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I'm So Thankful for Our Homeschool Journey · Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith

• 1:15
  Audrey McCracken: Hello friends, welcome back to Grace For my Home.
• 1:18
  Audrey McCracken: I'm so glad to be back here again with you again this week.
• 1:22
  Audrey McCracken: This week I am recording in North Carolina.
• 1:27
  Audrey McCracken: I'm in the mountains of North Carolina in a little town called Waynesville.
• 1:31
  Audrey McCracken: A friend of mine lives here who I've known for many years and she's a dear friend and her husband is out of town and she'd asked me to come up and spend a few days with her this weekend while he's out of town and she's just treated me like a queen.
• 1:48
  Audrey McCracken: She's cooked breakfast for me.
• 1:50
  Audrey McCracken: Today we went out and went to some consignment shops in town that she loves and we shopped and got some lunch and now just resting.
• 2:00
  Audrey McCracken: And tonight we'll go with her granddaughter one of her granddaughters and get something to eat tonight and just spend some time together.
• 2:09
  Audrey McCracken: And this is such a treat for me and I don't really know how to relax.
• 2:14
  Audrey McCracken: To be honest with you, I've been going so fast for so long that I realized that I don't know how to stop.
• 2:21
  Audrey McCracken: I don't know how to slow down.
• 2:22
  Audrey McCracken: So this is good for me.
• 2:25
  Audrey McCracken: It's one of those things that you do because you know it's good for you, and just turning off my mind has been a wonderful exercise for me.
• 2:34
  Audrey McCracken: Today.
• 2:35
  Audrey McCracken: I've had to put other things out of the way and say you know what, today they can do it without me right.
• 2:41
  Audrey McCracken: Today, my home will run without me, my kids will be fine without me, the coffee shop will be fine without me.
• 2:47
  Audrey McCracken: Today I need to relax and rest, and so I'm very thankful for this opportunity to do that, and you know, I'm in a season where everything is changing.
• 3:01
  Audrey McCracken: I did a podcast on transition a few months back and actually went back and listened to it because I thought, you know, I shouldn't be saying these things to other people if I'm not doing it myself.
• 3:13
  Audrey McCracken: So I went back and listened to my own podcast for encouragement and to remind myself that transitions are necessary and that you know they're a means to an end.
• 3:27
  Audrey McCracken: I mean, you can't get to the next place until you go through that doorway, and that's what transitions are like.
• 3:33
  Audrey McCracken: They're like the doorway you don't stay there.
• 3:35
  Audrey McCracken: You got to go through them to get to the other side.
• 3:40
  Audrey McCracken: And one of the things about transitions are we often take on new roles after a transition takes place.
• 3:49
  Audrey McCracken: And so that question that often comes up in my mind, my heart who am I?
• 3:55
  Audrey McCracken: Who am I in this place right now?
• 3:57
  Audrey McCracken: Because we often define who we are by what we do.
• 4:00
  Audrey McCracken: I'm not saying we should, I'm just saying we do, as it's human nature to define who we are by the things we do every day.
• 4:09
  Audrey McCracken: And you know, one of those hats is mom.
• 4:12
  Audrey McCracken: You know, then, there's so many other hats we wear as well.
• 4:16
  Audrey McCracken: You know, some of us are wives, Some of us are teachers, some of us, like me, are homeschool moms, and I'm coming to the end of my homeschool career and I have mixed feelings about it.
• 4:31
  Audrey McCracken: And today, when I was thinking about what to share with you, I thought I'm going to share these things because they may it may help somebody else who are going through, who's going through this kind of transition or something similar.
• 4:42
  Audrey McCracken: And you know, we have three boys who I've homeschooled since they were, since they were old enough to learn to read and for a short time when, before I started homeschooling them, they were in preschool.
• 4:56
  Audrey McCracken: My oldest two were in preschool, but for the vast majority of their education it was all on my shoulders, until a few years ago, when my boys became, when my oldest became 14, my husband and I we talked about homeschooling and you know I'll share the whole homeschool story with you one day, which I think is really encouraging.
• 5:20
  Audrey McCracken: And we were kind of at odds about homeschool.
• 5:25
  Audrey McCracken: So, long story short, we decided to homeschool and see how it went and just try it out.
• 5:35
  Audrey McCracken: And it went well, we enjoyed it.
• 5:39
  Audrey McCracken: And there were days I thought I don't know if I could do this.
• 5:43
  Audrey McCracken: There were hard days, but for the most part we loved the results.
• 5:47
  Audrey McCracken: And my husband I won him over.
• 5:50
  Audrey McCracken: He wasn't so sure it was my idea and he wasn't so sure, but after a couple of years and he saw the fruit, he was a believer and that says a lot because he's in public education.
• 6:04
  Audrey McCracken: And so for the last 12 years I've been a homeschool mom.
• 6:10
  Audrey McCracken: But as my oldest became old enough for high school, my husband and I we talked and he suggested let's let him decide.
• 6:22
  Audrey McCracken: You see, when kids are growing up, the older they get, the more autonomy they need.
• 6:30
  Audrey McCracken: They need to start making decisions, real decisions about their lives, and we have to trust them to do that.
• 6:39
  Audrey McCracken: Because if we don't give them the opportunities to do that while they're forming, while they're growing, then when they're old enough and they should be making those decisions they're not going to have the confidence and the wisdom to do so.
• 6:53
  Audrey McCracken: So we've always tried imperfectly for sure, but we've always tried to give them opportunities, age-appropriate opportunities, to make decisions.
• 7:06
  Audrey McCracken: And one of those decisions was do you want to go to public high school or do you want to continue to homeschool?
• 7:12
  Audrey McCracken: And my oldest decided he wanted to go to public high school.
• 7:17
  Audrey McCracken: Well, to be honest with you, I didn't like that decision, because I loved homeschooling and we were just getting to that age where we could have really good discussions and had so many good things lined up for the high school years, and I couldn't wait to jump into those things.
• 7:34
  Audrey McCracken: And it just didn't.
• 7:36
  Audrey McCracken: It didn't pan out that way.
• 7:37
  Audrey McCracken: And so the next year, the very next year, same thing with my second son.
• 7:42
  Audrey McCracken: What do you want to do?
• 7:44
  Audrey McCracken: Do you want to go to public school?
• 7:45
  Audrey McCracken: Do you want to stay home?
• 7:46
  Audrey McCracken: Well, he also wanted to go to public school, and so I lost two.
• 7:55
  Audrey McCracken: Have one still at home.
• 7:56
  Audrey McCracken: Well, for the last two years, my youngest has been with me, and it's just been me and him.
• 7:59
  Audrey McCracken: And now it's his turn and he has decided to go to public school.
• 8:03
  Audrey McCracken: And so I just have a few more weeks, maybe two weeks that I will be a homeschool mom and as we come to this transition and I will no longer have anybody at home that I'm teaching, that I'm reading to those kinds of things.
• 8:20
  Audrey McCracken: It's a bittersweet time, you know it's a bittersweet time and but it's a good time.
• 8:25
  Audrey McCracken: It's a goodtersweet time.
• 8:26
  Audrey McCracken: You know it's a bittersweet time, but it's a good time.
• 8:27
  Audrey McCracken: It's a good thing because my boys are going into the world and hopefully putting to practice the things that their dad and I have tried to teach them, have tried to instill in them.
• 8:48
  Audrey McCracken: And I wanted to talk with you about that today and just talk with you a little bit about our homeschool journey and why we decided to homeschool and why we're glad we homeschooled.
• 8:54
  Audrey McCracken: And I just want to start off by saying that you know, I'm not one of these people who thinks everybody should homeschool.
• 9:00
  Audrey McCracken: I'm not.
• 9:01
  Audrey McCracken: I think it's a very personal decision.
• 9:03
  Audrey McCracken: I think it's one of those things that you have to pray about.
• 9:06
  Audrey McCracken: You have to feel a calling to do.
• 9:08
  Audrey McCracken: I think it's one of those things that you have to pray about.
• 9:10
  Audrey McCracken: You have to feel a calling to do.
• 9:11
  Audrey McCracken: I know some people who have homeschooled because they had to.
• 9:14
  Audrey McCracken: There's family situations or circumstances and they had no choice.
• 9:18
  Audrey McCracken: They had to.
• 9:18
  Audrey McCracken: And I've known others who reluctantly jumped in because of situations in their lives.
• 9:23
  Audrey McCracken: They felt like it was the best option.
• 9:25
  Audrey McCracken: But I was one of those who dreamed about it.
• 9:27
  Audrey McCracken: I wanted to do it and you know, I had a great vision of how I wanted to homeschool my children.
• 9:35
  Audrey McCracken: Well, it never looked like my vision, not even on the best day, but I had a vision.
• 9:42
  Audrey McCracken: I had a goal of what homeschooling, why I wanted to homeschool, and I will say that, like I said, it never looked exactly like the vision, but it took us somewhere that I'm glad we took that road.
• 9:59
  Audrey McCracken: It took us to a good place and one of the things I love about homeschool is it was a tool.
• 10:07
  Audrey McCracken: It was a discipleship tool for us.
• 10:11
  Audrey McCracken: It gave us the things you need to disciple your children or disciple anybody really.
• 10:18
  Audrey McCracken: You know, if you're going to disciple someone, for the Lord, you've got to spend time with them.
• 10:23
  Audrey McCracken: You know discipleship takes time.
• 10:26
  Audrey McCracken: You've got to spend time with them.
• 10:27
  Audrey McCracken: You know discipleship takes time and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of togetherness.
• 10:32
  Audrey McCracken: You've got to be in close proximity of those people that you're discipling so that they can be around you in the real world.
• 10:43
  Audrey McCracken: You know it's not.
• 10:43
  Audrey McCracken: Discipleship isn't one of those things.
• 10:45
  Audrey McCracken: You can say OK, meet me at nine o'clock at the library and that'll be our discipleship time.
• 10:48
  Audrey McCracken: Now, discipleship is one of those things that happen organically and naturally in everyday life, and so homeschooling gave us that opportunity to do that.
• 10:58
  Audrey McCracken: It takes a lot of love, it takes a lot of commitment.
• 11:02
  Audrey McCracken: So homeschooling gave us a tool that allowed us to disciple our children in the way that we felt like the Lord had called us to do.
• 11:13
  Audrey McCracken: It also gave us it was also a wonderful lifestyle to walk out our faith together with our children.
• 11:22
  Audrey McCracken: You know, a lot of times we and this isn't just with homeschooling parents, but you know we tell our children what to do but we don't walk it with them.
• 11:34
  Audrey McCracken: You know we say, basically, do what I say and not what I do, and that does not work for kids.
• 11:41
  Audrey McCracken: You know kids, they are looking at us all the time.
• 11:45
  Audrey McCracken: They're drawing from us, especially when they're young.
• 11:48
  Audrey McCracken: They're following us, and so our biggest lessons have to be embodied in the things that we do ourselves.
• 11:56
  Audrey McCracken: Our own behavior is a lesson for our children, because that's what they're copying.
• 12:02
  Audrey McCracken: They may not copy the words we say.
• 12:05
  Audrey McCracken: They may not do the words we say.
• 12:06
  Audrey McCracken: They may not do the words we say, but they will copy the things we do.
• 12:10
  Audrey McCracken: And so just that lifestyle of working together, of being together, it causes us to impart to our children who we are.
• 12:20
  Audrey McCracken: It helps us by knitting our hearts together.
• 12:24
  Audrey McCracken: It gives us opportunities to share with them what we believe in a very natural way, where it's not a list on the wall saying, okay, this is what we believe.
• 12:35
  Audrey McCracken: We believe A, b and C.
• 12:36
  Audrey McCracken: They see what we believe because they live with us and they see us live it out.
• 12:43
  Audrey McCracken: And it also provided us a wonderful opportunity to protect our children.
• 12:48
  Audrey McCracken: A lot of people will say one of their issues with homeschooling, or negatives about homeschooling, is we can't protect our children forever.
• 12:59
  Audrey McCracken: And they're right, we can't Right.
• 13:02
  Audrey McCracken: But in the formative years, I think it's our job as moms, as dads, to protect our children from the forces that would try to pull them in the wrong directions.
• 13:14
  Audrey McCracken: You know those are formative years, meaning they're being molded, they're being shaped into the people that they're going to be for the rest of their lives, and so I think it's part of our jobs as moms to protect them from the things they're not ready to be exposed to.
• 13:29
  Audrey McCracken: But yes, when they grow older they need to be exposed to those things.
• 13:34
  Audrey McCracken: So there's not a shock to the system when they are exposed to those things.
• 13:40
  Audrey McCracken: But homeschooling gave us the opportunity to shield them from a lot of those things before they were ready for them.
• 13:49
  Audrey McCracken: So I'm really thankful for the times we had, the opportunities we had.
• 13:55
  Audrey McCracken: You know life is all about seasons.
• 13:57
  Audrey McCracken: You know we have seasons in our lives and our kids have seasons in their lives and we have to learn that.
• 14:05
  Audrey McCracken: You know seasons come and seasons go and transitions from one season to the next.
• 14:12
  Audrey McCracken: They're often more difficult than we think they're going to be.
• 14:16
  Audrey McCracken: And one of the nice things, like I said, it was not my decision for them to go to public school, it was theirs and I was a little disappointed in that school.
• 14:27
  Audrey McCracken: It was theirs and I was a little disappointed in that.
• 14:28
  Audrey McCracken: I would have loved to continue until they were ready to graduate high school, to continue being their homeschool mom, but it didn't work out that way and I really do believe that it was the Lord.
• 14:39
  Audrey McCracken: I believe he has a special plan, a special design, a special puzzle for each home, for each family.
• 14:46
  Audrey McCracken: I do want to say that I have friends who have done an awesome job of raising their children for the Lord, who did not homeschool, and they did all these things that I just mentioned having time with their children, being loving and committed, knitting their hearts together with their children and training them for the Lord in the time that they had.
• 15:09
  Audrey McCracken: They were very intentional and I don't want to make it sound like homeschooling is the only way to do that.
• 15:15
  Audrey McCracken: It's certainly not, but for our family it was a blessing and allowed that.
• 15:19
  Audrey McCracken: But one of the things I have seen, especially in my older two boys as they have transitioned into a public school space, is it's given them opportunities to put to the test those things that we taught them at home.
• 15:37
  Audrey McCracken: You know, it's one thing to tell them and it's another thing to let them put it into practice, and I love that they've been able to do that while still under the protection of our home.
• 15:51
  Audrey McCracken: You know, yes, that would happen when they went to college, but I'm glad that I've been able to be here for some late night talks and when they have been seeing, when they've seen some things that just you know, disturbed them or bothered them and had some really hard questions.
• 16:08
  Audrey McCracken: I'm glad that I was here Now.
• 16:11
  Audrey McCracken: I'm sure they've not brought everything to me and I'm sure I don't know everything that they've seen and been exposed to, but I think it's been a healthy transition, I think it's been a good introduction.
• 16:24
  Audrey McCracken: And also it's hard being a teenager.
• 16:26
  Audrey McCracken: No matter what kind of education choices you make, being a teenager is hard.
• 16:33
  Audrey McCracken: 16 is 16, no matter where you are, and there's a lot of things going on.
• 16:39
  Audrey McCracken: There's a lot of things going on physically, emotionally.
• 16:42
  Audrey McCracken: Peer pressure is huge at 16,.
• 16:45
  Audrey McCracken: Emotionally, peer pressure is huge at 16,.
• 16:52
  Audrey McCracken: You know, at 16 and even before 16, but especially around that time, kids are starting to separate from their family naturally and become their own person, and so their peer group has huge influence over them.
• 17:03
  Audrey McCracken: And my goal was that I would have knitted our hearts together so they know I'm there for them.
• 17:10
  Audrey McCracken: I am not their adversary, I'm their advocate, so that when this time happened and it's always going to happen that they would always remember that there's somebody at home who's got my back.
• 17:23
  Audrey McCracken: There's somebody at home who's on my side who's got my back.
• 17:29
  Audrey McCracken: There's somebody at home who's on my side and even though I'm out in this world and I'm trying to fit in here and I'm trying to find my place there, there's always a place I can go back to, where there are people who care about me, and that's my goal.
• 17:41
  Audrey McCracken: I don't want to keep them from going out in the world and doing the things God's called them to do, or I've handicapped them and we don't want to handicap them.
• 17:48
  Audrey McCracken: We want to set them free, we want to push them off, but we want to send them out in a basket that's been weaved together tight with prayer and that was my goal with homeschooling is that I would be able to have that time to pay them the attention they needed, to be intentional about discipleship, to be intentional about sharing our faith with them, to bind our hearts together so that, when the time came, we could send them out confidently, knowing we did what we knew to do.
• 18:24
  Audrey McCracken: And, guys, we've made so many mistakes.
• 18:27
  Audrey McCracken: I'm sure we will still make so many mistakes, but you do the best you can with what you have and what you know.
• 18:36
  Audrey McCracken: But one of the most profound things, when I look back over our 12 years of homeschooling, one of the most profound things I have to say about homeschooling is not what it did in the lives of my children as much as it's done in my life.
• 18:52
  Audrey McCracken: God has used this homeschooling lifestyle to conform me into the image of Jesus.
• 19:02
  Audrey McCracken: He has used it to change me.
• 19:04
  Audrey McCracken: You know he has used this time with my children at home, away from the world, to reveal many of my immaturities.
• 19:14
  Audrey McCracken: You know, I thought I was pretty mature.
• 19:16
  Audrey McCracken: I really did.
• 19:17
  Audrey McCracken: I thought that I knew a lot of stuff and I did know a lot of stuff.
• 19:21
  Audrey McCracken: But knowing it in your head and walking it out in everyday life are two completely different things.
• 19:28
  Audrey McCracken: And so being at home with my children, away from the eyes of the world, where it's just me and them and him, god used that time to show me many of the areas where I didn't I wasn't walking in the things I knew, to walk in where I wasn't as mature as I thought I was, and he gave me opportunities to walk in where I wasn't as mature as I thought I was, and he gave me opportunities to grow in those areas.
• 19:51
  Audrey McCracken: You know, one of my favorite stories is the Velveteen Rabbit, and if you've read it you know it is such a good story.
• 19:59
  Audrey McCracken: It's about a little Velveteen Rabbit that a boy is given on his birthday and he loves that rabbit.
• 20:07
  Audrey McCracken: And in the toy room where the rabbit lives with all of the other toys there's a sawhorse, and the sawhorse talks to the little velveteen rabbit about how to become a real rabbit.
• 20:19
  Audrey McCracken: And basically you're a real rabbit when you're loved.
• 20:24
  Audrey McCracken: You become real when you're loved, but it's usually after all of your hair has fallen out and you've been rubbed and you're wrinkly and you may not be pretty or attractive to anybody else in the world except for those who you love and who love you.
• 20:41
  Audrey McCracken: And that's how you become real.
• 20:45
  Audrey McCracken: And being home with my children every day, through the good and the bad times, and hidden from the world, where it feels like the whole world's going by and I'm not a part of it anymore, does what I'm doing matter?
• 20:59
  Audrey McCracken: Those things, that character development.
• 21:05
  Audrey McCracken: In so many ways it made me a real person.
• 21:08
  Audrey McCracken: It made me not just say these things but believe these things and live these things out in the real world.
• 21:16
  Audrey McCracken: Home is a powerful place and so I'm very thankful for this time.
• 21:24
  Audrey McCracken: God taught me so much.
• 21:25
  Audrey McCracken: He taught me so much about me.
• 21:26
  Audrey McCracken: He taught me so much about other people.
• 21:29
  Audrey McCracken: He taught me so much about the world we live in, about Him.
• 21:31
  Audrey McCracken: I'm thankful for the wisdom that he taught me during these 12 years of homeschooling.
• 21:40
  Audrey McCracken: He taught me so much wisdom.
• 21:42
  Audrey McCracken: He conformed me into the image of Christ and I'm very thankful for that.
• 21:45
  Audrey McCracken: He conformed me into the image of Christ and I'm very thankful for that.
• 21:49
  Audrey McCracken: God taught me through homeschooling so much more than I've ever taught my children, and he knows what he's doing.
• 21:58
  Audrey McCracken: He knows what he's doing and I'm very thankful for this season.
• 22:01
  Audrey McCracken: I'm looking forward to the next season.
• 22:07
  Audrey McCracken: I don't really want to go to the next season yet because I loved homeschooling, but I know it's going to be good because I'm not going alone.
• 22:13
  Audrey McCracken: I'm going with him.
• 22:13
  Audrey McCracken: He's leading me by the hand.
• 22:15
  Audrey McCracken: We're going to the next stage and I just wanted to share these thoughts with you today and I hope they've been encouraging to you.