Homeschool’s End

Today marks the end. After homeschooling my girls for the last twenty years, today is the last day. Allison has completed high school and will head to college this fall. I am melancholy as I reflect on the years behind me. So often it seemed I wouldn’t see the end of that particular school day, much less the end of high school! But here I am with piles of school curriculum, grade books, test banks, ACT scores, dulled pencils and nubby erasers reminding me of busy years now in the past, and a huge change for both Allison and myself that is just around the corner.

• I learned that I desperately needed the Lord every single day if I was to impact my girls for Christ. Sadly, I didn’t do that every day.
• I learned that the Lord is merciful when we depend on ourselves.
• I learned that a child’s heart is so impressionable. What I did my girls imitated.
• I learned that God’s provision for His children is always on time and always enough. Each year when it came time to buy books and curriculum the Lord provided.
• The more I taught, the more I realized how much I didn’t know. I saw that I need to continue to learn.
• I learned that sometimes the best lessons came from unplanned events. Allison was saved as a result of an English lesson. Discipline problems brought opportunities to open God’s Word together.
• I learned that it’s okay to take a break and just have fun. During Allison’s high school years we watched The Andy Griffith Show at lunch. It gave a need relief from the stress of studying!
• I learned that twenty years fly by much faster than a person could ever imagine.
• I learned the truth in III John 4 – “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” If my girls aren’t successful as that world defines it, but love the Lord and walk with Him, I will be happy. I couldn’t ask for more.

As I box up my books and fill out the last grade report my heart is full of gratefulness to the Lord…not for what Allison has learned, but for what He has taught me. I still have so much to learn – I guess perhaps the homeschooling will continue after all.