Homeschooling is Hard Work, and It Is Beyond Worth It All

These are photos of my boys just before starting Kindergarten and 4th Grades.

In just over a week, I'll be taking similar photos of them starting 5th and 9th grades.

The juxtaposition of how quickly it has gone and how long we've been doing this is staggering.

Have I fully prepared, planned, and prayed for the impending start of our school year?

Of course I have.

Please don't hear that as pride or as condemnation of your own struggle to plan or prepare.

Hear it as my siren song to homeschooling moms everywhere to stop letting social media make you believe that this should be easy...that you can just "wing it"...that in whatever season you're in you get a free pass...that if it's challenging and time consuming then it must need to keep tweaking and "simplifying" until it's a breeze. 

All of those things are lies.

And, we've bought them hook, line and sinker.

In an attempt to lighten the nearly unbearable load of a homeschooling mom, we've swung the pendulum from "do it all" to "only do as much as you feel like doing."

And, friends, this is poor stewardship of a monumental role. 

One thing I've never once regretted for a single second in all these years is working extremely hard at this.

It deserves hard work.

It demands hard work.

And, in the midst of a plethora of posts offering you a pseudo form of "grace" that is really just a list of excuses for not working as hard as you should..

I'm willing to be the one to say this:

You need to be working hard. You need ot be spending considerable time planning. You need to be prepared.

It is beyond me how we got to a place where calling moms to be invested and intentional is deemed as condemnation.

This is the education, discipleship, and formation of actual human beings that we've committed to.

The flexibility of homeschooling is gift, but it is an abuse of that gift to treat it like a free pass to halfheartedly pursue the best at these tables for these children. 

Of course every season looks differently, but your faithfulness is always required of you.

Homeschooling is hard work, and it is beyond work it al.