Freak Week- Maladies of the Quiet Sisters

By Vicki on 28 October 2011 / Bios, News, Stories / 4 Comments

Allison and Sara- behind the scenes and loving it

We're all homeschool freaks in some way. That's because God made each of us unique- and we all fit together into a beautiful body of Christ.

Question: What challenges have you faced in homeschooling your children?

Allison

Child #2 -Suffered from Pencil-Dropping Syndrome. This chronic malady costs math lessons many lost minutes and is known to raise the homeschool mother's blood pressure.
Child #1 and #3 - Had Creative-Writing Disinterest.This initially leads to tension between mom and child. We found ways to do writing with other teachers in co-ops, etc.  This helped a lot.

Allison and her family

Child #3 - Hampered by Maternal Calculus Deficiency.  We conquered by using a text, online Purple Math supplemental help, and a great math teacher at church for occasional tutoring.
Me -Battled Perfectionitis (struggled with accepting anything less than "perfect").

Husband: Still has this condition: Public-School-Teacher-Career (and has served on the board for the state union for a number of years).  This made us a little freaky both to his colleagues and our homeschool community.

Sara

Several of my sons: Suffered from Algebra-Ain't-Relevant-to-Life-Condition. This malady was characterized by outbursts such as, "I'm wasting my life on this junk!!"  And, no, showing how algebra can be used in real life didn't make one bit of difference.  It was only cured by consistent insistence by mother that it must be done.

Several sons: Battle Creative-Suggestion-Recalcitrance. When given suggestions or ideas for improvement in more subjective areas, a frequent response was, "I think the way I said it is fine." I was very thankful over the years when their writing assignments were incorporated into their co-op or day-school classes.  My boys

Some of Sara's family

somehow received constructive criticism very well from these teacher/moms, bringing great relief to all.

Me: Experience 5-Son-itis. Our family is heavy on the male side. Symptoms include: Wars and weapons and rough-housing and everything physical and noise and sweat and gross jokes and fearless, dangerous adventures (some of which I only learned about years later!) and battle scenes in movies being replayed continuously and constant competitiveness in everything, large and small. Efforts at home to create a gentler balance in our studies were met with huge resistance.

Cure included: homeschooling in community. Our co-ops, though plentiful with energetic boys, also had girls, and the classes were conducted with both genders in mind. For example, numerous books that would please rough-and-tumble boys were assigned in their literature classes, but the gentler books, such as Jane Austen's classics, were also included.  Our boys accepted the required reading in these classes (not always cheerfully!), and their education became a bit more balanced.

Sara and Allison both would agree with Sara's assessment:

I'm basically shy and timid by nature. Each new responsibility over the years has been difficult for me to face as

Our co-op kids invented the game "Thugby"

I see my own weaknesses and limitations very clearly. However, the moments of greatest joy in my life have been those when I have just had to call out to the Lord and say, "Lord!  Help me!  I can't do this on my own!" and every time, without fail, God has been faithful to strengthen me to fulfill the jobs He's given me and to succeed by His strength and blessing.

Every life-challenge, it seems, is at its core a spiritual challenge to respond in trust and obedience to the Lord and not yield to worry, discouragement, or depression. It's a long journey, and I'm a slow learner, but God is ever so patient with me!

Question: What are some challenges that make your family unique? and how do you handle it?

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Don't forget to download a free article by Marilyn on how to Carry Each Others' Burdens. Useful and important info for those times when you want to help but don't know what to do!

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