A roadside bouquet
What does a Christian unschooling life look like? Are we all free individuals who can do as we like? Or does our faith require certain things of us? Do we need to share our faith with our kids? If so, how do we pass it on to our kids without imposing it by force? Or is force justified because faith is such an important aspect of our lives?
And what do we do if things don’t turn out as we hope? Do we carry a burden of guilt, or do we accept that we can only do our best and then pray and trust that God will work things out? That could be a painful place to be. We’d probably much rather everything turn out perfectly. But just imagine how proud and unbearable we’d be if that happened.
I often write about the imperfections of an unschooling life. Unschooling isn’t a happy fairytale. Of course, it could be one of those fairytales where things start okay and go wrong in the middle. We might wonder how everything will be resolved. But the story always ends when the prince weds his princess, a perfect day.
When our lives get difficult, we need to remember that our stories haven’t ended. We’re in the interesting, sometimes exciting, but often challenging middle bit. We haven’t got to the last day. We mustn’t forget that God is in control. He’s looking after us. We can trust Him. Everything will be okay.
You might have guessed from all my imperfect unschooling life stories that my own family life is imperfect. Because I’m a blogger that sometimes bothers me. I wonder if readers think I’m making excuses for my inability to produce perfect children. Or is that really the way life is?
A few months ago, I moved my website from WordPress to Squarespace. It was a huge job that required weeks of work. At times, I was tempted to delete my site rather than rebuild it on a different platform. I told myself that the work wasn’t worth it. Who reads my blog anyway? But the truth, which I was reluctant to admit at first, was that it would be a relief to withdraw my family from the Internet. I wouldn’t have to risk criticism for my imperfect parenting. No one would look to me for a good example.
I didn’t end up deleting my website because, as I prayed, I realised that doing that would be cowardly. What does it matter what others think of me? Isn’t it better for me to remain online and be honest? If I withdraw to keep myself safe, I can’t reach out to offer support and encouragement. I also can’t receive those from other people.
I must admit, despite those brave words, I still have days when I’d like to hit the ‘delete’ button. My reason hasn’t really got anything to do with honesty. It’s more about wondering if it’s time to move on. Go do something else. Is this part of my life over?
Assessing My Experiment
That question leads to my Christian unschooling experiment. Two weeks ago, I made a pact with myself to post a couple of newsletter-based posts each week and write a new Christian unschooling story. I’ve done that, and now, like for any experiment, it’s time to look at the results.
It’s hard to assess my posts' success because I never set up Google Analytics when I moved my website to Squarespace. It didn’t seem important. (Long gone are those days when my eyes were glued to the numbers.) So, I can’t see how many people view each post. I also haven’t received any comments yet, - I’m still hopeful! - which would give me feedback on what I’ve written.
Once upon a time, no comments would have pushed me into a state of despair. Instant proof that I should delete my blog. But these days, that doesn’t bother me. I’m more interested in these questions: do I have something that I want to share, and am I enjoying writing the posts?
Well, Christian unschooling is an aspect of unschooling that still generates new thoughts and ideas. I want to explore it. So I might publish a few more posts in this series.
I also might write about other unschooling topics. For example, I had an idea the other day to write a podcast-based series. And I could always return to my unschooling A-Z stories.
So, I guess I won’t be deleting my website this week.
After a couple of false starts, I’ve now got an email post-notification system that I’m happy with. I’ve begun a new subscriber list. Why not join it?
