Month: November 2017

When Home Schooling Doesn’t Work Out. Dealing With The Disappointment Part 2.

/ 2punkshadabunchofkids / 3 Comments

pencil-918449_1920

Here is part two of our story. We went from having a full on ‘it’s homeschooling or nothing’ mentality to sending our children to public school and eventually finding peace.

We were all prepared for homeschooling at the beginning of this year. (2017) I had ordered all the curriculum we needed, shopped for supplies like lead pencils and notebooks and had made up a schedule that looked doable.

I had been feeling a bit stressed with the children home all summer holidays though. It does seem to get to me a bit after a while. All the mess, demands, questions and sibling squabbles that go on when all the children are home at the same time for a long period of time.

Other parents I knew COULDN’T WAIT for their children to get back to school

…and I guess I can understand why. Don’t get me wrong, I love my children so much and love being around them and spending time with them. It is a true blessing and privilege to be given children by God and I do enjoy caring for them. But sometimes I do need a bit of quiet to catch my breath and perhaps think a clear thought.

Also one of my children has some very intense moods, and that, has always made homeschooling very challenging. He reacts in anger and when he’s in one of his ‘moods’ the whole household suffers.

By the fourth week of term one I was not very well. I became so stressed that it pushed my nervous system completely out of whack. I was in bed for days and couldn’t function properly. I guess I had some sort of nervous breakdown, I’m not really sure what to call it. My shoulders were so tight and painful, my pupils constantly dilating and in ‘flight or fight’ mode, and my body wouldn’t stop trembling. I was so wound up and began taking it out on my children by snapping and screeching at every little move they made. This triggered off my anxiety that I also suffer from. I saw doctors and a psychologist. I was put on medication, which I only took for a month because of the awful side effects. I did a lot of research and dove into some natural remedies and a herbal supplement regime instead. I was in bed for days and didn’t go out anywhere for weeks. It took me a few months to fully recover.

While this was going one Luke and I made the decision to send them to school.

It was clear that the pressure of homeschooling really got to me, and to him as well.

We did a lot of prayer, discussion and wrote up pages of notes on the weight of our decision. It became pretty clear that school was the right move to make. Our first choice was a private Christian school 25 minutes away in a nearby rural city. However it was sadly beyond our budget. Our second choice was a small local public primary school only a few minutes away from our house.

We are really happy with this school. It has small classroom sizes and a good behaviour management system. It seems to care a lot about each individual student. Being close to home means the boys feel secure that mum and dad aren’t far away and has made the drop off and pick up doable.

The first couple of weeks were hard. The boys didn’t really want to go and all the packing of backpacks, lunchboxes and buckling everyone in the car took some getting used to!

It was hard emotionally as well. I felt like a failure.

Was it really happening that homeschooling was not working out yet again!? Why can’t I be like other parents who make one decision for school and stick to it? Will my children recover from the roller-coaster ride of being pulled in and out of school? I felt lost for a few months and didn’t quite know what to do with my time during the day when I was usually homeschooling. Even though I still had 3 little girls at home to care for.

I knew I needed something to take my mind off the two boys being in school so I began a project of setting up a veggie patch in our backyard. Something I had wanted to do for ages but just hadn’t had the time for while I was homeschooling.

As the year rolled along I began to see how the Lord has used this situation for good.

Many positive things have happened through us sending our kids to school. – I have began getting out in the local community more and actually meeting other mums from this town. I have been taking the younger three to playgroup – something I couldn’t do while homeschooling and I have had the opportunity to witness to other mums.

I now get excited about all the new opportunities that our children are having at school like doing a swimming carnival and being involved in a musical. The boys are now thriving, have made friends and have both won respect for learning awards. I like doing other ‘regular school mum’ things like watching my children swim at the school lessons and seeing all the creative things they have made. The little crafts they made me for mothers day was so cute – I’ve never had that before because they have always been homeschooling during mothers day. Just little things like that make me smile.

My nervous system is so much better. The pressure of managing their education is off and I can just be mum instead of teacher. I no longer feel wound up and am better able to deal with stress. I have noticed that I am enjoying my boys so much more because I have a break from them during the day . When I see them at 3:10pm I get excited and can’t wait to hear about what they’ve been up to. I am well rested and a calmer, better mother than I was before. Having a rest during the day charges me up for a full on evening of homework, after school activities, dinner and bedtimes. I have been able to give the younger ones more focused attention too.

I have replaced worry with prayer.

Everyday I get up and pray for the Lords protection over them physically and spiritually as they go off to school. I pray for their salvation and pray for the Lord to lead them out of any temptations. It has bought me deep joy to see the boys being a witness for Christ in the classroom. They have given their classmates gospel tracts, Super Book DVDs, and spoken to others about Jesus numerous times.

We have nightly discussions about what the children at school do and say and how we, as Christians are to behave different. For the first time in their lives they are hearing swearing and atheist concepts like evolution. However, it gives us a chance for us to explain to them what the truth is and for them to see how unbelievers think and behave. They’re seeing for themselves how lost and hurting many people in this world are.

I’m now actually looking forward to having three children in school next year. As miss Savannah joins them for her first year of school. God is using our family for good in this community and in our local school. I’m excited about this next chapter of our lives. I know they will be okay – they are in the Lord’s hands.

It’s possible that we may try homeschooling again in the future if we feel like it’s the right thing to do. But not for now and not next year either. We will assess at the beginning of each year what the education path will be for each of our children individually.

How about you? How do you deal with the stress of homeschooling?

Have you sent your children from homeschooling to public school?

Are you plagued with guilt and fear from sending your children to school or have you also found peace?

May God bless you as you press on with the challenging and important role of parenting your precious children.

me Willow sand

Blessings, Peta

You may also like to read:

When Homeschooling Doesn’t Work Out – Dealing With The Disappointment Part 1.

Having a homeschooling mentality while your children are attending school.

Homeschooling and managing a home while in the third trimester

Homeschooling – What I Love and What I Really Don’t.

 

 

 

 

 

Vlog – Day In The Life Of Us and What I Eat In A Day To Maintain My Weight Loss.

/ 2punkshadabunchofkids / Leave a comment

In this video:

What I eat in a day to maintain my postpartum weight loss.

Come with me for my bike ride and see a day in the life of us including seeing the aftermath of baby Willow eating her tea. Also see a little of our family devotion time and family worship.

Blessings, Peta 

When Homeschooling Doesn’t Work Out. – Dealing With The Disappointment. Part 1.

/ 2punkshadabunchofkids / 4 Comments

DSCF2101

I’ve wanted to homeschool my children since my eldest was still in the womb. I wanted to protect my children from worldly influences and keep them close by my side. Luke was learning a lot about the benefits of homeschooling too during this time and was fully supportive. We spent the next few years studying home education and all it’s exciting possibilities.

When my eldest son turned 3 and a half I ordered some pre-school type workbooks and I began sitting down with him on most days doing a few pages from his workbooks. Homeschool began naturally and slowly. We would bundle our three youngest children up and go for walks around the nature park near our house. Learning happened all around us, through our conversations, through being in nature and through the different people we met at church, play group and through friends and family members we welcomed into our home.

I wanted my children to be close by my side so I could spend lots of time with them shaping their character and ultimately, teaching them about God every opportunity I got.

As my first born son approached school age I began to doubt myself and my ideas to homeschool. I had a lot of opposition from various people and the negativity began to get to me. I didn’t know anyone else at that time who homeschooled. We felt all alone in our quest for an ‘outside-the-box’ education and lifestyle. Different fears began to present themself to me; what if I’m ruining my children? What if they miss out on things they need that other regular schooled children have?

On top of all this, the year my son was starting his first year of real school, I had a 5 year old, a almost 4 year old, a 3 year old and and a 5 month old baby. I was snowed under with my own household chores. The laundry was always piled high, the meals and dishes were never ending, the house was a constant mess. I had very little help besides my husband. I was recovering from quite severe depression from my recent pregnancy. I was very discouraged, I lost my ‘spark’ and I needed a break.

We enrolled our son in the local public school. It was the only option, as we were living out on a my parents farm and it was the only school within reasonable driving distance. But still 30km away.

It was hard going getting him there. He didn’t want to go and got very upset. Once we had to rip him out of the car onto the school bus while he was kicking, screaming and crying. My heart was breaking as the bus rolled away.

He spent one term at that school. One day he was in the car and was upset yet again and didn’t want to get out. I was not going to create another distressing scene of pulling him onto the bus. I had three other little ones in the car that I needed to get home and still feed breakfast too. I was tired of trying to get him to school. I was tried of everything. I got out of the car and told the bus driver that our son would not be getting on the bus today. Got back into the car and drove him home again.

I didn’t take him back to school again for another year.

I ordered some more curriculum and homeschooled him for the rest of the year. It did get a little better and I began getting some of my homeschool spark back. We took him into town for weekly piano lessons and to the library every Friday and I was beginning to find my ‘groove.’

DSCF6434

The following year we moved to a new location and suddenly found ourselves surrounded by other families who also homeschool their children. It was the support I had always hoped and prayed for. They even have a weekly meet up where homeschooling families all get together and do activities and make friends at. But I was expecting our 5th baby and decided to enroll our eldest into the local public school because I was worried about how I wound cope homeschooling while I had a newborn. I kept our second born son home for reception though as I felt he was too young and not quite ready for school.

By the middle of the year I was feeling much more confident. Our 5th baby was settled and happy and both Luke and I agreed that with the support of other local homeschooling families things would be much better. We agreed that it was time. Finally time to dive deep into homeschooling for good and not look back.

We pulled Francis out of school for terms 3 and 4. And homeschooled our two eldest sons then aged 5 and 7. These were probably our best 2 terms of homeschool ever. We began using the ACE curriculum and, though it still had it’s challenging moments, I was thoroughly enjoying myself and my role of ‘homeschool mum.’

 

This post is getting long so I decided to divide it into two parts. Come back next week and I will share the rest of our story and go into why we had to choose public school again and how I’ve gone from deep disappointment to excitement and hope.

 

Blessings, Peta

 

 

 

My non perfect weekly laundry routine that actually works! – Vlog!

/ 2punkshadabunchofkids / Leave a comment

Here’s some exciting news – I have begun a Youtube channel! You can now watch 2 Punks Had a Bunch Of Kids on Youtube! After being inspired by some other fellow mum Youtube vloggers – I decided to give it a go myself. And thankfully my husband is a Tech nerd and also has a Youtube channel Beard Tech, and has been teaching me how to edit videos and helped me set up my channel. It’s a work in progress, but I’m having so much fun!

In this vlog I demonstrate my weekly laundry routine.

This is the plan:

Monday: Wash dirty clothes from basket in boys room

Tuesday: Wash basket in Mine and Luke’s bedroom

Wednesday: Wash basket in girls room

Thursday: Washing basket in laundry room

Friday: Wash sheets and other linen.

Saturday: Wash boys school uniform.

I hang out the washing outside after lunch and fold the previous days dry washing straight off the line.

I then sort the washing into tubs – one tub for each child and one for me and Luke.

The older 3 children put away their own washing into their drawers and I put away the two little girls washing and mine and Luke’s.

It’s doesn’t always work out when I have a few busy days in a row where I have to do lots of running around to appointments and other errands. You’ll see in the video what happened on that particular week that threw me off course and why I needed to spend Saturday bringing it all back together again.  I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse into our home. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the video and leave me a comment below if you would like to see more videos and what you are interested in seeing/hearing about.

Blessings, Peta

Why I Am A Christian.

/ 2punkshadabunchofkids / Leave a comment

DSCF6432

What’s going to happen to me after I die? That’s the ultimate question isn’t it. It’s this question that attracts me to Jesus.

When I was seven years old my parents began attending an AOG (Assemblies Of God) Church in the small town we lived near. I began to learn heaps about God and suddenly the world began to make sense to me. Heaven, Hell, what Jesus did for me. It all made sense. I prayed along with my Sunday School teacher and asked Jesus to forgive my sins and I put my trust in Him. I became a Christian that day. I’ve never looked back. The Lord has a plan for my life and it was his will for me to become a Christian that day. When I was eight years old I decided that I wanted to be baptised to further show my commitment to the Lord. My Sunday School teacher and Pastor baptised me at the local beach. It was a glorious day. I was very young but still understood the old me was being washed away in the water and the new spirit within me was rising up and I was ‘born again.’

I remember writing in my journal back then, a prayer from my young heart.

“Lord let me always be close to you. Don’t let me ever become distant from you and follow the world. I want to be yours forever. Use me to do whatever you want me to do in my life. My life is yours. Amen”

I learnt that I can be in a relationship with Jesus. I can speak to Him anytime and anywhere. He delights in being close to me. He will speak to me by reading His word – the Bible. He can also speak to me and lead me along the right path for my life through the Holy Spirit which he sent to help us after he went up the heaven.

I realised that there was nothing I could do to get right with God. No good or nice thing will get me into Heaven to be with the Lord. It’s only by God’s grace that I am saved.

God sent his only son into the world as a baby. So he would grow up and become a sacrifice for me. I am a sinner and deserve to die. We all are. But God in His mercy, sent His son to lay down his life for me so I could live forever. My heart burns for my Lord as I think of him suffering on that cross. It deeply distresses me. I take this as seriously as I live and breathe.

The thought though, that I am now saved gives me hope and joy down to my deepest being. I imagine myself on those golden streets, as the Bible describes, dancing whilst weeping for joy!

I’ve had a burning passion since I was a little girl that others around me would be saved too. It’s a huge desire of mine. My passion for telling others about Jesus peaked in my teen years where I would begin telling everyone in my public school about Him. Some listened and asked questions. Some said I was weird. A particular group of boys harassed me very badly for it. I was spat on, tripped over, punched and kicked to the floor and verbally pulled to pieces.

Still all the while this Bible verse was going through my head…

And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Mark 13:13

The Bible speaks about Hell. Torment, isolation, fear, pain and burning for eternity. That place was made for Satan and his fallen angels, not for man. But because of mans disobedience to God way back at creation, they sadly must die and be judged. God judges the condition of our hearts by the way, not all the ‘good’ things we do.

But there is hope! That is why God sent Jesus into the world. So we didn’t have to spend forever apart from Him being tormented in Hell.

To be saved and spend eternity in the paradise of heaven, all we must do is…

  1. Repent. Which basically means to feel deeply sorry for all the sins we’ve done. (Lying, stealing, lust, using the Lord’s name in vain etc) and asking God for forgiveness.

  2. Believe in Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit with your whole heart.

  3. Trust in the God. – Put your trust in Him and dedicate your life to serving Him.

All this can be done, in your heart and in the privacy of your own home, or at church. Anywhere. Not to a priest or pastor. Just between you and God.

Other important things…

Once we become a Christian it is REALLY important to connect with other believers. Without regular contact with other Christians your faith can dwindle. All the ways of the world can begin to slip back into your life. The best place to connect with other believers is at a Bible believing Christian church.

There are many great denominations of Christian Churches! Here’s a few I recommend.

  • Baptist
  • Australian Christian Churches – ACC also called AOG
  • Lutheran
  • Acts 29.
  • Many non denominational churches are great too.

I went to an AOG (ACC) church for 20 years. I now have been attending a Baptist church for the last 2 years.

Having a Bible to read is also important. The Bible is God’s handbook for our lives. In it you will find the answers to all life’s big questions. Reading God’s word will bring us closer to Him, deepen our faith and transform our lives. I try to read mine daily.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword… Hebrews 4:12

You can download a Bible app onto your phone right now! Or go http://www.biblegateway.com. Or buy one from a Christian book store. http://www.koorong.com is a great place to buy Christian books, music and DVD’s if you are in Australia.

Another important thing is being baptised. There are some that agree with babies being baptised. However it is my understanding that it is better to be baptised when you are at an age of understanding. Being baptised is a decision of faith in action. Something a baby cannot yet comprehend. Jesus was baptised as an adult. All through scripture it tells us to believe and be baptised. Ask the pastor of the church you are attending about baptism. Many churches do baptism services from time to time where they baptise a few people at a time who are ready and willing.  They are baptised by full body immersion in water in a pool, river or beach. Like I mentioned above – I was baptised at the age of eight at the beach. Many members of our church came and stood on the foreshore to watch and congratulate me as I came out of the water.

There really is more to life than just going through the motions of getting up, going to work or school and coming home and going to bed again. There is hope and it is found in Jesus Christ.

This is why I am a Christian.

me and Willow playground

 

Blessings, Peta

PS. Beware of cults. Cults take God’s word and twist it to make up their own set of beliefs. They follow their own written book of rules and are NOT Christian. Cults are controlling and repressive. Some examples of cults are Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormons.