Homeschool Mother’s Journal: Steady Homeschooling When Change Is Coming

Big changes are in store for our family, but steady homeschooling is our goal through it all.

That’s the focus of this month’s Homeschool Mother’s Journal, a new monthly feature here where I share a bit about what’s going on in our lives and what’s helping us along the way.

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Steady homeschooling may seem like a lofty goal when change is on the way, but it’s the very thing that provides comfort and calm when things get crazy. At least that’s how it works for my family.

Change Is Coming

You may already know that my husband is a pastor and that we’re a ministry family. While he’s currently an associate pastor, we’ve known for more than a year that big changes are coming in regards to our ministry.

We shared this on Instagram several months ago, but our next chapter in ministry is planting a new church. Not only are we planting a church, hubby will take the role as lead pastor of our baby church.

It’s a big, intimidating job, but we’re following God nonetheless and giving it our all. We’re in preparation mode when it comes to planting the church itself, but part of that preparation involves selling our house and moving to our new city.

Along with selling our house and moving, we’re planning to downsize and rent an apartment or townhome once we move. So, what does that mean in regards to our homeschool? I’m glad you asked.

Working Through the Change

Putting our house on the market means our homeschool days could easily get unpredictable in the upcoming weeks. It also means that we’re losing the freedom to use our homeschool space however we wish.

Not only do we have to present our schoolroom as a room that potential buyers can enjoy also, we have to keep it tidy and organized at all times. While I’m no stranger to homeschooling with an open floor plan, this takes clutter control to a whole new level!

For now, we’ve removed a bookcase from our schoolroom and moved all of our school and art supplies to a closet in another area of our home. It’s inconvenient, but it’s needed to keep our homeschool chaos from taking the spotlight.

Another change regarding our coming move is that we had to rehome our dog. We’re thankful that it was easy to find a great home for her, but it was hard on all of us. There were lots of tears shed and we’re still making the adjustment to life without her.

Steady Homeschooling
When Change Is on the Way

All of this is where steady homeschooling comes into the picture. Church planting may not be the culprit for change among most homeschool families, but change of some nature is bound to happen from time to time.

When change is on the horizon, steady homeschooling — dependable homeschooling — makes a tough transition doable. We’ve experienced changes before and have found this to be true each time.

That said, steady homeschooling takes discipline amidst the change. It’s easy to get caught up in endless to-do lists and chaos that often comes with change. Here’s what I’m reminding myself as I navigate the process again:

• Consider reducing your homeschool load until the transition is complete. Don’t resume your full load until you and your kids are ready for it.
• Make time for the fun stuff. It may be tempting to focus on core subjects like math and science, but subjects like art can be downright therapeutic when life is crazy.
• Don’t be afraid to change your homeschool method for a season. The very things you don’t like about specific methods could be sanity-savers during times of change.
• Don’t get so caught up in preparing for the change that you miss the day-to-day. This is good to remember in regards to homeschool and life in general.
• Celebrate the wins. Don’t stress about what you haven’t accomplished. Instead, look for the positives and celebrate them with your kids.

Homeschool Mother’s Journal:
January 2017

Other than our goal of steady homeschooling while preparing for change, here’s what’s going on in our world.

1. In our homeschool this month: My little one is a book away from finishing the first volume of Five in a Row. I’m hoping to avoid buying volume two for a while. Since we’re putting our house on the market, we don’t need to add more books to our homeschool space right now. Instead, we’re going back to Kindergarten Stepping Stones to help us fill the gap.

As for my big kid, we’re working hard to make more time for fine arts in our homeschool routine. We’ve just added an awesome ukulele course and more art lessons from Mixing with the Masters to his weekly plans. How fun is that?

2. What I’m loving this month: The Crown on Netflix, blueberry and aloe tea, Ann Voskamp’s The Broken Way, and my awesome repurposed sewing machine drawers.

3. In case you missed it: 2016 Reader Favorites: Most-Read Posts from Table Life Blog. Yearly recap posts are always fun to me, but it’s especially fun to check the numbers and see what y’all enjoyed the most this year.