Planting a beautiful garden to enjoy throughout the various seasons is a view I hope to gaze upon in my daily life. I decided this last summer to take a small step toward that dream and plant some flowers in my backyard. I had aspirations of sitting with my tea and favorite book out on my patio in the midst of my lovely flowers. Sadly, dreams are not always a reflection of reality or my abilities as a gardener. I was determined from the beginning to be faithful on taking care of my small garden. I watered my beautiful roses daily with anticipation of seeing them grow in beauty. What I didn’t realize at the time is that I was over watering my roses and I was slowly drowning them. As the rose bush slowly began to wither and die, it became apparent that I was definitely doing something wrong. We ended up going on vacation shortly after I realized my roses were dying. I hadn’t quite figured out what I had done wrong. We were gone for almost 2 weeks and when we came back my rose bush was beautiful again and had new buds growing everywhere. Without my daily over watering, my roses began to flourish. The rose bush needed space from my watering to grow.

Creating space in my homeschool leads to growth in my kids learning. Sometimes I will over plan my kids education. Okay, if we are being honest, I almost always over plan my kids education. This can yield the same results as my rose bush. What I intend to be helpful is actually hindering their growth. I am probably what you would a call a ‘Type A” personality. I love to be organized and researching homeschool curriculum is my happy place. I could literally plan each of my kids education to the last minute of the day. I feel compelled to give my kids the best education, so in my mind, that means the best program that I can put together for them. The truth is that this probably is not the best idea for my kids. In fact, I know its not the best plan of action because I tried it and it totally failed. Each of our kids are individuals with their own set of talents and skills that make them unique. I have learned through trial and error that I need to give them space to explore their own interests on this journey to creating life long learners.

What does this look like to create space for growth? Do you give up all thoughts of a schedule or take away the basics such as math and reading? No, creating space in our daily homeschool is not about giving up the basics, but it is about giving time for our kids to discover their own love of learning. My kids still get a list daily of what they need to get done, but I have also built in time for their own explorations.

Judah, who is my second born son, is brilliant young man who lives life to the beat of his own drum. When I started to homeschool him, I didn’t know quite what to do. I was this eager homeschool mom with my beautiful planners and I was looking into the eyes of a child that didn’t even like the word “school”. Judah would rather play then open up a book. What I didn’t realize at the time, was that Judah was meant for greatness and it was okay that he wanted to take his time to learn in his own way. I just needed to create space for what he wanted to learn.

Judah has a knack for solving problems and fixing things. He loves to fix anything that is broken. It was a normal occurrence to give Judah the broken vacuum or any other household items to fix. Judah’s room over the years as resembled a graveyard of broken computers and other broken technology that various people have given Judah to fix. Did I mention that I like my house to be orderly? Against my own personality, I would turn a blind eye to the chaos. This was my attempt at creating space for Judah.

When Judah was 14 years old, he came to his dad and I and announced that he wanted to start his own business.  My first reaction was to turn him down.  Start a business at 14?  This is not part of my plan.  He doesn’t know what he is doing and more importantly, he needs to get done with the school stuff that I give him each day.  My personality of being a control freak was freaking out at this moment.  But of course I answered calmly, “Well, as long as you get your school done first.” I didn’t understand during that time, that God was shaping Judah into who he was meant to be.  

Today, as I write these words, Judah is 17 years old and ready to take on life. There have been definite ups and downs in his business that he has created, but he is determined to master what he wants to learn and succeed at it. He creates his own schedule each day, so that he can attain his goals. He has a desire to create a successful business, master the cello and become a fireman. Even though he has a couple years left of homeschool, he has developed a love of learning that I know will always be part of his life. My agenda of what education looked like for Judah had to change. I had to create space for Judah to pursue what he loved.

I have learned that homeschooling is not so much about getting a list of school subjects accomplished or making sure my checklists are all checked, its about becoming a student of my children. Watching and listening to see what they need to learn to become what they were born to be. I desire to create life long learners because then I know even beyond their brief education in our home, they will continue to learn and pursue what God has meant them to be. So, even though checking off all my boxes each day is my happy place, I will choose daily to create space and maybe it will help them to grow.