by Sarah Roduner
“I never thought I could homeschool my children,” I thought. That was for someone else who was a professional teacher or had specific training. I was happy sending my oldest two children to a small Christian school that we loved while taking care of my toddler at home and occasionally working as a supplemental RN. Then, I had my fourth baby, and I realized that money would be a little tighter as I couldn’t work as often with a new baby, and tuition would be higher as we added a third started Christian school. I knew the financial situation would be unsustainable, but I wasn’t ready to send my children to public school. I also didn’t really want to work more and be with my children less.
I was ultimately led to the decision of homeschooling. I personally had gone to Christian schools through seventh grade and then entered public schools where I had more opportunities such as honors classes and competitive choirs. I felt that those formative years in elementary gave me a good foundation in my faith, so I planned to just homeschool until my children reached middle school and then send them on to public school after that. But little did I know, God had other plans for our family.
In 2016, we started our homeschooling journey with our oldest Timothy in fifth grade, Talia in second grade, and 3-year-old Violet and 5-month-old Lydia tagging along. Despite all my initial doubts, I fell into homeschooling fairly easily. That first year was so fun! We did all the extra activities and had so much quality time together. We did cooking projects, went on nature walks, and did multiple art projects. I wondered why I hadn’t started homeschooling from the beginning. There were some challenges, like when my baby decided to start scooting around at the early age of 5 months and could pull up to the coffee table where we did our paperwork at 7 months. By the end of that first year, I had decided to homeschool Timothy up to eighth grade and have him start public school in high school.
I could clearly see God directing our steps. The first year was definitely a honeymoon period. Every year after that, things have gotten busier and a little more challenging. Many of the extra projects we had time for have gone by the wayside, but we have persevered through each day and each year.
In the kindergarten curriculum I used for my youngest girls, we concentrated on a letter of the alphabet every week. Each letter of the alphabet is symbolized by a part of God’s created world, and each of those creations had “words to remember” for the student to learn a Biblical concept. “T’ is for turtle, and the “words to remember” for that week are, “I don’t quit. I persevere.” As I was teaching my girls their “words to remember,” God was teaching me as well. There would be hard times, tantrums, difficult math concepts, difficult attitudes, crazy sports schedules, and a pandemic thrown in there as well. Through it all, God has been faithful and teaching all of us to persevere day by day.
Eight years later, we are about to graduate our first child. We ended up homeschooling him all the way through high school one year at a time. We still have ten more years until Lydia graduates from high school, so God has plenty of time yet to teach me patience and perseverance through our homeschooling journey.
Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
I can’t wait to see the harvest God grows as we continue home educating our children.
Sarah is the happy wife of Steve and mother of four children, Timothy, Talia, Violet and Lydia, that she has the privilege of teaching. She gets her baby fix working very part time as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.