Homeschooling & Learning Patience
Monday, July 14th, 2008by Mimi Rothschild
When I first began homeschooling, I had many parents ask me, “Where do you find the patience to do that? I could NEVER homeschool my children! I just don’t have the patience.”
My answer has always been the same. As the mother of 8, patience is something I desperately need. I would say “Patience is something that develops by being tested, and it doesn’t happen over night. It takes time. It’s not something someone either naturally has or doesn’t have. If I’d have waited until I had patience to homeschool my children, I never would have.”
We’re not born with patience. It must be worked at and constantly refined. Just about the time I would think I had all the patience I’d need, something new would come up and I’d find out I had much fewer patience than I had thought.
Public school teachers don’t always have patience either, but with 20 to 30 students in their classroom, they don’t have the advantage that homeschoolers do to discuss the situation, or apologize to a particular student when they’ve been impatient.
Homeschooling is a way for parents and their children to live together in an understanding way. The very nature of a family has a number of different personalities within it. That then means that everyone’s patience will be tested from time to time. However, the opportunity is also there to correct an impatient attitude through an apology when necessary, and passing a similar test the next time instead of failing again.
The additional result will be the example you are to your children. Just as you teach your children through being patient, you also teach them through being impatient. It’s only through the special parental love you have for them, and the daily tests you go through together, that patience is ever found and perfected.