Today

Once again I find myself searching.  Reading, learning and taking it all in.  Trying to choose the best possible fit for our lifestyle  of learning in our home.  We desire to create an environment where learning  is natural, enjoyable, and woven into our daily lives.  I have recently enjoyed learning more about the methods of Charlotte Mason.  I found a wonderful video series on you tube that goes through and explains her thoughts behind her method and most importantly, her heart.  I am finding that if I can keep developing myself as a teacher, I gain more vision and enthusiasm for teaching my children.  I hope to use this blog a bit more as well.  Hopefully to encourage you to desire a closer relationship with God, a stronger marriage, and to pursue a legacy for your children.  You can look forward to more menu postings and posts about huge freezer cooking days.  Also, a journey through our home school curricula choices, and maybe even some book reviews.

With my new-found love for anything written about Charlotte Mason, I have been devouring books written on her life as a teacher and her dreams for children.  While cooking dinner I have listened to many speakers explain methods of gentle instruction leading to a desire in children to learn more.  For them to have the ability to read wonderful literature and to fill our home with quality choices of reading, art and musical choices. That sounds lovely now, doesn’t it.  I have visions of my children siting on a hillside, with their tablet open.  Nature study at it’s best, painting a beautiful flowering field, or nesting bird.  In the “real world” of our lives, we have paint splatters, crackers on the hardwood floors, books strung across the room by toddlers,  and days that are just too cold to go outside.  But, we have the paint on the brushes, and classical music.  We have joy, we have laughter, and prayers going up for those we are painting the pictures for.   An environment where learning is natural, enjoyable and woven into our daily lives.  that I can count as a success…..for today.

Advertisement

The calling of a journey

Monday morning again. The rush…rush, hurry, rush. Get up and quickly. Ready for school, no time for stopping to smell any sort of roses. Pulling through the drive of the school, a prayer said aloud over these precious children God has trusted me with. And there’re off.

Until it is time once again, to wake a sleeping baby, blushed cheeks and puckered face. Load up the van, and off we go. To bring them home again, hurry. Home with these gifts, gifts to love and pour into. But there just isn’t enough time. Homework, supper, showers and prayers. And all to quickly they are blushed cheeks and pucker faced….snuggled in for the night, sleeping away the exhaustion from the race. The race of the day. But what were we racing for. Why such a hurry?

It was this daily routine that caused us to peruse the journey of homeschooling. The very thought frightened me. I always joked that if I homeschooled all my children would know how to do I was cook, bake, clean and garden. And not to mention the fact that my wardrobe consisted of zero denim jumpers and I could not imagine lining my entire home with bookcases and pencil boxes.

but God called out strong

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

deuteronomy 6:4-9

This verse has been our “family verse”. It is a call to parents as to how they can train their children. It begins with acknowledging who God is and for us as parents to love Him with our everything. We then are commanded to keep them on our hearts and impress them on our children. This passage tells us to do life with our kids. To teach them as we go, the things that are on our hearts. To talk with them and walk together. There is no mention of running, hurry or quick-before the bell rings…..sigh. So this my friends is the main reason we chose this journey. We find daily many other Blessings along the way, but this was the main fuel to our craziness.

It was a hard decision, as we loved the teachers and staff so dearly at the public charter school our children attended. Now I could go on a rant here about how my heart breaks for these amazing folks who would love to just sit down and teach children to read and write and so on, but they feel so trapped by state regulated testing for funding…..but I won’t waste your time…..the truth is those teachers love my kids, and our family. And we still miss them dearly…..tough decision.

I still have my moments, while brewing a fresh cup of java….wondering what I have gotten myself into. I must be hot-mess crazy! And then I notice the joy, and the growth….and the cursive writing, and the sounding out of words, and the cuddling up with a good, thick book and I could go on and on. So I may still lack a jumper or two…but I do see a few more bookcases creeping in our home decor. And oh the cookies, the cookies my children will bake. Bake with me, in our kitchen. On a Tuesday morning, with a candle burning, and bed head. What joy that brings my soul.