Pajama School Blog

Pajama School, Stories from the Life of a Homeschool Graduate

Not Back to School Sale – 25% Off!

by natalie

So sorry for the long silence here on the Pajama School Blog. I’ve been out of town all month, and ended up taking a break from the blog as well. I returned home last night and have spent most of today feverishly trying to catch up with everything that didn’t take a vacation while I was gone. 🙂

Earlier today, when I ran a few errands around town, I could hear it in the air. The sound of the end of summer. The sound of school. It was eerily quiet and the streets seemed motionless as I felt the absence of the children who occupied the outdoors all summer. They have all gone back to school.

As I sit here working at home, though, relishing the breeze blowing through our open windows, I realize that the ebb and flow of our lives continues much as normal. Naomi sits behind me, diligently working away at one of her self-initiated projects. Joey is hanging out in his room, absorbed in a book. Noelle is doing some research for me in preparation for a new endeavor she and I are getting ready to begin. And so on. Learning is integrated into life. We don’t watch the clock and pack up our books and turn off our minds at a designated hour. We don’t cross off days on our summer calendar, bemoaning the arrival of an official school start date.

Yes, this is certainly a more unconventional approach, and no, we haven’t always been so carefree, but now that all of us kids that are still living at home are older and can take responsibility for our own learning, we are expected to do just that. Mom and Dad instilled in us and modeled for us a love of learning. They trained us to think through various problems  and issues, and then to apply ourselves to gain understanding and find solutions. And perhaps most of all, they raised us outside of the schooling paradigm. We don’t ever really go “back” to school…because we’re always in “school”!

So…in honor of not going back to school, I’ve decided to offer a special sale on my book, Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate. Through the end of August, you can receive a 25% discount on your purchase when you enter the code: NBTS when you checkout at SibroPublishing.com! If you’ve been meaning to get a copy, but have been putting it off, now is the time – this is the most I’ve ever discounted it before! And just to make the deal even sweeter, if you make a note on your order that you’d like an autograph, I’ll be happy to personally sign your copy of the book! 🙂

Standing on Shoulders

by natalie

The other day I was talking with a homeschool mom. Her four oldest children have all become teachers in some capacity, and I commented that she must have been their inspiration. Like most homeschool moms I know, she quickly lamented her own shortcomings as a teacher. She said that she was sure her children would do things differently, and would be better teachers than she was. My own mother has said the same thing on numerous occasions. I think they are right. I hope they are right. You see, few of these moms grew up with aspirations of being teachers, let alone of teaching their own children. They didn’t have the training for it, the patience for it, or in some cases even the desire for it. But out of obedience to what they and their husbands believed God had called them to do, they took a monumental step of faith.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”1 They hoped their children would receive a good education. They hoped their children would become well-adjusted adults. They hoped their children would be successful. But they wouldn’t see the results for many years. They were taking one day at a time…by faith. And it is that faith that has left a legacy for their children – the second generation of homeschoolers.

We will do some things differently than our parents. Hopefully we will be better teachers than they were. By God’s grace, we will be better parents to our children. Not in spite of what our parents have done, but because of it. We who have been trained in the ways of the Lord from a young age; we who have been spared the bombardment of humanistic philosophies that permeate our government education system; we who have seen the example of obedience and faithfulness in our parents; we who have been given much – much will be required of us.2

I am excited about the future, and about the great things God has in store. And we who will make up the second generation of homeschool families are well-poised to make a huge impact on the world. Why? Because we are “standing on the shoulders”3 of our parents.

1. Hebrews 11:1
2. See Luke 12:48
3. See http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/268025.html