What I think About another year of Homeschool

Nothing good was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

After a seeming zillion years at this homeschooling season, I approached this year unsure, very unsure.

I was feeling burn-out from a year of too much curriculum and too much needed discipline, truth be told.  

I hoped God would give the grace.  I wasn't feeling it. Honestly, I was hoping somehow to continue with summer.  This summer I corrected no books, normally we do our math program through the summer with two weeks off for good behavior.  However, this mama never handed out the new math curriculum. We read and played. period.

 The students asked numerous times for their math, but somehow I managed to evade it.  

 

 Well, vacation to the vast Atlantic Ocean ended and school beckoned us to come.  Reluctantly and perhaps with an attitude, I slipped them a few of their new books that had been organized post purchase in April and tucked away with the list of each child's book list for the year.   I think I may have been grumbling, at least in my heart.  Grace wasn't what I was feeling.

Funny, how excited they were to get that HUGE list of books.  They were giddy upon me going through each book and what was needed for them to "do them."  They hauled those babies to desks or crates to cradle them until they would be cracked open with a sharpened pencil to fill in the first of many to-be-learned lessons.

Still in my my mind I was thinking how we could ditch the books (meaning me grading them) and somehow explore the world at large (which we may still do).  They happily did their books: without complaint.  I am still unsure, as the burn-out must have a lingering effect on one's soul.  

Somewhere today a spark hit.  I felt myself, even after grading piles of students books, to hear myself say that I loved homeschooling.  

Perhaps it was a sneaky trip to the library with Princess Sunshine (who is in a full leg brace due to a wrestle with the ocean waves and her boogie board) and the little Princess Mercy.   We grabbed 20 recipe books in the adult section, which has only been accessed in the last 12 months for me, after only circulating through the children's section for nearly 15 years (sad I know, but I am the mother of 8).  

Princess Sunshine loves to cook.  She is sous chef to Princess Sweetness of Ethiopia (that girl can wield a knife!!)  We were giddy with choices and only contained ourselves long enough to manage the stack to the tank, were we exploded with glee.  

Okay, so I managed to bake again (summer off for good behavior), I made a pot of white bean and kale soup (to die for) and threw in a couple of sewing projects on the fly with the girls.

The creativity and enthusiasm is beginning to surface.  I find it a hard war between my love of books and my wild-inner-hippie that wants to run free with these children of mine.  

Tomorrow is another day.

This is our verse for this year 

(besides my favorite addition to homeschool: the short catechism)

2 Timothy 2:5

Study to show yourself approved unto God.

Grace, perhaps it is found when one least expects it. Perhaps it mainly comes unwrapped, or wrapped in simple brown paper.  It hardly announces itself, but comes, always in His perfect timing.

Grace and Peace to you my friends!