We Have Begun!

It is still so hard to believe that fourteen months have gone by since bringing Alayah home from Ethiopia!  What an amazing fourteen months it has been.  I plan on reflecting and sharing it here in the next couple of weeks. 

Monday was our first day venturing into our homeschool year with Alayah.  Honestly, I had some reservations about it.  Like the time I tried to help her hold her pencil and she stubbornly refused to relax her hand because she wanted to do it herself.  I briefly thought to myself, "Okay, is this going to work?"  I remembered some of the struggles I had with Alexa when we home schooled.  I never felt that I wasn't "smart" enough to teach Alexa.  As a matter of fact, doing well with some college courses gave me a great boost of confidence.  In addition to some of my own academic successes, I taught preschool for eleven years.  Those eleven years taught me how to run a class; how to work on lesson planning; and how to be creative. It also taught me patience.  Working with twenty-four four-year-olds demands much patience.  But even with all that experience, we struggled.  Alexa, as a third grader, resisted just about EVERYTHING.  It was discouraging.  I felt that we spent more time on discipline issues than on our actual lessons.  The funny thing is, Alexa is a GREAT kid.  And I knew that.  So you could see why I was so discouraged.  Why were we failing at this?

Steve and I spoke about our homeschooling struggles and decided to send Alexa to school.  It was hard.  I felt like a failure.  I hate to fail.  But I conceded and sent her to school.  Instead of crying over our kindergartner on the first day of school, both Steve and I stood teary-eyed as our fourth grader climbed on the school bus for the first time.  Deep down, I knew she would excel.  And she did.  Her teachers gushed over her.  She was the model student year after year.  She made honor roll year after year. She sat on Student Council in the sixth grade. She also won her school Spelling Bee and won our county Spelling Bee.  She joined Literary Club and scored high at competitions in the seventh grade.  She also joined the Drama Club and played the part of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

She is now entering eighth grade with new adventures set before her. We recently received a letter from school informing us that Alexa would be placed in the accelerated math and reading/language curriculum due to her honor roll status, teacher recommendations and high standardized test scores.  She was also approached by the P.E. teacher and asked if she would want to be a teacher's assistant for the lower grade levels. Which she honorably agreed to.

I've come to this conclusion.  I DID NOT FAIL.  I did exactly what I set out to do.  I wanted her to have a strong foundation.  I wanted her to have a one-on-one learning opportunity. I wanted her to have a strong biblical understanding.  For many years, I would beat myself up for "giving up" on our homeschooling journey.  For many years I believed that Satan bullied me out of it.

That's simply not the case.  It was time.  Yes, my frustrations were the reason for sending her to school, but...it was time.  God did indeed have a homeschooling plan for us...and we fulfilled it.  Now it is time for Alayah.  It is her time for the same opportunities.  

And I'm ready.  With much prayer, I'm ready.

And so is she...

We will keep you posted!!