"It takes a village," they say.
“I have seen the village and I don’t want it raising my children!” so say some homeschool moms.
Perhaps this is why some people seem to bristle at our choice to homeschool.
We visited our old Indiana village last weekend, oh, how I miss the village. White Creek is a great village. I am so grateful to have been a part of it. Now we breeze in and out and we share memories but we are not so much a “part.” Or we are, but a different part; a moving in and out kind of part.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
I think also of our Michigan village, and the friends we all had in that place. It was nice to be known. It was lovely to have those friends for each child, a people to call on for rides and for help with this thing and that thing.
I miss the village.
But God has removed us from villages past, and we have prayerfully chosen a new strategy.
There are many great ways to raise children. Lutheran schools are one. Homeschool is another. How blessed are we that our children will receive an experience of both.
Being around our former village did, for a moment, make the weight of that which we have chosen fall so heavily on my heart; here I am trying to do and carry that which was carried by ALL of these great people, their teachers, in years past. Who do I think I am doing this thing?
This longing though, is it not also a longing for community? A real need for belonging, and living out the truth that we are NOT an island nor do we want to be even in homeschool? If there is more than one way to raise children well, isn’t it also true that there is more than one way to be part of a community? Our part will look different but we want to be part. But entering into community takes time, and not much has passed here. It is hard to wait for God to meet these needs.
I hope the people in our past villages know we are thankful for them; for each one who has had their fingers in the lives of our children. For us, homeschool is NOT a choice made as a rejection of community, village, church.
Homeschool, for us, is not a choice against things so much as FOR..
We're FOR reading aloud as a family, and tending a garden together, and letting that millipede inspire the next science lesson. We're for a lifestyle that lets us breathe for a season, for flexibility and travel, for leisurely morning devotions. And we're for the village here in Kentucky; we just haven't found our place in it, yet.
We're still getting oriented in our new lifestyle- the learning curve with homeschool is huge. I read and research, I celebrate the small victories, and sometimes I take a tearful nap in the middle of the afternoon. (Hey, if they can, why can't I?) But today we rode bikes to the park because the morning was too beautiful, and I determined to read until they wanted to stop. They didn't want to stop, even 1.5 hours later, and I love that my kids appreciate good books on a lovely spring day. We finally got distracted by a blue jay and the call of their stomachs, and we learned that math is much harder in late afternoon.
God help me be thankful for the gifts that have come and gone, teach me to let them go with with gratitude as the seasons pass and to stay whole-heartedly open to the gifts that come now in this season and in this place. Continue to provide for us as you always have: friends for the children, and mentors, people we can know and love, and a place in this new village. Amen.
