John and Jennifer Robinson join us at the Home Business Conference in Huntsville, AL on today’s show to talk about their first year “lifeschooling” and what they learned.
John and Jennifer attended the 2017 Lifeschooling Conference, where they learned to see home education as a freeing opportunity and felt the Lord confirm in their hearts the lifeschooling direction they wanted their homeschooling to take. They had first started seriously discussing homeschooling back in 2011 after attending a homeschooling conference. While Jennifer did not, at that time, feel a calling toward homeschooling, John decided to research further and was ready to take on the role of homeschool dad. For various reasons (including fear), the idea was put on the back burner for the time until eventually God brought things back around and they decided to finally take the leap of faith into homeschooling.
“We have learned through this process that when you are obedient in the little things,” says Jennifer, “then He will bless you with more and He will open up the windows of opportunity after you have taken that first step.” John also talks about expectations and how when we are walking in faith, we have to let go of our own expectations. “We pray for God to make things stupidly obvious,” says John, “We want to make sure we’re not taking the wheel and trying to steer the ship.”
John also talks about the realization of how quickly their children were growing up and their desire to spend time with them and build Godly character. During their first year, Jennifer noticed the stark difference time spent together can make. “Being in a school setting… You’re not spending that quality time. You’re dropping them off at a school and you’re not seeing them for several hours and then you go to pick them up and you’re like, ‘How was your day? What did you learn?’ and all you hear is ‘Fine,” or ‘Nothing.'” You don’t have any quality conversation with them. And that was so frustrating for me… I had no clue what they did all day!” Now Jennifer takes them to horseback riding lessons, with a 45 minute drive each way, and says these are some of the deepest and most philosophical conversations they have.
Another big takeaway for Jennifer from their first year lifeschooling was that when they sent their children off to school, they were basically communicating to their children, “I am not your expert. I don’t know anything, so I’m sending you off to the experts to learn.” She talks about how her own love for learning immediately rubbed off and made an impression on their kids. “You need to come to mom’s homeschool,” they would say to their dad, “She’s so smart!” Jennifer talks about how this changed perspective has impacted how the kids view them not only with regard to academics, but also when it comes to spiritual matters, as well. They see their parents as knowledgeable in all areas of life.
One way that the Robinsons also protected their time was to discipline themselves not to sign up for lots of extracurricular programs and purchase too much curricula. “We really focused on what are the giftings that God has given our children and what giftings do we need to help nurture?” Keeping the schedule somewhat freer also allowed them to be flexible enough to participate in ministry to others. Their family was able to go to a local nursing home with their church once a month and help with serving food or doing arts and crafts with the elderly.
Jon sums it up well. “It’s fun to watch how God just lays this all out and obviously hindsight is much clearer, but it’s fun to look back and see the path that He has led us down. It’s exciting to see what lies ahead.”
That’s Life as a Lifeschooler! Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Hope you’ll join us next time!
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