Ever since I was able to talk I was lining up my dolls and "teaching" them. Teaching them how to read, write, and draw a circle. When asked what I wanted to be I told everyone at a very young age: "A teacher!" And I never swayed from that thought one time. Well, when God had other plans for my life and I started having children the natural course of action for a mommy who loves to teach would be of course- homeschooling, right???
So about 1 year ago I did what any other stay at home, home school eager mom would do- I started hitting up all the homeschooling books..all the conventions..and all the resources that I could get my hands on. I wanted to be in the know. I planned out Annabella and Malachi's preschool lesson plans and our field trips weeks in advance. And I loved it!
But then we moved...and life started getting a littler crazier for various reasons and we are working through some major discipline troubles with a couple of our kids...and all of a sudden when I was teaching Annabella it became a war. A war of who is gonna win. I think I was thinking, "I told myself I'm gonna home school, it doesn't matter what's going on around me...I'm gonna make it happen by golly!"
And trust me...that road didn't end well. Things stared to down spiral quickly and everything around here got to be pure chaos....and then all of a sudden I got the glorious revelation.....
I don't have to be teaching her math and science to be homeschooling. Actually, the truth is, the FIRST part of homeschooling should be establishing peace within your home and within your children.
I can't even tell you how free I felt. Not to say that I might not even home school next year! But just for this season I got sooo excited about being able to work on things that REALLY matter right now without becoming hyper controlling that we don't have a home school room to work on our letter chart! She can come home from school with a peaceful environment and me waiting to give her a yummy snack and a listening ear to hear all of her stories from school. I can work on being less busy...and investing that time with my boys while she's at school. I can learn the beautiful art of resting in the Lord and enjoying the simple pleasure of the mundane without adding more things right now. I can work on asking the Lord for wisdom about how to deal with certain discipline issues with my kids without pushing them aside because I have a lesson plan to create.
The truth is....I can't wait till I get to homeschool...it's something I have always wanted to do, and can't wait till the Lord releases me to do it! But for this season, I will be content and receive the other tasks that the Lord wants me to focus on...and to do them joyfully!!!
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