Thursday, March 31, 2011

Adventures on the horizon

Life should be an adventure. A journey of experiences from which we learn and grow. Routine is important. Can adventure be part of the routine? I think so. I am out to pay more attention to the adventure. I want to focus less on the "we shoulds" and "somedays". More on the today. The Lord is bringing adventure into our lives every moment. Are you living those adventures or trying to avoid them?

Ever since I met my husband and figured out that he would be my husband I thought that if the Lord ever blessed us with children I would home school them. Then I met my first born and decided that wasn't a good idea. We are cut from the same bolt of cloth and regularly butt heads. So off to preschool she went. That was a good thing. Now, 3+ years later, she is finishing up second grade and her sister is finishing up kindergarten. These years of school days have been crazy, good, not good, ok, wonderful and my girls have learned so much! T reads everything she can get her hands on and wants more. Pixie loves "teaching" you what she has learned.

This school year has progressed and is now winding down. The Admiral and I talk about  next year with reservations. While nothing has gone "wrong" this year, it just doesn't seem like a good fit.

What to do for next school year? The scripture says that "for everything there is a season." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)  I think now is our season to home school.  The Admiral does too.

Some of my frustrations this year have to do with time. The girls want to dance, play sports, and have music lessons. They want to create stuff. We get up at 6:45/ 7ish to be ready to be at school on time. This means they have to be in bed by 8pm. The 4 hours between school letting out are filled up with homework, piano practice and dinner. I am very aware that there are many many kids who go to school all day and still take part in lots of extra- curricular activities. I just haven't figured out to make that work and everyone still get enough sleep. If we home school there are lots of daytime programs. The flexibility to play soccer for 8 weeks and then swimming, followed perhaps by gymnastics, excites me!

I have a great deal of peace with this decision. That peace is allowing me to deal with my nerves as I research curriculum, activities, and make plans. Home schooling is a huge ball to keep in the air. I must decide what other balls 

I  will let you in on a little secret.

This whole idea makes me nervous. I doubt myself. I have so much peace, I know this is where God is leading our family. Now I need to get my confidence up. So I am planning, and researching for next school year. It is so wild all the options available. So friends my prayer is for wisdom and balance.

 

2 comments:

S. said...

I'm only a computer away if you need to vent...I understand the butting heads. My 4yr old and I do ...

plus I'm home during the day...:)

S. said...

I came back to this post because I was thinking about how I did all the extra stuff besides school--I know I started using a pocket calender to track mtgs & classes myself in 6th grade and by High school had a Daytimer calender. As a Sr in HS I think the weekend mtgs were even harder...but these skills in time management served me well in college.

I know I used car rides to read, one point I was doing skating before school, I even have done homework in meetings...

It is a matter of balance, I think I learned and experienced more than just grades although my HS guidence counselor had fits about the grades vs activites :). Yes, sometimes I pulled some weird hours and joined another group but I met awesome people who are still my friends unlike people I went to school with...