While I’m not a huge fan of teaching math, I do enjoy solving puzzles. Math, to me, is like a puzzle to be solved. There’s another way we use numbers and that is with statistics. I thought I’d give you some today.
18
This is the number of years I have been homeschooling my children. Eighteen years, up to four hours a day, five days a week. I cannot say every day was rainbows and lollipops but every day my children were with me. They were learning and developing all at paces I set.
6
The number of children I have homeschooled. My first three started in public school. Our oldest had one year in Christian school. The last three have always been educated at home. I would change nothing now except to homeschool all of them right from the start. Having seen and been involved in all three systems, homeschooling is definitely the best for us.
16,380
This number is big! It represents the number of hours I have had my children in my life thanks to being a stay-at-home mom and homeschooling. I was shocked when I saw this number (and yes I verified the math). What else does this number represent?
*the number of hours the children are away from their parents’ influences and teaching
*the number of hours the children are under the teaching of someone who is not the parent
*a portion of these hours represents influence by peers – peers met in an environment parents have no control of
*this also shows the number of hours parents are not there seeing their children’s firsts, the progress in their learning
This has become a very sobering number to me as I get ready to teach my 5th grader for another day. Where would my children be today if I hadn’t spent these hours teaching them? What influences and friends would they have made? It is a scary thought, to me, now when I think of my little children going off to school for hours a day and I not being there with them.
All too soon, they are leaving this house and will be out on their own. We have two already married and two more getting ready to go out on their own. As they leave, I can say I have no regrets for keeping them near me the first 18 years of their lives.
We decided what influences we wanted them to have. They were guided into godly friendships by caring parents. We showed them the Bible and Pierre led each one of his children to the Lord. We are the ones at lunchtime having meaningful conversations with them day after day. Think about the firsts we have experienced in the 16, 380 hours we have been able to spend with them. No regrets!