Today we have a guest post from Misty Krasawski of Encouraging Beautiful Motherhood and a giveaway of her new book Back to Homeschool!
If you’re a homeschooling mama, you know the weight of that title.
No matter what your reasons were for beginning the journey of home education, they were enough to launch you into a realm unknown to the vast majority of people around you. Perhaps you spent years praying about it before your kids were even old enough for formal lessons. Or maybe your child went to a regular school setting but had a difficult time that caused you to consider something that had never seemed an option before.
I’ve been homeschooling for fifteen years now. We have great days when we all spend time together enjoying a wonderful story. We have ground our own maize studying the Aztecs, built pyramids of sugar cubes, and shot off rockets built from PVC pipes. We’ve read Little House on the Prairie and Little Women. We’ve memorized the presidents, learned a bit of Latin and copied the Mona Lisa.
We’ve also cried over double digit multiplication, struggled with grammar, and skipped assignments we didn’t like. I spend more time than I like to admit refereeing arguments, reminding people of their chores and avoiding folding the laundry. Sometimes we eat sugary cereal for breakfast several days in a row. Sometimes, we even run out of cereal.
Some days are just those kind of days.
I call them “dreaming of the big yellow school bus” days.
Of course, I know better than to actually put the children on the bus. I love having all of us together at home. I know the Lord has directed and equipped and graced me for this season of my life, and there’s no greater joy than those wonderful moments we share–and the collective memories of these years together. But for the bad days I need a reminder. A reminder of why, exactly, we set out on this journey.
A few years ago, I set out to write one. I prayed and read and pondered, and then I summed it all up and wrote it out on pretty paper with stickers and pretties and I put it on my wall, where on the dreaming of the big yellow school bus days, I could read it to myself.
And also so I could send cranky children there for reference.
So without further ado, here it is: my manifesto.
Why Do We HOMESCHOOL?
Because . . .
-We’re commanded to “impress these words . . .on your heart and on your soul . . .you shall teach them to your sons (and daughters) when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deut. 11:18-19
-We believe that the right, responsibility and privilege of raising and educating children belongs to parents, not the state.
-We don’t want our children’s primary influence-rs to be people we don’t know; nor for them to spend the majority of their day with their peers, because “He who walks with wise men will become wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” Prov.13:20
-We can provide them with a superior education through one on one tutoring.
-We want to have as much time with our kids as possible, in order first to discern and then to prepare them for everything God has planned for them.
-We love being with our kids!
“The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” I Tim. 1:5
How about it? Might you need a homeschool manifesto, yourself?
Misty Krasawski is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging tightly to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past fifteen years, and has fifteen more years of homeschooling ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. She also is the Community Director and a contributing writer at MomHeart Online, hostess of an online mentoring program for moms called Titus 2 University, and is a regular contributor to Home Educating Family Magazine as well as Heart of the Matter Online . She just released her first ebook, Back to Homeschool.
Back to HomeSchool
23 Days to Prepare Your Heart, Home and Homeschool Calendar for Your Best Year Ever
Topics Covered Include These …
- Where Are You Now?
- Where Would You Like To Be?
- What’s For Supper, and other Culinary Questions
- What Does God Have To Do With It?
- Kitchen Cabinets–What’s In There, Anyway?
- What Do I Need to Buy?
I love your manifesto. I need to write mine out and read on those yellow bus days and there are plenty of those days. I love my children : )
Oh yes, we love them! That’s reason number one, really! 🙂
We’re getting ready by preparing the school room in our new house and ordering curriculum. Lots of stuff to organize!
Good for you! That sounds like fun. And organization … ahhhh. I dream of big gift cards to The Container Store and Ikea. Bless you!
I’m going through what we have on hand already and seeing what we can use this year. I have a lot of wonderful resources that I’ve downloaded on my computer that I’m sorting through and planning where to use them. 🙂
we are getting ready by figuring out exactly which books we are using and if we are going to set up a school room or just use the kitchen table! =)
have been on and off schooling with my three year old and have realized that, for right now, most of our education will be in the grass outside our house, which i really like; i read to her constantly and teach her bible verses as songs. i feel satisfied but i sort of stumble on the future. i know what i want the end result to look like, and be like, and we do implement grace based parenting, i just don’t know the day to day stuff. i also want to basically steal and copy your manifesto and then add some other things.
I am getting our room ready and also converting my office to a library/reading room. Most of our curriculum has been ordered and the boxes are starting to arrive 🙂
I’m getting ready by organizing all the supplies, working on the schedule and the curriculum for next year. It’s a lot of work but it’s all worth it!
picking out curriculum
Just had baby # 7, Trying to get ready by organizing house and finish canning to get more space!
Congratulations! I hope you find lots of room. But only if you’re already past the obligatory 3 weeks-in-your-jammies newborn stage. 🙂
I love it! This will be my first year homeschooling my 13,10, and 7 year old.
Trying to decide on our grade 7 curriculum!
I have purchased a few things. Still need a couple more. Registered for a few co-op classes. The main thing I need to work on is making sure I have enough of a schedule so that I get everything done, but not so rigid that I can’t stick with it.
The book is all about that! Figuring out what you need to do and why … because when I just try to get organized all willy nilly without praying and pondering through it all, that’s when I get in trouble! 🙂
This will be our first year homeschooling! Since it’s kindergarten I’m sort of playing it by ear so I’d love to win this book for some inspiration on getting organized!
Misty…you are truly an amazing and inspiring woman of God.
You are such a sweet girl, you. And btw, I do have that dress for you, and will bring it again this weekend–it’s been riding around with me in my truck … 🙂
Hey! 🙂 I would love to have this book! I think it would be a great encouragement for reminding why we do what we do!
I love the idea of this manifesto! I definitely need to do this!! It’s easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day stuff that I forget why we are home. 🙂
Way too easy, right??
Sorry, I forgot to say what we’re doing to prepare for school. We have a new baby coming the week we would normally start school so we’re trying to prepare as much ahead of time as possible. Buying curriculum we still need, planning, organizing, & cleaning.
I am eBaying my heart out trying to find good deals on my curriculum choices. We are also planning on building some built in bookcases and desks. I am a newbie and excited but nervous!
Good for you! Don’t forget, the most important thing is enjoying your children, and letting them enjoy *life!* Hope you have a wonderful year!
I am having a big planning day today. With all that is coming up for our family in May, I want to make sure that all plans are in place before the tidal wave of Teach Them Diligently activity really sweeps over us.
YES! I am right smack in the middle of trying to plan out our upcoming year. I would love an injection of motivation!
Motivation … now that’s important! You can do it!
We are getting organized and cleaning our house! Out with what we don’t need so we can have a nice neat place for schooling!
Love your manifesto!! Needs to be on every fridge in every home!
Very sweet, Holly! You may find you have some completely different reasons, though–I want to see yours on your fridge! (You may lift whatever you find helpful from mine, of course, haha!) 🙂
Currently I am doing a lot of planning and assesment to prepare for school. Organizing my house so things run smoother since I work full time and homeschool full time. 🙂
I’m slowly sorting out our supplies and praying through what I need to do.
I finished purchasing our curriculum. Now I need to sit down and make a plan. I will “attend” the HOTM online conference as final preparation.
I’ve purchased all of the curriculum for my soon to be Kindergartener and Preschooler. Still need to figure out how I’m going to keep my toddler occupied during schooltime and get more organized. Going to be a full, fun year!
I need to decide whether I’m sticking with my current curriculum for my 7th grader or trying something else now that I’ll have a kindergartener to teach too! And I definitely could use a manifesto like yours! Thanks!
I have just started some home schooling with my 3 year old but would love to read your new book!
We don’t go back until September, but I’m encouraging my teens to use their talents productively this summer. One sings and plays the organ in church. She also is starting her own blog. The other is good with digital arts and photography and may be selling some of her work online if we can find the right sites to do that on.
My son is in K4 and we’ve already started. We did some activities for 4th of July to ease into it and he’s all excited he’s doing school. He’s always wanted to, I guess because he sees me doing a lot of studying to help my freelance career and attending online classes. I share what I’m doing with him, even when he doesn’t understand. Currently we’re experimenting more with things that are more hands-on and visual while we wait for appointments to find out if he’s on the spectrum like his father and also to check his hearing. We’re still working out a good schedule for everything!
Have been planning and reading curriculum this last week! Want to be more scheduled for year two!
Lovely! Having a manifesto is such a fabulous idea–especially on those big yellow school bus days! Thank you for sharing!
Just realized it’s almost the middle of July and I haven’t started getting ready yet! Yikes!
I’m reading a lot this summer – to recharge and refresh. I need to get back into our school room to reorganize and pull things together soon…
Great idea to have a manifesto for those days when the purpose or goal seems fuzzy!
I love your manifesto! What a great idea! I have had a lot of the yellow school bus days in the last few months and am grateful for a slow-down period right now. (We’re playing catch-up over the summer for a couple of subjects.) In preparation for the new school year, I have been buying and shopping for curriculum, and I have been thinking about how a planner may help with this upcoming year. I will be homeschooling our two oldest (of 4!) and need all the help with organization that I can get!
Love the idea of having a manifesto to go back to as a gentle reminder.
I’ll be getting ready to go back to homeschool by cleaning out books from last year we no longer need, and setting up my plan for the year. It’s a general outline on a grid, but I find it very helpful since it keeps me on track.
I am so glad I found your blog! I love this!!!