Love Brightly

Only a few weeks into home school, and we realized life would be easier (and less cluttered) if our home had a designated space for school, and some storage and organizational items for school supplies. We had a limited budget--like practically nothing. These were all out of budget expenses, so I had to be creative. Here's what our spaces looked like before: House Full of Faith and Furniture before We decided to nix the formal living room, make it the "family room" and transform the family room into a school room/play room. The calendar for " Circle Time " replaced the TV. Calendar supplies = $14. Fabric bins from target replaced Texas decor on the already existing shelf. Cost = $18. We used my Grandma's old mason jars for holding our art supplies. Cost = $0. I really wanted a bookshelf or hanging shelves. My friend Jenny spray-painted old rain gutters and attached them to her wall for bookshelves = brilliant! But I didn't have any rain gutters...

One of the biggest arguments against home-schooling is that it "shelters" kids from the real world. While my daughter is missing out on lines for the bathroom and cafeteria lunches, she is far from being sheltered socially. We've settled into a nice balance of time out of the house, time with friends, corporate activities, as well as time at home. I like lists. So here's our list of real world experiences: 1. Once we pulled her out of public school , we enrolled her in Wed. night activities at church (while in school, these activities kept her up too late). She sings in the choir, and has a concert at the end of each semester. {Now our church is no ordinary church--it's a mega church. So when you imagine these events, think on a bigger scale than normal. This Kindergarten choir concert has about 50 kids in it.} 2. On the same big scale, she participates in AWANAS where they have gym for the last hour. She has already come home, head hung in defeat, sayin...

My friends chuckle as they recall my words: "We gotta get out of Baton Rouge before Kindergarten because the public schools are not an option here, and there is no way I'm homeschooling ." Never say never. ;) I didn't articulate why I wouldn't homeschool, I just had a sense that my personality would not enjoy it. At the time, I had only one kid, and I thought I had capacity for little else. And while being her mom brought me more joy than I had ever known, I had other interests outside of motherhood, and I knew that I would be looking forward to getting back to those things in 5 years time. So to my pleasant surprise, here's what I love about it; not in order of importance: (Keep in mind, this post is about me. I would not choose my child's schooling based solely on my preferences. She is currently thriving in this environment, but this list is not about that, it's from MY perspective--how God sweetly surprised me, and how I've found that I ...

I hope you're encouraged by reading the words from one of our students at UNT. Lillian came to faith in Christ a few semesters ago at our evangelism training (yes, she was there to learn HOW to share her faith, and realized she had not accepted it for herself, but made a life-changing decision). She immediately signed up for Summer Project, and we have seen her blossom into maturity as she has obediently taken steps of faith. Here's her story in her words: "Before I knew Christ, I was looking for something to give me value just like everyone else. I discovered I was good at music from a young age, I got people's praise & respect often and plus it was easy and enjoyable for me, so of course I ran with it. I would always put my worth in what chair I got in my school and, or at All-Districts, or All-State, and in my future I saw my worth as being a great saxophone player. But when I came to UNT and was still finding success even at a University with a music progr...