AA (Agape Academy) crossing the finish line (continued)

It has been a great adventure and not just because we were pilgrims in the physical sense but more so that we are pilgrims on our way to the Celestial City and we bid our children to come with us, leading them in the paths of righteousness, knowing full well that it is the Father who leads us and them for that matter. The journey has had its highs and lows. It is hard to believe that life is racing on and I want to be able to savor the moments and really take things in....leave my phone behind or off even for just a few hours at a time and just be present wherever I go especially when I am with my kids.


I have not been very good about blogging about the girls being launched, not the way I would have hoped to have written. The notes are more like doggie ears within the blog instead of actual posts. However, the girls have been coming and going for some time now, both are college students and for the most part Michael has been "home alone and in the world" with his parents for the better part of 2 years.

We have a plaque that was Dan’s mum’s it reads:

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children –

one is roots, the other wings.”

Children are meant to grow up and become adults. Do you want them to soar? Then don’t clip their wings when they start showing signs of maturity. I recall saying the first time I put Grace on a plane, “most people put their kid on a big yellow bus at age 5 and here I am putting my almost 15 year old on a plane.” Do you want them to be wise? Teach them to fear God and not men. One of the greatest truths that I have learned from the experience of educating my own children is this: No matter where your children are educated (home, public or private), there will be educational gaps. Do you want them to succeed in life? Then don’t let academics become an idol.  Who among us has not made a bad decision or two or three? Let your kids make bad decisions here and there, while they are still with you, that way you have the opportunity to walk through the process of learning from it with them. 

Seeking first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and growing in wisdom and knowledge have been our first priority, whole heartedly believing if we kept God as our first priority, academic excellence would be added because for sure many people, not just the pagans run after these things. Of course, we are to do everything with excellence but not so much so that it becomes the driving force in our lives, leaving our hearts in the dust. 

More still to come.....

Agape Academy crossing the finish line (an overdue update)

When our kids were young and we had grown from "educating our children at home is a year at a time" to it becoming our lifestyle we decide to give the educational branch of our family life a name, "Jesus Agape Academy." Many years later when it was time to submit a transcript for Grace's high school years we decided to shorten it to Agape Academy. Transcripts, the documentation of that branch of our life is what the schools of Higher Education care about and we did not want those institutions to be distracted by our "school" name. We are not ashamed of the gospel.  The Academy in the formal sense has been on sabbatical for nearly 6 months but all of us continue to learn and our last student will transition from home to college toward the end of the summer.   

This past December Michael finished his studies at home. If you have followed my blog over the years you may recall me writing about raising/educating children at home and comparing it to the Boston Marathon and the teen years being like Heartbreak hill which is about 19 miles into the Marathon and can make or break a runner.  We crossed the finish line without much fanfare. It wasn’t how I pictured it. There were hard and trying times, along with sweet and treasured ones. More importantly, we stayed in the race and we were victorious by God's grace and a bit of human tenacity. 

It is with quiet satisfaction to have completed this season of parenting, not so much that I had accomplished a daring feat (though some may think so) but that my children have turned out to be lifelong learners. They are teachable, creative, daring and finding their way along the Pilgrim Highway. Our parenting and educating of our children were interwoven. (I am aware of the fact that not all homeschooling families subscribe to the same philosophy of education.) We discipled our children in the LORD, did our best to consider the whole child, not just their heads, but their hearts. It was our goal to educate the whole child: body, mind and soul. When our children were young, I became a student of each one and each one has a different learning style. This required customizing the method as well as the curriculum.

My educational philosophy in a nutshell is that we as parent educators are to equip our children with the tools of learning and then provide them with the resources in order to be able to learn many things on their own. This means that they learn from other people directly and from books and from life and circumstances. It does not mean that they are force fed knowledge.


to be continued......   

NanoWrimo is here. Our family has been participating in NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month = November) since 2005 when we lived in Quechee, VT. For more info go here. So, we are 8 hours in and I have not written a word. Not to worry, I will begin later. At least I know what I am writing about this year.

The story begins in the mid 1990's families across the country have taken on the responsibility and challenge of educating their own at home. (a topic that I am intimately familiar with) The focus we be upon this family that shelters their children into late adolescence which cripples them in their early adulthood. My story can be summarized by a recent tweet of mine where I quoted my husband, "Some homeschooling parents interpret the verse to say, "You are to be as wise as serpents and as ignore as ostriches." This is a harsh reality in the homeschooling community. Parents hearts have been broken. Young lives shattered.

Shout outs to Dan, Grace, Katie and Michael! My wonderful family. God has blessed me so much. I am grateful for each and everyone of you! All NanoWrimo winners and beautiful loving people. I love you guys!

There are families who come together
and those that don't
There are families who laugh out loud
and those who cry
There are families who sing four part harmony
and those who can't find the note
There are those who enjoy communion
and those who are lonely
No family is perfect and some experience more brokenness than others.....when you see a family who is united in spirit something inside says I want that. Some of us will have that with parts of our family, perhaps with our spouse and children and some of our extended family. Some family relations are perhaps broken beyond repair.

Television Event

When I was a kid there were annual television events: once a year you could see The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music among others. If you missed it, you had to wait til next year, there were no VHS tapes, DVDs or Blu-rays, no YouTube or other Internet sources for your enjoyment. It also meant that it was usually a family affair. Children in feety pajamas hoping they could make it til the first commercial if they needed "to go." Parents putting aside their book or evening newspaper (there was a morning edition too in those days) to watch a classic with their family.

So I thought, are there really any television events left? Immediately, I thought about the Super Bowl, people still hold Super Bowl parties, bars and restaurants make it special too. It really is An Event. Tuesday September 11th, 2001 was a television event that most Americans watched. I was not one of them not because I didn't have a TV but I was doing something else. I became aware of the event in progress and since I was in the car I tuned into the news via radio. When I arrived at my destination there was a TV on and I witnessed the first Tower to come down, but I didn't stay. The man standing next to me freaked out. I wanted to know what was going on but I didn't want to be glued to the set. I would tune in later that day. Coverage lasted for days. I watched the President address the nation from a bed and breakfast in Queens. That's right, Queens one of the five New York City boroughs is where I was on September 20th, 2001.

As our friend Bob Dylan likes to say, "times they are a changin' " Some parents will not have their children watch the Super Bowl with them since Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. Other parents allow their children to have their own TV's and often parents have a TV in their bedroom. We can watch classic movies anytime and almost anywhere on a laptop. We have gained so much over the years but we have lost a time, date and place for the family to get together around a television event.

*These thoughts were brought on by my latest email from Barnes and Noble. The 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz is out. They even have an ultimate collector's edition. It can sit on your shelf reminding those of us who remember when it was a television event or you can watch it any time with everyone or all by yourself.

Increasing NOT decreasing

One of the most consistent things in life is change. This past weekend we sent our oldest out of the next to test her wings for the next 4 months or so. Strangely enough we have peace about this next chapter of our life. For our family it is not just a change in Grace's life but in our family's life. For the last 17 plus years, we have been walking through life together and the last 4 years traveling and living in places where at first all we had was each other.
In anticipation of Grace going on tour with Communicators for Christ, I prayed regularly to be able to release her with a blessing and at times I thought about missing her and that our family was decreasing.
Then we gathered with almost all of the families who were sending their children off on this wonderful journey that lay before them. On Sunday we had the family commissioning where we had the opportunity to give a charge to our child and the team. Leading up to this moment, I thought our family size decreasing with Grace's absence and instead what we gained were 12 other families, brothers and sisters in Christ who are with us during this season of our pilgrim journey.

As each family shared, I saw a true demonstration of one body and many parts. Of one family, The Moons taking many young people on a journey, yet each one of us in many ways are in for the long haul as well. Laughter, tears, and Cheers (for the Currans) throughout this commissioning, it was an intimate time. Many things I am storing up in my heart and there they will stay. I will however say this, our world has grown larger and as we have gotten to know some of the families better this weekend, we definitely look forward to encouraging one another and growing through this experience together.
Each family revealed its unique personality through their words of encouragement and warning. The common thread in every charge was blessing. Most of the dads showed great emotion, every dad in one way or another said, "son or daughter, you are ready, we have poured ourselves into you and now you are ready to go forth and be poured out for others."
I walked away from the experience drained in one way and filled in another. All these brothers and sisters in Christ were now being assemble and linked together through CFC. Our kids are now a team and so are we. We were not losing our daughter but gaining new friendships and welcoming new brothers and sisters into our lives.
So to each of the parents of the 2007 CFC Interns I say, thank you for investing in your children, raising them in the fear of the Lord, loving them the way Jesus loves us and directing them to the one True God.

To each of the Interns, I say to you with the apostle Paul: (from Romans 12)

"Let love be without hypocrisy Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence,fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints"

Know that all the parents will be praying for each and every one of you.

Looking forward to what the Lord will be doing throughout the season.

Pax Vobiscum,
CM

Making a house a home
Yesterday, I had a very interesting conversation with my daughter, Grace. She wanted to talked to me about what it takes to be a full time homemaker. Let me say this, she is well on her way in knowing how to run a household. She has missed out on taking care of little ones although she did a bit of that before we left Massachusetts. Our discussion contained not only the practical but also the philosophy and flavor of homemaking.
In some ways, it was hard to be open and vulnerable even though we have always been that way with our children. I guess because the first things that came to my mind were the places where I fall short.
See our home is not so much in the physical place where we live but the way we live together wherever that may be. Our hearts are knit together, we love one another, forgive each other and we are pulling for one another. We laugh and cry together. Living by faith is not just a spiritual saying but we are actually living by faith. One of our loves is the written word. Some would say, "with all those library cards what are you doing packing all those books and lugging them everywhere?" A number of our books are treasures. We had read books together or one of us reads a book and then we pass it around the family. This is probably an aspect of homemaking that might not come to your mind but when I pack or unpack books it touches a place in my heart and my family is right there with me.

The legacy we leave will not be what kind of car we drove, what kind of houses (or apartments) we lived in, which cell phone service or Internet provider we used. It will be about the memories, stories and love we shared. It will be the type character we ourselves possessed and helped to cultivate in our kids. It will be whether we served others or expected others to serve us or whether all our striving was for God's glory or to make a name for ourselves. Home is where the heart is and when our hearts are in the Hands of the King, our nests down here large or small are just little campsites on the way to the Celestial City, our Eternal home.
Pax,
CM