As of this past Monday I’m officially a homeschooling mama! Well, sort of. Sky’s only four and not technically in kindergarten until next year, so maybe it’s not official at this point. But instead of sending her to preschool this year, I’m planning to teach her at home.
The homeschooling world is massive and slightly intimidating to me, so for our first year I chose a simple curriculum called Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve. Our plan is to work through our letters, have some fun, and be a blessing to the people around us. We started Monday with the letter A. See the lovely angels we made out of lollipops, coffee filters, and pipe cleaners? We’ve also been working on our “A” verse—Psalm 42:1. And this morning we took a fresh batch of apple-shaped sugar cookies to our friend, Miss Amy. Since little hands put them together, some of them look more like pumpkins than apples, but I’m sure she’ll find them nothing less than five star delicious. 🙂
I had this little moment on Monday afternoon. While Autumn napped and Micah bounced around in the kitchen, I sat with Sky at the kitchen table singing, “The letter ‘A’ says ‘aaa.'” And suddenly it struck me: I am so happy! I love this. I love being a stay-at-home mom, I love my kids, and now I get to be their teacher too, shaping their character and learning with them on a daily basis.
Later that night I was at the computer when Adam said, “Hey, listen to this,” and read me a passage from C. S. Lewis’s classic The Screwtape Letters, where experienced demon Screwtape advises his young nephew on how to derail his Christian patient: “Work hard, then, on the… anticlimax which is certainly coming. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing.”
As Adam and I talked about the quote, my thoughts went back to homeschooling. It made me wonder, is this God’s gentle way of telling me that not every day will be as easy as our first one? That we will probably experience our share of tears and frustration too? And that humility—especially at the beginning of something as big as homeschooling—just might be the most important quality I can possess as a parent?
Once again I’m reminded that it’s good to make plans with our hands open and allow God to direct our steps. I’m thankful I don’t have to know at this point whether we’ll still be homeschooling two, five, or ten years from now. We are today, we’re excited about it, and I know God will lead us from here.
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