Homeschool is going really well.
Katrina has impressed both of us with her interest level and desire to learn.
As a teacher I am all about exposure and experience.
At her age we are not expecting her to be reading or even to know all the letter names.
I believe that with exposure and experience to fun learning activities,
she will learn the letter names and with time, she will learn to read.
During her first week we worked on forming the letters in her name with a variety of media (shaving cream, Q-tips, pasta...).
By the end of the week she had memorized the names of the letters in her name!
During our second week she chose to work on the letters in Samuel's name.
Again we played with forming the letters with different media
(playdough, making them in corn meal, white board drawing...).
Today, Wednesday, she is quite confident of all of his letter names too!
We are having a wonderful time and I am so thankful that God started working
in me a year ago already to relinquish and give up my agenda.
As many of you know, I am one of those who believe that
everything has a place and everything should be in its place.
All. The. Time.
Someone pointed out to me that this mindset could easily come between me and my dream of homeschooling.
She encouraged me to begin to "lower my standards" so-to-speak.
I started to ask the Lord to help me.
The first thing He did was to show me that I needed to eliminate hurry from my life.
Second, He pointed out that my tendency was/is to become angry when things do not go as I desire
(no time to put toys away because we have to get to an appointment -- hence the hurrying!).
He gently showed me that in my anger I was sinning against Him, Pancho, Katrina and Samuel.
And so the work began.
Slowly.
But surely.
It has been gut-wrenching and extremely nerve-wracking (I feel like I have a panic attack when things are not in their places) at times,
I admit, and yet the harvest we are reaping now is priceless.
Thank You, God, for knowing me and knowing that this is something that needed/needs to be dealt with.
Thank You for beginning to deal with it in advance, knowing that I want to homeschool
and that Katrina would not learn in a fun way if I continued in that mindset.
Thank You for revolutionizing my entire life through this.
I am experiencing more peace and contentment in all areas because of this breakthrough.
Thank You that today I sat with Katrina and Samuel and played playdough for nearly an hour
when there were dishes to be picked up and a load of laundry to be thrown in and ...
Last year at this time I would have left them to play
and would have gotten my to-do list done
and yet I would have missed out on some really great time with my kids.
Thank You for knowing BEST.
Here are some shots of Samuel doing his "school."
He has been a joy during our homeschool time.
He loves to paint and play playdough.
Today he wanted to play in the sink so I got out the old faithful water tub.
His all-time favorite thing, however, is playing cooking with the real pots and pans and yes,
the food processor is his favorite cooking tool.
Must be a real man, right?
Katrina has impressed both of us with her interest level and desire to learn.
As a teacher I am all about exposure and experience.
At her age we are not expecting her to be reading or even to know all the letter names.
I believe that with exposure and experience to fun learning activities,
she will learn the letter names and with time, she will learn to read.
During her first week we worked on forming the letters in her name with a variety of media (shaving cream, Q-tips, pasta...).
By the end of the week she had memorized the names of the letters in her name!
During our second week she chose to work on the letters in Samuel's name.
Again we played with forming the letters with different media
(playdough, making them in corn meal, white board drawing...).
Today, Wednesday, she is quite confident of all of his letter names too!
in me a year ago already to relinquish and give up my agenda.
As many of you know, I am one of those who believe that
everything has a place and everything should be in its place.
All. The. Time.
Someone pointed out to me that this mindset could easily come between me and my dream of homeschooling.
She encouraged me to begin to "lower my standards" so-to-speak.
I started to ask the Lord to help me.
The first thing He did was to show me that I needed to eliminate hurry from my life.
Second, He pointed out that my tendency was/is to become angry when things do not go as I desire
(no time to put toys away because we have to get to an appointment -- hence the hurrying!).
He gently showed me that in my anger I was sinning against Him, Pancho, Katrina and Samuel.
And so the work began.
Slowly.
But surely.
It has been gut-wrenching and extremely nerve-wracking (I feel like I have a panic attack when things are not in their places) at times,
I admit, and yet the harvest we are reaping now is priceless.
Thank You, God, for knowing me and knowing that this is something that needed/needs to be dealt with.
Thank You for beginning to deal with it in advance, knowing that I want to homeschool
and that Katrina would not learn in a fun way if I continued in that mindset.
Thank You for revolutionizing my entire life through this.
I am experiencing more peace and contentment in all areas because of this breakthrough.
Thank You that today I sat with Katrina and Samuel and played playdough for nearly an hour
when there were dishes to be picked up and a load of laundry to be thrown in and ...
Last year at this time I would have left them to play
and would have gotten my to-do list done
and yet I would have missed out on some really great time with my kids.
Thank You for knowing BEST.
Here are some shots of Samuel doing his "school."
He has been a joy during our homeschool time.
He loves to paint and play playdough.
Today he wanted to play in the sink so I got out the old faithful water tub.
His all-time favorite thing, however, is playing cooking with the real pots and pans and yes,
the food processor is his favorite cooking tool.
Must be a real man, right?
I really enjoyed this post and can completely relate to your struggle. The Lord has definitely been revealing that order and cleanliness have become idols in my life too. So hard to let go. So absolutely necessary though. He does know BEST.
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