From homeschooling to online teaching

I went to college to become a mechanical engineer. I left college a newspaper journalist.

Thirteen years of reporting and I’d had enough. Not that I didn’t love my job. I loved giving people information that I hoped would help make their lives better.

But the hours were long, and what I really wanted was a steadier routine so as to spend more time with my growing family. So I took a job as a communications director for a county government.

Somewhere along the line, I began moonlighting without ever really knowing it. Somewhere between one of my reporting jobs and my current position as a local Tennessee farmer (ha!), I became an educator.

Since our children were old enough for school, we’ve been homeschooling, and I’ve always been an active part of it. Why should the task fall only to my wife when God has equipped us with strengths in different topics?

I’ve taught French, “parlez”-ing my way through a cup of coffee with my daughter so early in the morning it was still dark outside. I’ve led guitar lessons in the basement of one house and the garage of another so as not to disturb other school goers.

I’ve had the pleasure of discussing Newton’s laws on the rooftop of a house in Nepal, with the Himalayan mountains as my backdrop. And I’ve read so my books out loud to my children, follow by comprehension questions that I think I could recite many passages from memory.

Sure, I might have started off a little shaky, wondering if reading “Carry On, Mr. Bowditch” was really worth the time it took to console my daughter over the death of each of the man’s wives.

But regardless of my aptitude (or ineptitude), it’s been a blessing, not just to the children, but also to me. The time spent together has helped me know who each of my children is and what God has created them to be. It’s been a pleasure to watch them grow, and I have grown with them.

I’m still an active part of our homeschool, and will be because I love it. But last year, I had a chance to teach physics to some high schoolers who were not my children, and despite being stretched a bit at the beginning, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Especially the experiments!

And now, I have the chance to do it again. Without my knowledge, God has used a home activity to prepare me for another part of my life.

Beginning in a couple weeks, I’ll be teaching high school French 1, Physical Science, and Physics, as well as middle school General Science through the online curriculum program Classes By Beth Plus. The online program is a great way to supplement homeschooling, and I’m excited to venture into online teaching.

The live-feed classes will provide an opportunity for me to interact with and help lead homeschool students in topics that I have come to know well through my own family, and the financial assistance it provides will supplement our other income as we settle into our new home and life in Tennessee.

Yes, I’ll still be traveling multiple times a year to teach internationally. My heart is still firmly in spreading the Gospel as a full-time missionary. That’s my main calling.

But the fact that God has snuck in another way for me to serve without me really realizing it? That makes me grin more than a little. I’m pleased to know that He’s not done with me, and that there are new aspects of my life that even I don’t know about yet.

There’s still time to register for my classes or any of the others offered at CBB+. Need a little help with science or a foreign language? I’ll be there. Hope to see you or your child there, too.