New Contributing Writer: MaggieRaye
November 17, 2009 by MaggieRaye
Filed under Announcements, Recent Posts, Single Mothering, Single Parents and Home Education, home schooling
We would like to welcome MaggieRaye as a writer on Gleaning the Harvest. Maggie has a vast experience as a single home school mom, not just being a single mom, but also in her research and support of single home school moms through the years. When she contacted us several months ago with her heartfelt support, we were thrilled. We are proud to have her share her experiences here with us, and we know you will be too!
MaggieRaye will be writing our Single Parents and Home Education column here at Gleaning the Harvest. Welcome MaggieRaye!
For everyone at Gleaning the Harvest~
Introductions
by MaggieRaye
Jacque emailed me over the weekend about starting writing for Gleaning the Harvest. We’d talked about it some. I had volunteered awhile ago, when she was looking for writers. Suddenly, a hundred ideas flooded my head. On Monday evening, I sat down to start writing. Nothing happened. It was all old and warn out. I no longer need to convince my audience that single moms have a scriptural call to be keepers at home and to home educate. This is a new audience. I gave up and went to bed.
Tuesday morning when I got up, it seemed the Lord had been working. Write about walking by faith, He seemed to say, or trusting God instead of the church or His people. Write about the best resources, not just the good ones, but the best ones. Start blogging again, share your daily walk.
So here I am this morning, to re-introduce myself to the homeschooling community. Some of you may know the real me, but most of you know me as MaggieRaye, single, homeschooling mom of two blessings LizBeth, who will be 18 Saturday and MattMann who is 9. My blog, Patchwork Cottage used to be Single Parents and Home Education. I’ve spent the last year or so, trying to make a business of selling quilts made by recycling used clothing. It has been done entirely in my own effort and it has not prospered. I’m a conservative Christian. I believe the family reformation movement applies to all families not just those with two parents, married to each other. I believe homeschooling is God’s best for His children.
This is my 8th year homeschooling. I thought it was my 9th but the math just doesn’t come out right. I was never very good at math. I started in May of 2001, withdrawing LizBeth from the public school at the beginning of the 4th quarter. We’ve done Christian education and public school. I’m an early childhood educator by profession. By God’s grace, divine direction and for His glory, I’m a keeper at home, training up the children He has entrusted to me.
Hello,
My name is Diane, I am a single mom of two. I am a christian woman who strongly believes in Homeschooling and being a homemaker and I have researched it for many years and have viewed website after website about all the different methods and collecting many ideas. I love to do that. I used to home school my youngest daughter, but circumstances and divorce has forced me to work. The Lord has blessed me with a grant and a scholarship to put my daughter in a private Christian School and that is where she has been for several years. We have discussed many times bringing her back home to do a curriculum over the internet and I would add my own idea to it. Teaching her how to be a good keeper of the home. My heart is truly a homeschool mom, I would even like to homeschool my two grandchildren who are in public, but don’t know how I would support myself. I have looked for work in the home to no avail or just doesn’t pay enough. I can totally relate to the story of
MaggieRaye, the web is full of work at home programs but many are scams, overrated or way too expensive and not in my field. I have been searching for a along time. Is now that some woman are making money by blogging or on twitter, I don’t understand all of this or how they do it. I have always wanted to write for the homeschool community, like in newsletters or in a form of magazine, ezine. I love reading them too. I even thought about creating curriculum for Preschoolers as I am an Early Childhood Educator by profession.
I am only doing part time work right now and seriously looking for work at home projects. I would love to bring my daughter back home if we can work it out and I would even love to homeschool someone else’s child who couldn’t. If anyone here could give me suggestions or even lead me in the right direction as to what other single moms are doing at home, I would so appreciate that. I would love to start a blog too and teach my teenage daughter how to also. I also wanted to know is there a way or do you know of a way that young homeschool girls of the same beliefs and learning to be a keeper of the home can connect and become friends, How would I get my daughter started in sharing with other young girls even if they live far apart? My daughter is 15, loves to read and write, photography, scrap booking, animals, wedding planning, sewing, and doing things on the computer. She wants to be a Wedding/party Planner in the future and do something with Photography. She would love to meet other young girls in the homeschool community. Thank you for hearing me out.
Thank you for all that you do to help single families. Many blessings to you
Diane.
[Reply]
MaggieRaye Reply:
December 1st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Diane,
For as many single moms as there are out there homeschooling, each has found a different way to do it from home. I know one mom who is an editor, another is a web designer, another sells on eBay. My first suggestion is take it before the Lord and commit it to Him. Trust in His provision. Step out on faith as Peter stepped out of the boat, and don’t look around or you will start to sink. I will try, soon to post a set of links to blogs by other homeschooling single mothers. In the mean time please stop by my blog and see what you may find for encouragment there.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/maggieraye
[Reply]
Congratulations Maggie Raye! So glad to see you writing again
Be blessed
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