom Failure Syndrome

Taming the Homeschool Mom Failure Syndrome

by

guest blogger Betty Eisenhour

Your seven year old can’t read.

Your fourteen year old hates homeschooling.

Your mom thinks you are ruining her grandchildren.

Your husband’s boss thinks your children are too sheltered.

Your house looks like a science experiment gone bad.

Your mother-in-love doesn’t understand why you asked for books for the children for Christmas.

Your husband is better at read a louds.

Your dining room table is stained with super glue.

Your friend’s children are in coop, but you couldn’t afford it.

You forgot to make supper.

Whatever reason you feel like you are failing at homeschooling today, know that you are most likely helping your children learn more on those bad days than most learn in public school on a good day.  God intended for children to be taught more hours away from home than at home.

“You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21 NASB

I imagine your children are thriving.  My seven year old can’t read, but she can do math with the best of them.  She can’t, as in is not able to.  She has vision trouble and well, I get asked all the time why I haven’t taught her to read.  Can they not see her glasses?  The ones that make the glass on old Coke bottles look thin?

Why do I let these things bother me? As a homeschool mom, we really feel like the world is judging us.  And you know what, some are, but there are many who are cheering us on…Silently.

When you think of yourself as a homeschool mom failure, it is time to look at a few things.

• Why did you start homeschooling?
• What have your children learned recently that they maybe would not have in public school?
• What character traits are your children thriving with?  Did they learn this from you?
• Is there something you need to change?  Schedule, curriculum, etc.

Often when things get really tough, I have to look at our routines and curriculum and see that there is something that is not working.  A little change here and there and our days smooth out again.

Make a list of fun, but educational things you can do with your children.

• Field Trips
• Easy crafts
• Family projects, garden, cooking etc.

Keep some encouraging scriptures and quotes posted around you:

• “For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts;”  Colossian 4:8 NASB
• “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”  Acts 14:22 NASB

Other ways I find encouragement is through Homeschooling groups on Facebook, Local and Area Homeschool Groups, Homeschool friends, and a few blogs.  I also get very encouraged when attending homeschool conventions, such as Teach Them Diligently and our local convention.

We all have hard days, but rarely are we really failing.  There are going to be days we don’t get any thing we planned accomplished.  Those days with you being an example can teach your children about something, whether it be a character trait or a way to serve another.

On those hard days,I encourage you to pray and ask God to guide you away from that failure syndrome and find all the ways you are succeeding in educating your children.
Guest blogger Betty Eisenhour is the owner of Peace Creek on the Prairie, A Christian Farmwife’s Journey along God’s Chosen Path.  There, she discusses Homeschool, Large Families, Homeschooling Special Needs, Homemaking, Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 Roles for women, and life on the farm.