Balancing

I am going back and forth on educating Arabella and Holden.
One day I am set on homeschooling, looking forward to the time together, the opportunity to teach them, and uncomplicate our life.
The next day, I think, "who am I kidding!" I'll never be organized enough to teach them. Their lifes will be chaotic.

Last week, I planned to go on Thursday to just talk to my local school (in a district know for excelling in Special Ed) about Arabella. But I knew there were factors they could not guarantee: mainly, how good of an Aide she would have.
Then Wed, her Speech Therapist invite Arabella to join a 3-day per week class with 5 other kids @ her center, to supplement her homeschooling. It sounds like it will offer just what I was looking for at school – a routine, consistent interactions with other kids, and obedience to another teacher.
I am so thankful for this super-affordable option, 1/2-way between homeschool and school. I'll still do the academics, pick the curriculum, but I'll have some time to reorganize between our at-home school days.

So that just leaves Holden. My sweet Holden. I have lots of guilt about last year. I pulled him out of The Rise School for Pre-K, to try the public Montessori magnet in our old school district, Wilson Elementary. It was a fine arts school, so I thought it would be good for him, but the timing was really about checking it out for Arabella for this coming year.
He missed Rise a lot. Then at the end of the 2nd semester, we moved him to Veritas Christian Academy. He wanted to learn about God, we wanted him to be trained in righteousness, and we knew by then that Wilson Elementary was not going to be a good fit for Arabella.
Holden did great @ Veritas. It was a great little school.

But now that we moved, Veritas is not an option. It's in Bellaire….
We are in Deer Park. It has an 8am arrival with $5 tardies…. We would have to leave home @ 7am to be on time.

So, no matter what, Holden's doing something new. And he doesn't even turn 5 until August 23rd.
At the end of the school year, he was excited about homeschooling….
Now he's asking for school. But he's not the Boss, so I have to decide.

Yikes!

Homeschooling

God has laid it on my heart to homeschool Arabella and Holden next year.
It’s kinda weird because, when I felt like homeschooling might be my only option for Holden (at Christmas time), I didn’t want to do it. Then we found Veritas Christian Academy for Holden, and I started talking with them about Arabella attending there.
I remember feeling like I’d be devastated if Veritas didn’t let Arabella attend there.
Then Arabella started her 3 visitation days at Veritas. And I began to realize that I wanted the privilege I was trying to convince them they wanted – to teach my angel. And I realized that I am looking forward to spending lots of time with Bella as best girls in the post-school years… And I don’t want to get there and find her life has been wasted and she has been hurt.
Then I started getting excited. I almost didn’t send her to her 3rd visit to Veritas, except that I hadn’t worked out logistics.
So when last Monday Veritas told me they did not think they are a good fit for Arabella, I said, “I agree!”

SIMPLIFY
I’ve been wanting to simplify my life for awhile, mainly, so I can be better at the important things:

• Being Joel’s wife
• training my children
• ministering through Basilica

While I think I will be busy homeschooling, I will not be fitting training the children into the last 3, tired, hours of the day.