9 Weeks Left

This has been our best year of school yet.  There are still so many things I wish we could incorporate, and hopefully as the children continue to get older, we will work towards those goals.  With only nine weeks left in our school year, I am feeling quite nostalgic and not wanting to finish.  I'm shocked by how quickly the time is passing.  E is going to be nine this summer and in fourth grade next year.  Fourth Grade.  That is terribly old.  We've developed such a lovely routine, and overall, I would say we are all enjoying it.  Of course, they grumble about school, but I think that is partly because they hear other kids do it and also because they would really rather just play with each other.  

We've been doing Morning Time much more regularly than in the past, and everyone looks forward to it, probably for the snack, but still, it is a special something that they enjoy doing together.  

I'm working on learning about watercolor painting so that we can begin to do that better.  I'd like to get some sketch books that we can take with paints and actually paint what we see.  Nature study is something I'd like to see us do better.  The children enjoy being out in nature immensely, but there is no contemplative part of them.  They run and climb and are relatively wild.  I'd like to see them learn to sit still long enough to really look at something and see it.  It'll come.

With time blowing by like a hurricane, I'm struck by how much I do not want to regret when they are older.  I don't want to regret not giving them my attention because I was playing a silly game or doing something purely for self.  There are times when I need to focus on something, but I find that I am wasting a great deal of time.  Charlotte Mason would not approve.  Intentionality is on my mind.

Morning Time.  In my imagination, those words conjure images of children cozily grouped on a couch (usually cream colored) with knitted blankets (also cream colored) in front of a fire while sipping hot chocolate (and managing not to spill any on all that cream color).  The mother is seated in the middle of them (no one is jostling for position on the couch) and reading some wondrous tome to them, and they are listening with enraptured expressions.

And in slides reality.  We are sitting on the wood floor because if we sit on the couch no one manages to sit.  There is a lot of jumping and standing on heads and because everyone wants to sit in one particular seat, there is some arguing too.  We do have a snack and sometimes a drink, usually with many instructions about leaving straws or cinnamon sticks inside of cups and please don't dip your snack into your drink because it drips on the floor and makes it sticky.  Often, there is yelling and tears during what I want to be the best part of the day.

During the last two weeks I have done some praying specifically about our Morning Time.  And it came to me that I wasn't setting up the expectations for my children.  They were getting out of control, but had I ever told them what they were to do during this time?  Maybe.  I don't remember.  Chances are pretty high if I don't remember, they definitely don't remember.  Unless it is something crazy like a promise to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  They need reminders.  Often.  I have started giving a longer reminder on Mondays and then brief ones throughout the week just of what is expected.

It is going better.  There is definitely some training that needs done and some expectations that belong better in fairy tales (or Anne stories) than they do in real life.  I am trying to slow down and just enjoy these small moments we have together each day!

Scheduling

I am a scheduled person by nature.  I have been called *ahem* uptight.  I don't think I am actually uptight; I am simply a lover of routine.  My observation has been that both my children and myself thrive on predictability and a plan for the day.

One of the troubles that I have had is actually getting started in the morning.  All through high school and college, I enjoyed getting up early, and in college, I actually scheduled early classes every day so that I would be done not long after lunch.  In fact, I managed to schedule in such a way that I had Fridays off!  Now, however, some of that love of getting up has been lost.  I believe it probably has something to do with sleep deprivation and a little boy who believes that his own bed is not nearly as comfortable as the one in our room.  This school year, though, I knew things had to change.  We weren't finishing school until it was almost time for Joel to be home during the last year, and that is ridiculous.  Compounding that, we always seemed to be doing math in the afternoon, which did not work well for anyone.  So I buckled down, made a schedule, and implemented it the first week of our school year.  It has been fabulous.

I get up every day at six now (I know, not even that early!) and exercise.  (One of the offshoots of this schedule is that I am actually consistently exercising...not one of my favorite activities!)  I make breakfast for everyone if it is not something I already prepared the previous afternoon and then go for my shower if it is in the oven.  Some have claimed craziness because I am making breakfast for everyone, but there is a reason behind that.  Our children love breakfast, and they believe that it should consist of at least three different selections, usually to be eaten in the slowest way possible.  All three of their choices are usually relatively unhealthy and don't keep them full past 9:00.  So, now I make a healthier breakfast that keeps us full until 12:00 and there are no choices so breakfast is finished in a timely manner.

The children are also doing daily chores now.  Dishes, laundry, sweeping and vacuuming, as well as several other things are helping them learn to do simple housecleaning, and it's helping me do some basic prep before everyone is ready to sit down to work.  We try to finish all chores by 8:30 and head to the playground for an hour.  Everyone focuses better when energy is burned first!  And when we return, math is done first.  Pnut goes first as she usually has a worksheet to do after her lesson, and then Pilly goes.  Once that is done, Morning Time is done together and then everyone goes their own way to complete the rest of their book work, and we are consistently finishing before lunch.  The Little Boy is getting some time to learn some letters in the sand, and he has been great at then going to play on his own or listen to Pill's stories until she is done.  He has his favorites too!

Scheduling seems on the face of it to fly against the freedom of homeschooling, but in reality, it has given us greater freedom because we have more extra time.  It also gives me the motivation to get up in the morning because I know what happens on the days that I don't, and it is giving me a more consistent Quiet Time in the afternoon as all of our "musts" are finished!  We are in week six, and this year has been the most enjoyable yet!

Remembering

"Anne took Davy on her knee and did her best to straighten out this theological tangle also.  She was much better fitted for the task than Marilla, for she remembered her own childhood and had an instinctive understanding of the curious ideas that seven-year-olds sometimes get about matters that are, of course, very plain and simple to grown up people."  

Anne of Avonlea, page 134 

 

When I was growing up, one of my great delights was going to the grocery store with my mom.  We went to a Weis, and the aisles were done in alternating brown and cream stripes.  My sister and I had a game that we found very entertaining that involved not stepping on any of the cream stripes as those contained sharks which would rip off our legs.  We would leap up the aisles at an alarming rate with no regard for other carts or the obvious stress that we cause our mom.  Some aisles didn't have the stripes but rather just random brown blocks, and those really presented a delightful challenge.  I imagine that it was soon after we started this game that our mom started going to the grocery store by herself.

Obviously, our behavior at the store left much to be desired, but that is not the point of that memory.  The point of it is that I remember it.  I remember what it was like to be a child.   I think so many people grow up and quickly forget what those feelings of childhood are like, that desire to imagine and discover, that unabated thirst to learn.  I have other memories of sorrows and angst, of events that brought joy, and of great peace.  As we move through this journey of parenting, I try to keep those memories fresh and to look at things through my children's eyes.  They are young, without the experience of age, and cannot be expected to react in an adult manner to situations.  Part of my job as their mother is to guide without squelching and to help them see truth.

That is my challenge to you, reader.  Remember.

On Pets

L: "I would like to have a butterfly for a pet."

Me: "You can't.  Butterflies can't survive in captivity.  They need to be free.  Most animals need to be free."

E: "There's only a few, like cats and dogs, that you can keep for pets."

P: "I could keep a very tiny elephant for a pet!"

Wednesdays With Words-Faith

 

Last week I mentioned that I have started reading a book called The Importance of Faith in Counseling.  This is a book directed at biblical counselors, but there are still things that are convicting to me as a person, not just as a counselor.  On the first page of the book, Jay Adams said

"Ever since the fall of Adam, man's problem has always been the attempt to please God without faith."

And it is true.  Often I try to do things right without examining my heart for the faith needed to carry these things through.  I try to get away with obedience in place of faith.  In many ways, this book is reminding me of things just learned in Trusting God.  Perhaps the Lord is trying to teach me something!  On page 10, he explains further why it is so important to have faith with obedience.

"So faith is essential to achieving anything that God commands you to do.  Attempts to please God that are made apart from faith become like the works of the scribes and the Pharisees; they are dead 'works' (Hebrews 6:1, 9:14).  They are dead because the scribes and Pharisees lack the faith that gives life to their works."

 And finally on page 12 he brings the faith and obedience together:

"Dependence on God, however, is not some sort of substitute for obedience.  The Bible  does not teach quietism in the Bible.  Rather, faith is the dynamic through which the power of God is tapped by the believer so as to obey.  By faith the believer does what God requires in His strength.  He must obey.  Neither is faith a substitute for obedience.  True faith is intimately connected to obedience."

I am enjoying and continually being challenged in my everyday walk with the Lord through these materials He has brought into my life!

Wednesday With Words-Trusting God

 

I finished Trusting God by Jerry Bridges earlier this week.   I had slowed down on chapters 12 and 13 and so I was going on to read chapter 14 more to finish the book than to actually enjoy it.  I was, therefore, taken by surprise by how much I needed to read chapter 14, Being Thankful Always.  Due to some struggles lately, it was a very timely chapter.  

I thought I would just share some quotes from different chapters in the book that I found to have a great impact on my heart.  

"The fact that God ordained our days for us should also give meaning to every day, not just the special or exciting days of our lives.  Every day is important for us because it is a day ordained by God.  If we are bored with life, there is something wrong with our concept with God and His involvement in our daily lives.  Even the most dull and tedious days of our lives are ordained by God and ought to be used by us to glorify Him."  p.179

 That was very challenging as sometimes the days can all run together and nothing exciting seems to happen.  Although, the older I get (all of 29 right now), the more I appreciate those "boring" days.  Excitement does not necessarily equal a fun time!

This paragraph was so encouraging to me, not as something new but as something comforting.  It is one of those things that I know but need to be reminded of:

 "To derive the fullest comfort and encouragement from Romans 8:28-and thus to give thanks in all circumstances-we must realize that God is at work in a proactive, not reactive, fashion.  That is, God does not just respond to an adversity in our lives to make the best of a bad situation.  He knows before He initiates or permits the anxiety exactly how He will use it for our good." p.207

There were several wonderful Scriptures that I also read during this book, and one that I love is this:

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!"  Isaiah 49:15

A mother has an inborn love of her child, but through selfishness she can turn away from that child.  The Lord never turns away!

I have now started a book called The Importance of Faith in Counseling by Jay E. Adams.   It is a dovetailing nicely with Trusting God, but it is rather specific to biblical counseling so I am not sure yet if I will share quotes from it.  We'll see!