Recovering Homeschool Mom

I have been a homeschooling mom for the past 5 years.

And this year, it all changes!

We have decided to put all 3 of our children in local schools, for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is that after nearly six years living in South africa, I really feel drawn to spend more time at Seed of Hope.  I have always worked part-time at the Centre, but while homeschooling young children, it has been hard to find the time I needed to really invest as I would have liked to.

We are making a few improvements in our health care approach at SOH, and I am excited to be able to be there almost every day.  Our health approach is morphing into a screening centre, where people can come to have their blood pressure or blood sugar checked, receive pregnancy counseling and a free pregnancy test, do simple vision tests and still, of course, offer HIV tests.  Including the other screenings is hopefully going to ease the stigma that people have about SOH’s health team.  Right now if the SOH car is seen at someone’s house in the community, it is assumed that someone in the house has HIV.  Expanding our approach will allow people to come for help without being afraid of being stigmatized.  We will also be including a lot of education on health, nutrition, etc.

Allowing other people to educate my children is the price I have to pay to be able to go back to work full-time(ish.)  Anyone who knows me well knows I have a few control issues – so please pray for my kids’ teachers! 😉  I don’t want to be the obnoxious mother who will not leave the teachers alone!!  But I might have that tendency.

Marae will be returning to ‘Toti Primary, where she sailed through her Grade 4 year last year.  Nate is starting Grade 2 at the same school.  It will be his first real school experience, so he is a bit nervous, but I know he will do well.  And Elise will be doing her kindergarten year at a local preschool.  Our school year in South Africa goes from January to December with 4 short breaks spread throughout the year.  So on January 16th, my children had their first day at school.  And they all did great!  I tried not to hover at the doors when dropping them off and did not even overload the teachers with too many “directions” on how to educate my children! 😉  I feel very blessed to have been a homeschooling mom, but am now looking forward to this next season of our lives.