Changing life, changing minds changing plans.

Gee, that sounds so spiritual I almost feel guilty, LOL.

Life changes. When I wrote my book Homeschool: Why What How, I had six children under twelve and was expecting another. Today I have eight children ranging from eighteen to two. I can't express to you how very different my life is now, though it probably looks the same from the outside. Some of this is due to God's work in-my life, polishing up some rough spots. but most of it is due to having teen-ages. They are Wonderful! Because they are well trained and have never been exposed to the selfish mindset of the world (homeschooled from day one), There isn't the least rebellion in either of them. They are absolute joys to have around (no pun intended- my oldest is named Joy).

When things were so overwhelming with so many littles, when God's main call on my life was my home and then researching what the Bible and science say about traditional roles and jobs, God lead me into the Well Trained Mind method of homeschooling. This allowed us to do school together and really bond. At that time in my life, itlessoned my work load because I did so many things with all of  us together.

Things got too intense a couple of years ago and God smacked me up-side the head. He moved my focus from academic success to building a biblical worldview. He used Teaching the Trivium to do this.

Then He called me to pursue midwifing and herbology. My main ministry still is and always will be my home. and it will be many years before I am ready to enter my new ministry, but I need to prepare now. I have a lot to learn!

This year after dutifully spending my part of the tax return on school books for the children and correspondence herb school for me, I felt one of the strongest impulses to move us in a new direction I have ever felt. I recognize this as the voice of God. I have prayed and He confirms.

Now with three children older than 12 (my second boy just had a birthday) There are four of us available to correct school work and to tutor. But the old ways of doing things only allowed me to tutor because I was the only one who knew what was going on. I needed to fix a way for the others to help me. Also, though I Believe that everyone has gaps in their education, I have noticed that my children have gaps in vastly different places than others. I am feeling a need to move their gaps little closer to "normal" so they have a better time relating to others (especially other Christians. I hope they won't ever relate to the world). I do have to admit that I have been a bit lax in my teaching the younger girls. They aren't quite where I would like them to be in reading (though more than fine in math).

The sum total is that I feel an overwhelming urgency to move my children to Abeka. I used Abeka with my oldest when we started and I have discovered I have an amazing amount of books left over (why in the world do I have a brand new upper level grammar workbook when I quit Abeka when Joy was in the third grade?) I have no idea where some of these came from except that God knows the beginning from the end and always supplies our needs.

So, we are in the process of switching to Abeka in Language arts and history (We will do the last lesson in Story of the World in two weeks). We are already switched in science (I finally gave up on the WTM kind of science last winter and so was able to switch them a couple months ago.)

We will stay with Math-U-See for math. It works wonderfully.

We will probably go to ArtPacs to supplement what my-mom teaches them on Fridays, as we already supplement her piano lessons with Piano for Quitters and Piano for Life.

We will continue with Bible as is.This Is Our Time to bond and enjoy each other.

As the title says, when life changes we have to change our plans. I am still convinced that homeschooling is the-best option whenever possible,but within that homeschooling label are so many, many more options that I Fully believe there is something out there for everyone.

(part of why most my posts lately have just been links is the time this research has taken me. Part is because I discovered the right click, "post it on blogger" button:-)