Homeschooling is Like a Christmas Tree

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I hope this video we made yesterday morning is as encouraging to you as you are encouraging to me.

When folks come to our house at Christmastime, they know it’s Christmas, all over the house! Things were certainly not that way when Ray and I celebrated our first Christmas together as a young married couple. Money was tight. We put up a live Christmas tree in our living room, but the tree ornaments? They were very sparse.

We bought one or two, brought home a few from Ray’s dad’s house, and I made three or four. I also purchased a grab bag of ribbon and trim scraps at a fabric store. I tied together the hodgepodge of mis-matched pieces end to end and–voila–we had a garland. That was it! I don’t even remember us buying lights. Frankly, I was pretty disappointed.

But, over the years, we started collecting. I made ornaments. Our children made ornaments. People gave us ornaments. I bought clearance decorations after Christmas. When you collect Christmas decorations for 45 years, you can decorate all over the house — and we do.

Since that first Christmas, Ray and I have cherished those ornaments from our first Christmas, especially the Ray and Charlene snowmen I made out of L’eggs panty hose eggs. They are always the first ornaments we put on this, our family Christmas tree.

Homeschooling is like our Christmas tree. We added to our tree little by little, year after year. You are adding to your children little by little, moment after moment. They are gaining knowledge and skills little by little. You can’t see into the future to see what your little by little, moment after moment efforts are accomplishing, but those efforts are building in your child.

Sometimes you may look at what you have accomplished in homeschooling and see what I saw when I looked at our first Christmas tree. Going from that tree to this tree took time. It’s okay if your children aren’t yet where you want them to be. That takes time, too.

Jesus promised:

Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give to you;
not as the world gives do I give to you.
Do not let your heart be troubled,
nor let it be fearful.
John 14:27

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