As a homeschooling mom I have to admit most school days I would actually classify as "school daze." It goes something like this:
1) Mommy wakes up.
2) Mommy drinks her first cup of coffee.
3) Mommy keeps drinking coffee while she juggles teaching a 1st grader, a 2nd grader, and a preschooler, and somehow manages to run after the baby, who has just figured out that he CAN run. Also fitting in snack time, devotion time, baby nap time, reading time, snuggle time, lunch time, errand time, laundry time, dishes time, dinner prep time, etc etc etc :) Hoping that somehow my children are learning in the midst of the chaos.
And when I don't know what to do, I call Mom :) My mother is such a fountain of wisdom, and one of my dearest friends. Such was the day a few years back when Adam, my 3rd child was a toddler. I remember calling her up and pouring my heart out about my homeschooling frustrations. I said, "Mom, how can I teach Easton and Natalie with a toddler running around?" I remember the pause on the phone, then the longer pause and then came her famous chuckle and she said, "Well, when you figure it out let me know."
I laughed of course, and then I cried. My mother home-schooled all 4 of us kids through 8th grade, so if anyone is qualified in my book to answer this question it was her. Every morning she was up before the first light of day with her bible in one hand and her coffee in the other. She was and is my hero. But she had no wisdom for me that day, no formula for success and no twelve step program.
It was I guess you could say, my pivotal moment in my homeschooling journey. The moment when the light comes on, and you realize that "life as you know it" is going change. In reality, nothing about my life changed except my perspective.
Taking a step back, I'm not sure where my "picture" of what homeschooling my children would look like came from. Because I was homeschooled myself and knew how it was. But somehow in my head I saw all my children sitting patiently, and quietly at the table working on their school work, while the younger ones entertained themselves and played quietly (there is that word again) on the floor. My house is spotless, there are no dishes in the sink and the laundry is all put away in the drawers, and I'm cooking a gourmet dinner for my husband. Pause . . . I'm sorry, but I'm seriously just laughing right now at myself, Ha Ha Ha.
I know all you Mommie's out their regardless if you home-school or not have had that moment when you realize, "Wow this is just NOT how I imagined it." It's not the movies, it's not perfect, and its definitely messy.
So, how do I home-school with toddler?? Well, I'll let you know when I figure it out :)
But I recently read a blog from a homeschooling mom and she said it so well.
"One morning on my daily walk, I was fretting and stewing over what I could possibly do with my one-year-old during school time. I was feeling some despair with a new baby on its way. I couldn't see any end to the disruption of babies in my home school for many years to come. I was praying and scheming at the same time: I could wait until the baby's nap to teach school, I could rotate the children with baby-sitting away from our schoolroom, I could get a playpen . . . all solutions that didn't feel right--babies needs their moms! As I walked and pondered, suddenly the Lord introduced one sentence to my mind and revolutionized my mindset entirely! "The baby IS the lesson!" I thought I was trying to teach Math, but in reality I had been teaching, day by day, how an adult values the precious gift of children." http://www.lovetolearn.net/homeschool_articles/baby.lasso
It is so true! The baby is the lesson, the toddler is the lesson, and life is the lesson. Real life is messy, imperfect and often unpredictable, and how amazing that we as Mom's get to train our kids for real life. Train them to follow Jesus in everything. And while we train them, we ourselves are being trained :)
Enjoy the Journey!
Laura
PS: Gotta go clean up the Easter eggs that my toddler emptied all over the kitchen floor as I wrote this post :)
