I often talk about homeschooling as a hiking trip. You might have heard me use this analogy before, and there's a reason for that. My husband loves backpack camping.The first time Andrew went backpacking on his own, he was super excited about it. He was going to hike out about nine miles, spend a couple of nights in the wilderness, then hike back the nine miles into town.He’d been looking forward to this for a very long time. He considered everything he might need or want on such an excursion. He p...
I often talk about homeschooling as a hiking trip. You might have heard me use this analogy before, and there's a reason for that. My husband loves backpack camping.
The first time Andrew went backpacking on his own, he was super excited about it. He was going to hike out about nine miles, spend a couple of nights in the wilderness, then hike back the nine miles into town.
He’d been looking forward to this for a very long time. He considered everything he might need or want on such an excursion. He piled all those supplies onto our kitchen table. He made homemade beef jerky. He gathered up bear spray, extra water, he even had a small ax to carry with him for cutting firewood.
The night before he set out, his backpack weighed 56 pounds. That’s a heavy backpack, but it didn’t matter because he was so excited. This was going to be the best weekend ever.
The next morning he left.
He had a terrible time. His backpack dug into his shoulders the whole time. Only one mile into his nine-mile hike, every step felt difficult and he spend most of the hike wishing he hadn’t even started, wishing he wasn’t doing it, and fantasizing about what he had in his backpack that he could throw into the fire when he finally set up camp so he wouldn’t have to pack it back out.
It was very slow going. He was not making good progress.
About halfway in, he wasn’t even sure he would make it to the place he’d been planning to set up camp for the night. It was getting dark and he wasn’t sure he could get there in time.
He was overwhelmed by a sense of not being cut out for this kind of camping.
It’s worth noting that the whole point of hiking is to enjoy the hike. To enjoy nature, to clear your head, to take in the views, to do the actual hiking.
But all Andrew could think about as he hiked was getting to the end.
His head was loud. It was full of thoughts like, “Why did I do this? I don’t have to do this if I don’t want to. I wish I hadn’t come. I’m so tired. This is so awful. I am not cut out for this.”
And about the time he told me he wanted to roll over and die, I realized this is exactly like homeschooling.
Because isn’t this the way we set out in our homeschooling too?
We get excited about a new school year. We have a vision for the kind of joy-filled learning that we’re going to have in our homes. And before the year begins, we think through all of the things that we might want or need on our journey and then we pack it all in.
We tend to decide at the beginning of a new school year, what do we want to use for all the subjects that we think we need to teach our kids? And just like Andrew did, as he laid out all his supplies that he thought he needed on his hiking trip on our kitchen table, then crammed them into his backpack–just like that, we lay out on our lesson planner, or a spreadsheet, or a giant list everything we might want to cover in the upcoming school year.
And we start stockpiling everything we need. Book lists, curriculum, lesson plans, art supplies, science tools–we gather it all up and then we jam it into our metaphorical backpack and it weighs 56 pounds and it is hard to carry.
So today, I want to invite you to peek into your backpack.
How heavy is it? Can you actually carry this thing over the long haul? Can you do it without breaking? Can you do it without wishing the whole time that you were done?
The key to a successful homeschool is a peaceful, content homeschooling mama.
And this year on this podcast, I am going to remind you of that week after week because it is startlingly easy to lose sight of that truth.
To be a peaceful, content mama, what do we need to make that a reality?
For one, we can’t be carrying a backpack that weighs 56 pounds.
When Andrew did his second backpacking trip, he did it differently. He only packed the essentials. He read up on ultralight backpacking, which means you only bring what you absolutely need.
He didn’t bring a change of shorts. He didn’t bring extra water, only just enough. And he bought a water filtration kit so that he could filter water from the water sources along the way that he knew he would pass. He planned ahead, knowing those water sources were coming and planning to make use of them. He didn’t pack extra food. He packed just enough.
And you know what? He had the time of his life. He loved every minute. He enjoyed the journey. He enjoyed the hike in, which was the whole point. The hike was still hard work. The trail didn’t change. It was still six miles uphill.
But when he got to his destination, he enjoyed the path he took to get there. Even while that hike stretched out and challenged him, he was able to retain his peace. He was content. He was able to enjoy it. He had what he needed. He wasn’t carrying too much in his backpack.
And he was able to climb into his sleeping bag at night and experience that good kind of tired. That satisfied kind of tired that comes not because you had a day of ease, but because you had a day that was maybe challenging or stretched you and grew you, but it was good, worthwhile difficult things.
If you were just to pack absolutely what you needed to get where you wanted to go this school year, what would that look like?
There is time enough this school year. God gave you 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, and that is enough. He didn’t shortchange you, I promise. I have to remind myself of this too, trust me. But He did not shortchange us. He gave us exactly what we need.
On that first hike, Andrew didn’t enjoy the journey at all, he just wanted it to be over. What’s the point of hiking if you just want the whole thing to be over? The whole point of is the journey. The actual doing is the point.
In our homeschooling, the same thing is true.
The day-to-day, that’s the point. Our goal is not actually to get done with it. When we’re done with it, our kids are grown, they’ve flown the nest. Our goal is to be doing the thing. To be doing this good, hard, challenging, satisfying work that God has given us and then gives us everything we need to do it well.
And while we’re doing it, we can have the energy to take in the views and to laugh and to enjoy our kids, and also get to our destination and not wonder if we’re going to make it. Not wonder if we’re going to make it to our campsite before sundown. Not wonder if we’re going to make it through this homeschool year alive.
But it feels tenuous if we don’t figure out how to lighten that backpack.
So right here, at the top of a brand-new homeschooling year, I’m inviting you to peek in your backpack and see if there’s anything you can do to lighten that load.
I’ll be back here in your headphones next week with some questions that are going to help you decide what exactly you can take out of that backpack because it can be really hard to know. And it’s not helpful to hear, “Hey, you’ve got to lighten our load,” and not be told how.
So for now, just notice it. You’re carrying a backpack. How heavy is it?
Remember, you’ve got everything you need to teach with peace that transcends all understanding. You were made for such a time and such a homeschool as this. I’m praying for you.
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