Shifting Paradigms | Unexpectedly Homeschooling Your Gifted Child

Before having kids, I was a teacher. A good teacher. And I loved it. I presented workshops, designed my own curriculum materials, wrote books for teachers, and never imagined I’d do anything other than teach and inspire other teachers along the way.

Ever experience a paradigm shift? You know, a complete change in the direction of your previous pattern…

I did. And it changed the course of my life.

 

Even when my sweet little baby boy came along in 2002, I still didn’t think I’d ever want to leave teaching, and homeschooling had never entered my mind. But then the time came to go back to the classroom and leave my 12-week old with someone else.

I was sad, but knew he was in good hands.

My two oldest kiddos both went to preschool, and then my oldest (Trevor) eventually began Kindergarten.

Trevor struggled, and continued to do so all of Kindergarten and into 1st grade before I admitted that it wasn’t going to work. In fact, he’d been struggling since he first entered organized daycare, but no other option had occurred to us. I mean, what else do you do, but send your kids to school? It was all we knew…

After a great deal of thought, research, reading, counseling, and trials of medication at the suggestion onf one pediatrician, Trevor came home for good in February of his first grade year. I was now a homeschooling mom of a first grader with a 6-month old baby and a preschooler.

Paradigm shift.

 

Paradigm Shift

 

Fast forward a few years, and I’m still a homeschooling mom of three, with a fourth on the way, a writer, and a teacher who does her best to inspire other teacher-moms – just in a different way.

There have been lots of other shifts in the patterns of my life, especially over the last two years. By choice, we’re in house almost 5-times smaller than the one we’ve live in for almost a decade, eating differently—more wholesomely— than before, actively working to change the focus of our family to a more Christ-centered, faith-filled life, and preparing for our newest blessing to arrive in January.

Friends tell me I always have a story because there is a never-ending supply of goings-on around here: a sick or hurt kiddo, a crazy project, a mini-trip, spur of the moment field trip, move, job change, curriculum change, or a new joy or struggle.

I used to say that I longed for a normal day with no stories to tell. I wanted God to give me a break – let me coast and enjoy whatever path I was on without a new one to figure out.

Now I’m thankful He knew better.

Paradigm shift.

 

Paradigm Shift

 

God really does know best. He knows what we need, what we can and can’t handle, and what will make us better people. I’m thankful He knows me so well that he has allowed me to long for these changes in my pattern over the years, and that He has blessed me with the courage to follow His will.

I’m thankful that He has made me the wife and mother I am today. And I’m thankful that He is with me always. My family is blessed because we live and love together in Christ.

And because we have been open to paradigm shifts.

What are you thankful for?