Peace in Schooling

    As I sit here listening to Jim Brickman play piano, and missing my daddy terribly because he too was a gifted pianist, I am reflecting on what just happened with my children. If you read my last blog post then you may realize the struggles I have with balancing schoolwork with life. Today, some things became crystal clear to me.

    Let me back up a bit. Last night I burned my neck (NEVER use a magic eraser on your skin to remove purple hair dye--it WILL burn you) pretty badly and it is sooo painful!! I didn't sleep much and so I let the kids watch a movie while I slept in a bit. Needless to say, we started the day off slowly and WAY behind!! Normally after lunch is free time but today I was planning on continuing school so that we could keep on "schedule". My kids just wanted to go play outside and play with the dirt and weeds, their "soup" for their restaurant. =) After lunch I got prepared for schooling to continue then looked at my little girl. She isn't so little anymore. I am seeing little blossoms of womanhood creeping in. When did the baby flee and the woman creep in??? How long until she doesn't want to play anymore with her little brother? Or for that matter, play at all? She has her whole life to learn. Playtime is only for a short while. Plus, she is learning right along with playing. Learning to share, get along with another person (especially when he is being challenging), and most importantly, to imagine. Those are gifts. Nahna didn't complain when I told her we were going to do more school but she did look deflated. As I looked at her more, I realized that she won't want to play forever and that this chapter of childhood is coming to an end. So, I said to go out and play. Like a thirsty flower getting water, she perked right up, ran over, gave me a giant hug and smile. With a "thanks Mommy, I love you!!" she burst into the sunlight and the joy of youth.

    I did the right thing for her. I put aside my "schedule" for play. There is peace in being flexible and relaxing.  Enjoying the season that we are in because it is gone too quickly!  May I always realize that!!

    "Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity." ~Kay Redfield Jamison

Nahna at play.

Bubby at play.

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Need More Cushion

So, we have been homeschooling for one day this year.  ONE day!!  And I need to change my carefully laid out schedule.  I spent hours on this schedule.  Color coordinating pen colors, different font (and it is handwritten!!) for each day, every hour of everyday scheduled.  Hours and hours of work.  And I need to change it.  *Sigh.*  It isn't working.  There is TOO much scheduled and not enough cushion for spontaneous activities.  For example, yesterday we learned that the unit of measurement that people use to measure the height of a horse is called a "hand".  The kids loved that.  They got out their rulers and wanted to measure everything and see how many "hands" the objects measured.  I didn't have time to let them.  I had to move onto the next subject.  No cushion.

Why do I homeschool????  Isn't it so that I can take these little side trails and measure everything in "hands" because it fascinates my kids and they are excited to learn about it??  Don't get me wrong, the book work is very important too but what keeps us coming back is those little unexpected gems that fascinate us and MAKE us want to learn more.  If I don't allow for those gems (side trails) then school will be miserable for all!!!  Through this trial I have learned an important gem myself.  Life is messy.  It is not color coded and fits in a nice little box.  I need room to grow.  Cushion if you will.  God is continuously stretching me and growing me so that I can learn.  I can either fight and try to stay within my neat little schedule or I can relax and go along for the ride.  I can guarantee that if I relax then I will enjoy all the treasures that the Lord has in store for me and I will learn more than I even thought was possible!  

Now I need to go and reconfigure my schedule to allow for those unexpected twists, turns, and gems and maybe, just maybe it will work better this time.  Maybe...