Ah-ha!

If you follow my other blog, you will have seen the scan of this little book of "Encoragements" that I made when I was eight or nine...  Discovering it gave me a few ah-ha moments regarding my homeschooling adventures. 

With little background in elementary education I sometimes find myself uncertain of what to reasonably expect from my children.  These are my ah-ha thoughts:

1.  There's still lots of hope for their spelling!  Mine sure has improved over the last thirty years.  :-)  I'm not sure I'm on to the right track yet with curriculum.  I'm just encouraged that there's still time to make good spellers out of them yet. 

2.  There's also hope for their handwriting.  My son's writing is downright appalling.  Turns out his teacher thought he had some sort of syndrome that made it impossible for him to form his letters properly.  He has a syndrome, but it`s completely curable.  It's commonly referred to as the "I Don't Care" syndrome.  I don't blame the poor woman as she had thirty students to deal with and his attitude can be formidable.  I decided that I do care and that he will care someday so I ordered a handwriting program and we started at square one. 

I remember feeling embarrassed about my handwriting in Junior High and getting a book and retraining myself.  It is possible to improve handwriting.  Even with habits developed over years. 

There are many ideas floating around about the value of handwriting, etc., so I debated with myself for some time.  In the end, I decided that I`m raising a great man and that great men need to communicate clearly so I would tackle handwriting like it matters.  If he still writes "like a doctor" someday, at least I tried.

3.  Finding this little booklet was very impacting to me personally.  It was like I could see my life in panoramic and realized there`s a strong theme of writing for the purpose of encouragement.  I do already recognize many of the gifts my children have, but it made me want to be more intentional about nurturing those gifts and also alert to ways the enemy would want to destroy them.  I know that in my own life, the places of greatest "calling" have also been the places of greatest attack.  I think part of our role as parents is to recognize the giftings of our children and to be very intentional about speaking truth into the lives of our kids.

Blessings on your parenting, homeschooling, and any other wild adventure that you`re on!!  He who started the good work in you will be faithful to complete it!

Snow Day!

When you're homeschooling "snow day" takes on a whole new meaning.

It means doing your Math and Language and then running outside and living the joy of it!

The cold melting on your tongue.

The wind biting at your cheeks.

Celebrating all the hope and promise of adventures to come.

Carpe diem!!

It seems to me that living the joy of this moment is an act of worship.

This opportunity feels like a gift.

I am thankful!

Picking a Number

We had our first visit with our facilitator this week.  Thanks to my good friend who has had this facilitator for the last few years, I wasn't nervous--I was actually looking forward to it.  She was so delightful, positive and encouraging.  It seemed like she really enjoyed getting to know the kids and their interests.

For the sake of record keeping we had to go over a bunch of lists and I was supposed to grade where my kids are at in their learning process, in both mechanics and attitude.  I've never liked writing report cards, but I found myself pathetically unable to put a number on my kids.  Firstly, I realized that I was inclined to be tougher on my kids than I ever was with other students.  It was hard to pick a high number when I know they're capable of going to the moon and back!  :-)  Secondly, I just plan ol' couldn't reduce them to a number--they're so much more than that.  As much as I love numbers and straight lines and precise measurements and things that fit into tidy boxes, my kids fit into my heart not just my brain.

So today I'm thankful that I have been given the privilege to invest my heart into their minds and their hearts.  It helps because I kind of feel like I need a "day off" and a date with my husband--instead it's a Saturday where he's working and the big sister is off for a tournament.  The break and the date will happen.  Pausing to give thanks renews my strength for today.  That's all I need--strength and joy for today.

"Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;

no shadow of shame will darken their faces."

Psalm 34:5

*Also wanted to a share a link to a post in Sonlight's blog about requiring proficiency that really encouraged me in some of the choices I'm making with my son.  It might encourage you too!