First Day of School and Great Expectations

First Day of School!

A clean slate.

A fresh start.

A new beginning.

I love the beginning of a school year. The new books, freshly sharpened pencils, notebooks with blank pages waiting to be filled. The expectation of something great.

Preschool  -  Junior High  -  Senior High

This year marks the beginning of our 16th year of homeschooling. Believe it or not, I still do not feel like a seasoned homeschool mom and I absolutely do not think of myself as an expert in homeschooling. I constantly battle doubts that I am making the right choices in educating my kids, and am always afraid I am forgetting to teach them some valuable piece of information.

We try to have an overarching theme or goal for each school year. It gives us purpose and direction for our homeschool year. We are homeschooling not only to give our children an education tailored to their learning styles and personalities but also, to point them to Jesus so that they may walk in His truth.

Last year, we asked the kids what God was calling them to that they did not feel equipped for. God will always work through us for His glory if we just say yes to what He calls us to. Ephesians tells us that God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. This truth is what I wanted the kids to learn to walk in.

No matter what God calls us to do, He is more than able and faithful to bring it to completion. This became our question and mission for the whole family as a unit and individually. We are continually asking God what He is calling us to that we feel completely inadequate to do. Because that is where God does His best work in us and through us.

By the end of the school year, I knew that God was only just beginning to show His call on our kids and He is not finished yet. He will continually reveal His call on our lives.

This year, we have a mission statement, again for the whole family.  
I want this year to be full of opportunities for us to learn how to be a people who walk by faith with mercy in our hearts and glory on our faces.
We are called to be lights in the darkness because Christ lives in us and He is the light of the world. Our scripture focus for this will be

Philippians 2:2-18
So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world. Hold firmly to the message of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.

I am excited for what God will do during this school year. Our philosophy for homeschooling is to teach to the eternal and let the temporal fall into place. I love watching God write His story on my kids lives through our homeschooling adventure.

A renewed focus.

A refreshed purpose.

A continued journey.