Patience is a Virtue, Children are a blessing.

A Homeschooling Story

My husband and I are both thick-skulled, and strong headed. We are stubborn, and naturally so are our children. I see this more and more with Brandy. As she is getting older and we are starting to homeschool her stubborn nature is shining through. She tests my patience more and more.
About a year ago we started to work with her on learning to read. I started to get so frustrated with her. In part because I felt she knew something, but was afraid of being wrong, and in part because she was always so reluctant to answer. Another reason is that we could go over the same letter for 5 minutes, and she still would say “I don’t know”. It was incredibly frustrating to me and made me feel like such a failure. We have tried 100 Easy Lessons, ABCmouse.com, Flashcards, Your Baby Can read, Workbooks, Alphabet songs on Youtube, I feel like I had tried everything.
This took me to the question “How did I learn how to read?” HOOKED ON PHONICS CASSETTE TAPES! I knew how to read before I even went to kindergarten. So, I looked up Hooked on Phonics. Now the entire set that I would LIKE to have is almost $300. We’re poor. I then found out they offered a 30-day free trial for their digital app. And a lifetime subscription for only $50. I then decided I’d try the 30-day trial. I have nothing to lose. Brandy started out knowing 5 letters (There about) by sight, and only two associating sounds. 3 days later she knows more than half the alphabet by sight and a good amount of associating sounds.
I have also learned my mood, my temper, how I react, how I speak, and my patience with her makes a huge difference in how she learns. I used to sit her at the kitchen table, and make her pay full attention not wiggle and just very strict kind of thing with her. But it never worked and we would both be stressed by the end of it. The past few days (Excluding yesterday, because yesterday she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed so we skipped school) I have done a more relaxed routine. We just sit in the living room while her sister is napping. We have a drink, and we just flip through the flashcards. If she gets it wrong, I ask her “Would you like to try again?” Sometimes she does sometimes she doesn’t. Whereas before we would get to the first letter, she got wrong, and the tears would start streaming down her face, she would want to give up and her spirits would be crushed. On that front, I think that’s her maturing. On my front I also found the patience to deal with her not being able to recognize the letter “D” even though I told her 1 minute ago it was indeed the letter “D”.
Children are a blessing. Being able to homeschool is a blessing. But sometimes it feels like an uphill battle. The enemy is that little blessing. But when that little blessing is stinging you like a bee, sometimes you need to remember not to squash it like one. Because squashing a child’s spirits is easy. Fixing what you’ve squashed is not.
Patience is a virtue… And one I have needed to learn, and still, need more experience in. Each day I need to pray for some because this girl is part of me, and part of my husband. She is stubborn, strong-willed, and a handful! By the time I die, I should have the patience of Job!
1Timothy 6:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.