Winter Windows
One reason that a mama might get the January blahs and have a hard time jumping back into “school” in the spring semester is that she’s been spending too much time looking out the window.
Instead of resting — and being confident — in the job God gave her personally, she may be “looking out the window” at how other people are doing this job. The temptation to try to fit our homeschool — and our children — into someone else’s mold is very powerful.
If our children were trying to look like somebody else’s kids or do what somebody else’s kids do, we would encourage them to be themselves and not give in to peer pressure. Peer pressure isn’t just for kids. Adults give in to it all the time, perhaps even more than children do.
Peer pressure feeds on fear. Homeschooling mamas can find all sorts of reasons to be afraid. For the first two years that we homeschooled, I was one fearful mama. I was so scared I was messing up. And, I’m ashamed to admit, I was way too concerned about what other people would think about (what I thought was) this weird thing I was doing with our children. I spent way too much time being afraid of what people would think if they “looked into my window.”
Winter is a great time to re-evaluate. The way one family homeschools is different from the way any other family homeschools. I know that you know that, but you may not really believe deep in your heart that that is really okay. Winter is a great time to look at what you are doing and to make changes where you believe you should and to accept and celebrate what you are doing that you believe is just right — even if it is different from what others are doing.
It’s a great time to enjoy the wintry views out the window. But, when it comes to how to parent and teach and train your children, it’s best to keep our eyes fixed someplace else.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2