Have you ever had something happen to you that was so … mindblowing, it rocked your whole world? I bet you have – no one is immune. Mine came this summer, and the aftershock hit me just the other day.
We’ve been having a lot of health problems, and this last summer we found a holistic doctor who understands just what’s going on with us. (This is awesome – we’ve been looking for years with no luck.) As we’ve undergone treatment, he has discovered that my children’s ability to process information in their brains is diminished, due to a whole ton of genetic weaknesses (sorry about that, kids) and allergies. We’ve been working through these things and have seen some improvement, but it will take a while to bring them up to full capacity. It was so nice to have an answer to why things have been so hard around here.
And then the other day, I had the second half of my mind-blowing experience, and I realized why it is that I have always felt like homeschooling was the right thing for my family. I need to slow down with school and adjust it to their current abilities, and then adjust it again as they get better. For years now, I’ve been frustrated that I just can’t seem to bring my family up to par, and now I realize that our par is going to be different from other people’s par. Suddenly it all makes sense, it seems possible, and my frustrations have plummeted.
My task now is to reevaluate. What can my kids reasonably accomplish right now, while they are healing? And because we homeschool, I can adjust to this level. Later, I can amp it up again. I’m not on a time crunch. I sometimes feel like I’m on one, because I see what their peers are doing and I feel guilty that we’re not doing the same things, but now I understand why. “Why” is such a beautiful word. When you know why, you can work on the how.
How grateful I am that I was brought up in a homeschooling family so that when my own children came, I could have the knowledge and the flexibility to care for them in the ways they most needed. I can’t even imagine trying to do what we’re doing in a public school setting – we’re all on supplements, we’re all eating a special diet, and now we’re revamping school. We will be able to tailor every aspect of our lives to meet our needs and to attain the optimum results for our family. I love feeling hope instead of frustration – it’s a nice change.
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