Why you need forgiveness to make High School work

Can I just start today off by saying how glad I am for forgiveness? So many time I have failed to do what I knew I should have done, and so many other times I didn't realize that what I was doing wasn't the best option for myself or my family. Yet, there was forgiveness offered, and accepted. 

Now take that feeling of freedom you feel after being forgiven and apply it to your high schoolers. They need forgiveness too! Just as I've made some less than stellar choices over the years, our girls have had their own struggles. When I realized that my high school aged children need forgiveness as much as they did when they were tiny, things started looking up.

Education is a journey, not an event. To understand the difference, here is an example from life: a wedding is an event, a marriage is a journey. Our wedding lasted less than an hour, Kurt and I have been married almost 23 years. We have learned over the years how to offer forgiveness, and how to accept it from others. We did not learn all those lessons during the one hour ceremony, we learned them over many years of ups and downs. Your children are like that, they will learn over the years, and they'll need your help!

High school can come with a lot of expectations. If our students fail to meet all of our expectations we need to evaluate why, and offer forgiveness when necessary. Did they fail because they were being lazy or disrespectful? Then you probably need some discipline to be applied and another round of the same lessons they were supposed to be doing. But, if they failed to meet your expectations because you chose a curriculum that conflicts with their learning style, and you were not around to help them through the tough spots... then you might need to ask their forgiveness.  Did they fail because they didn't understand your directions or have good time management skills? Did they fail to meet your expectations because you never told them what you expected them to accomplish? Or maybe they failed because they have an underlying learning challenge that you didn't realize they struggled with? There are so many reasons why we, or our children, might need forgiveness that you need to be quick to offer it to them, and quick to accept it from them.

No one lives a perfect life. No homeschool is perfect. 

We try our best, ask God for help, and adjust when needed. Sometimes that adjustment comes in the middle of the week when you realize you scheduled too many activities outside of the house and they won't ever be home to watch that science video. Sometimes we don't realize until they are nearing the end of a semester that they are not really  understanding their math assignments. Choose to offer forgiveness when needed, and choose to work with your High Schoolers instead of against them! Most of the time they're not purposely trying to frustrate you, they just don't always see the world like you do, and they may interpret your vague answers differently than you thought you presented them. Try again - both of you!

Forgiveness equals offering grace, unmerited favor. You know about grace right? It is that thing Jesus Christ offers us to save us from ourselves and our sin?! That grace can be applied to your homeschool. It especially needs to be applied to the high school years!

Every once in a while we get it right. 

Then those teenagers stop you to tell you that they respect your hard work, they thank you for giving them this opportunity to be educated at home, they might even tell you how happy they are that you're their parents! That makes it all worth it!


Stop back by tomorrow for one last day in our 5 Day Blog Hop! Don't worry, there will be more posts about Homeschooling High School after this week is over. In fact, I have a lot of cool things to share with you over the next few weeks, most of which are great for High School. In the meantime, check out today's other posts about homeschooling by clicking the links below!





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