Nineteen years ago, my idea of our homeschool life began with dreams of a picturesque little room, filled with shelves and shelves of books, maps, and all sorts of learning things neatly hung on the walls, wooden desks filled with my children happily and enthusiastically learning. Me, all organized, up and ready to begin school by 8:00 a. m. with the day of learning all planned out, ready to implement.
My reality of homeschool is quite different. A messy bookshelf graces our dining room, filled with books, papers, notebooks, and mail (I must do something about that!). Books oftentimes reside on our dining table, kitchen table, coffee table…. We have an upstairs hall closet filled with more books, and even a few maps that aren’t hanging on the walls. My one remaining student is my sparkly, little whimsical junior high gal, who usually sits at a table, or on the sofa – her feet that is - the rest of her is likely to be found on the floor, along with her sidekick “Baby” the Maltese next to her. Typically she is rushing to finish. Who could blame her? A pretty fall day beckons her. A magnolia tree to climb fills her imagination. And the old tire swing, hung in the ugly crooked tree that survived the tornado, delights her, far more than studying about polygons that tessellate, or finding antecedents and reflexive pronouns. And as for me, generally I am disorganized, up and ready to go by……well……who knows. It depends.
But nonetheless, they learn. I learn. By the way, do you know how important education is to God? I don’t either. But I suspect, cultivating a love for Him is His greatest priority. I am thankful we have had opportunity to walk and talk of the Lord throughout the day, and use Christ centered curriculum.
My older two have graduated now. Even though I had plenty of days that I wondered if they would ever get it, they eventually did. Even though I had plenty of days that I feared at the rate we were going, they would be forty before we got to graduation, yet they made it. And somehow along the way, they developed a love for reading, and writing (Musings of an Elf), and learning, and most importantly, for God.
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