Predicting the Future
How many times have you found yourself explaining to your child that they WILL use this ______ in their adult lives? “You will need this someday!” we sing as we force rote memory inside their beautifully open minds. We assume we know what they’ll need to know when it comes time for them to flee the nest.
As homeschooling parents, we have spent countless hours researching the best methods, read-alouds, workbooks, coding websites, and more to feel like we are providing these children with an adequate education. We see what technology and life are like TODAY and try to prepare them for a quality life with limitless career opportunities for TOMORROW.
It is impossible. Let me repeat… impossible.
We cannot possibly know not only what technology will be invented in the next 5, 10, 15 years, but we also have NO IDEA what will eventually spark interest in these young minds, causing them to follow a career path we cannot envision. A career that may not even exist yet. A career that the kids themselves may balk at when mentioned today, but in twenty years becomes a passion.
For example- growing up I had plans to become a teacher. God had other plans. I became a mother first, at a very young age. I didn’t even finish high school*. I felt like a complete failure UNTIL… he placed homeschooling on my heart. Not only did I become a teacher (WIN!) but I am teaching my own children every single day. Not just five days a week with summers off; I am with my favorite students all day and all year long! *I did eventually obtain my GED and later my AA but only when it interested me enough to put in the effort.
My mother could never have guessed that I would be a stay-at-home wife to a cop that homeschools her FOUR kids. I would have laughed if she even hinted that this would be the life I live. She would not have guessed any of the things I hold so dear to my heart. I’ve changed so much in life that it would have been futile on her part to keep trying.
The things she did prepare me for, however, were everlasting. Kindness. Humanity– how to look for the good in people, especially when it is hard to find. Budgeting! Cooking. Love.
This homeschooling life is not a recipe. You can’t put in three cups of hard work, a cup of research, 4-6 oz of field trips, mixed with weekly co-ops, bake for 12 years and BAM! You have a happy, educationally satisfied young adult ready to take on the world!
Should you research the daylights out of your curriculum before you shell out $900? YES! Should you become a slave to it due to its high cost, stellar reviews and continue forcing it on your stargazing children if they hate it? Maybe not. Show them patience, grace, and flexibility, instead.
Let that be the lesson for the day.
Kari Hessing. Wife of a law enforcement officer and mother to three darling ladies and one charming son. We call Iowa home but I am a Texas gal through and through. When my babies give me a spare minute you can find me baking up some chocolate chip cookies, reading a good book, or chasing one of my fat cats hoping to score a snuggle. This is our fourth year of homeschooling and we love it!
