Looking at the lists

Every year it happens about this time: the routine gets old and the kids begin to wear out of our normal schedule and we need something to spice it up! A normal day for us starts with breakfast, chores from the rotating chore chart, then Bible time and on to core subjects, lunch and then unit studies. Yesterday we mixed it up (and this is big for me!) and went to Ingles for lunch- yes the grocery store. We got salads and fruit and sat in the little cafe area. It's a perfect place to go because it is quiet and cheap and when we finished lunch we did Mystery of History, Phonics Pathways and our current read aloud, Wayside School is Falling Down. Maybe it seems to be a little change, but learning about Ramses II takes on a different perspective in the middle of the supermarket!

So this morning as I was trying to figure out what I could do today to make things a little different, it led me down the road to why I am doing what I am doing anyway. Now anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE a list and I love checking them off. At one time (God has done a work on me!) I would make a list that included things I had already done so that I could check something off! Sickness, I know, and I am being healed! Anyway, it is really easy for me to look at school as an extended list of things to accomplish. Joseph has done writing, check! Miriam is working on grammar, check! Lydia drew 3 red circles, check! Benjamin is riding his skateboard...wait a minute!

But the reason that we are homeschooling our children is more than to make myself feel better by filling in all the spaces in my lesson planner. It is so that they will be life learners, so that they will have a Godly worldview, so that we will be unified as a family, so that they will have a say and an interest in their own education. These are things that are far beyond a checklist and far beyond my own efforts. I need my Savior to accomplish them, I need His wisdom and His grace, I need His guidance and His patience, and I need the people around me He has put there to give me support when I feel like I am failing.

So I don't think I will throw the schedule out of the window, after all, an insane mother does not make a very good teacher. But it's good for me to hold up the things that we do and evaluate them in the light of the purposes for doing them, to take a look at the over all picture and see how they fit. Today: a movie first, then unit studies, and maybe even no chores. Maybe even no spelling! Ok, well, maybe that's a little too much...