Anxious Homeschool Mom, Keep Sowing. The Harvest Comes Later

Written by Patty Wolf.

It was a rainy morning in 1991 when we embarked on our homeschool journey. My bright, enthusiastic kindergarten daughter dressed up for the occasion and sat at an antique, wooden school desk ready to begin.

She wasn't the only one ready.

I had a notebook filled with plans for that first week not knowing that my eager first-born would zip through them in two days.

I was ready, but if truth be told, I was also a bit anxious.


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As I saw the school bus drive past our house for everyone else’s first day of school, I remembered what a thrill those first days of school were for me each year of my childhood. And then my mind began to swirl with these thoughts:

Was everything going to be alright? Is my daughter going to miss out on something?

I only knew one other family who was homeschooling.

I was normally a confident person.
I have a college degree. Surely I can do this, I told myself.
In time, I came to see what truly mattered was not my degree, but that I loved my children. God had given me a passion for this and my husband was on-board, so with His grace, day by day, I would begin sowing seeds.

I have always loved the Bible lesson on sowing and reaping from Galatians. In more ways than one, it has been a great analogy for my time as a homeschool mom.

Scripture promises that if you sow, you reap. You reap later than you sow. You reap more than you sow.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time, we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9.

Over the course of twenty-two years of homeschooling three children, I repeated that verse more times than I can count.

I had to choose to keep sowing when my daughter got her “b’s” and “d’s” confused until midway through second grade.

I found out later that letter reversals don’t keep you from graduating college summa cum laud. But at the time, it made me weary and anxious. Day after day, I'd gently, and sometimes not so gently, remind her of her mix up.

Over the years she too had time to sow seeds. She sowed them according to her talents and interests, becoming a pianist and violinist and majoring in music. She is married now with five children of her own, some of whom she is homeschooling. She teaches violin and piano in her home and is patient, determined, and resilient. She is an amazing harvest!

But not the only one.

One of the greatest joys of my homeschool years was reading aloud. I read aloud every day. We read biographies, historical fiction, classic literature. You name it, we read it. We read aloud on car trips, in the evening before bedtime and sometimes while the kids played in the bathtub. I credit our read aloud times as helping them each become good writers which is something they needed in college.

When I read aloud, they “heard” grammar and were introduced to the past and to other countries. What's more, they learned perseverance through trial, victories, and defeats.

During one particular season, we were reading many classic novels. I remember telling them that the stories would help them to understand references made by others in order that they could be a part of a variety of conversations when they became adults.

Recently, I was able to reap some of the harvest of my many hours of reading when my youngest son, who is a 24-year-old computer programmer, retweeted a line from To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the many books we had enjoyed together. It was a public tweet with a private meaning for me. I continue to reap kindness and thoughtfulness from this young man! He's another amazing harvest.

And yet, there's more.

In addition to classics, I also often read art books to my kids. I'd show them famous paintings from long ago and read artist biographies aloud to them. While I read, I'd often give my energetic middle son some handwork to do.

Is he really paying attention? I'd wonder.

But in the end, I had to ignore my fears. I had to sow, trust, and keep on reading, knowing that the harvest would come eventually.

I remember one series of lessons in particular: I was sharing my love for the art of Jean Francois Millet. His peasant paintings intrigued me. I wondered about the peasants in the pictures and what life was like for them. As I read out loud, my busy son who was around eight-years-old at the time sat there with Legos or play-doh, a sketch pad or maybe even a wood-burning kit. Despite the many interruptions, I read. And I trusted that he was listening.

He is now a 31-year-old global software specialist. He has been blessed to be able to travel the world for his work and has seen many of the places and things we read about in his childhood.

The best part: He shares them with me.

A few years ago when he was in Europe at an art museum, he sent me a text--a picture of him standing beside a painting. The message read, “I know you like him, Mom."

It was a peasant painting by Jean Francois Millet!

It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. He was listening. Back then, when I was sowing, I had no idea what the harvest would look like or that it would come in such a special way. I didn’t have to be perfect to reap a son who always considers his parents in heartwarming ways! I just had to sow in faith.

That is humbling.

Anxious homeschool mom, keep sowing. You can believe for a harvest because He who promises is faithful. He tells us that sowing results in reaping. The season of sowing precedes the harvest. His grace is sufficient to meet you in your place of need.

Yes, there were many days in my homeschool years when I wondered if I'd ever see any fruit, but somewhere deep inside, I believed God’s promises to me. I repeated them often. He is a rewarder of the diligent.

Home education is ripe with academic rewards and can foster a passion for lifelong learning, but more importantly, it reaps a bounty in God’s economy. And it is His measurement that counts. God gave you these children and will personally lead you in their homeschool journey!

The ground might seem barren and empty right now with nothing to show for all your efforts. Like my daughter all those years ago, your child might still be writing "b's" instead of "d's." Your read aloud time might be busier and louder than you would like.

That's OK.

Just keep sowing. The harvest comes later!

___________________________________________

Patty Wolf lives in Arkansas. She began homeschooling in 1991 and homeschooled three children K-12 totaling twenty-two years. She has been married for 39 years. Two of her children are married and she has five grandchildren. She is now fully enjoying an empty nest season and many new adventures.

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