HOMESCHOOLING BLISS By Lynn Downham

Lynn Story Downham is a fourth generation artist who returned to North Carolina in 2014 after twenty-six years on the Florida panhandle. Her seventh family tree commission was for a “family tree for Jesus.” Twenty years later she is a born-again believer with a best-selling print, a beautiful family and a passion for sharing Christ through her art. Find out more on Facebook by looking up “Lynn Story Downham’s Art” or “Lynn Downham Jesus Tree.”

You’ve heard it said that you can only really help others based on your own personal experiences. As I’ve found this to be true, I offer you mine relating to the whole pandemic school conversation.

Before we adopted our infant daughter, I had never heard of homeschooling. My brothers and I were products of public schools and we didn’t know, nor did our mother, that there was any other choice. Our mother was a teacher and sometimes substituted while we were in elementary school. Later, when we were in high school, she ran a wonderful school for 3 to 5-year-olds and taught them as opposed to just babysitting them. My grandmother was also a teacher “par excellence” and besides teaching in the public schools, she would teach me when we visited in Pennsylvania every year, mainly French as I recall! This is the way it was, the way it always had been, (we thought), and the way it would always be, (we also thought).

We are in the last days brothers and sisters. And although we do indeed “see through a glass darkly,” there is One who sees perfectly well. We know Him and His name is God the Father, the Son, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, our guide and comfort in this world. So, whatever He guides you to do with respect to your children’s education, know that He has a plan that is right for you.

Homeschooling as our option has been a magnificent blessing to our family. The bond between us and our daughter is beautiful. I am learning so much that I never learned in public school because you can go into so much more depth homeschooling than you can in public school. We are able to pass on our faith to her. She has been brought up to know the Lord. Her curriculum is geared to her and her strengths and weaknesses. We get to be out in nature a lot! She has wonderful friends and gets along with anyone regardless of age. She plays tennis wonderfully. She is a sculptor. Her test scores are amazing. We have identified and are identifying her gifts. It is SO much FUN. (And Grandma, who now lives right beside us, loves it! Says she would have homeschooled us if she’d known about it!)

The art for this article was not hard! It is an illustration from The Mouses, my book about a family of homeschooling mice who lead a community of curious ladybugs to salvation. You know that artists put a lot of themselves into their art. The book is a lot of fun and is written in rhyme and has a sequel coming out called The Mouses’ Holiday Book. You can find it on Amazon or contact me through our website: www. livingwaterartworks.com

“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. For in the day of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion;...” Psalm 27:4,5

Artwork by Lynn Downham