It's not very often you get a second chance at something...anything. Especially something really important. Usually you muddle through the best you can and later look back and say, "If only I'd known then what I know now." Right? Well, I'm getting a second chance.
I've been homeschooling for 10 years and I've learned an awful lot in those years. Back when I began with the girls, I was so intent on "making it work/successful", that I missed out on a lot of cool things. Our family wasn't very impressed or encouraging, and even Nicky wasn't too sure about it all. Heck, for that matter, neither was I. I just knew this was what God wanted me to do. So, I muddled through. I would reach outside the box fairly often, only to come back to the same old thing and what I thought I knew to be the "best way" of doing things. Somehow there was comfort in the familiar and tested, but I instinctively wanted more. Through the years, the girls learned and we did a lot of fun stuff. Today they are in 7th and 9th grades and successful at school. But, still I want more.
Now, I have that chance. I'm starting kindergarten with Indy this year. I'm getting my second chance. Not a second chance to be successful, but a second chance to do things the way I wanted back then, knowing that no matter what, if the Lord leads, we will succeed. So, I'm reading all sorts of books, just as if I'd never homeschooled ever before. I want to do things so different and I want to try things I've never tried before, but always wanted to. I'm thinking (and planning) outside the box, with confidence that it'll be ok. I look back and think that my most fun years as a mom were when the girls were like 3 and 5 (which the boys are now) or 4 and 6. School was just fun. Not too heavy or demanding, but just fun. We had so much time for exploring and fun, but so many times I would come back to the demand of textbooks, just for security. So, now I know what I didn't know then: They will do fine. Even the year my dad died, Indy was born, and I had wrist surgery and a cast, we did a total of maybe 3 months of school, and miraculously, they still learned. They tested fine at the end of the year. I was amazed. So, I know that it's ok to relax and enjoy them now. It's ok to explore and have fun. We don't' have to make sure they read by a certain time. It's ok. I will do some fun school and let them be boys. The time for more intense school will arrive oh sooo soon, so for now I'm just going to enjoy my second chance.
Blessings,
Mylinda :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think this is great, Mylinda. You are right. It's not often we get a chance to do something over again. I hope that your schooling with Indy & Levi will be full of excitement and joy, plus a big dose of confidence in what you are doing. You are an amazing mom & teacher - they are all very lucky kids!
We've been doing "fun school" lately with the younger kids. It's nice to know that they don't need all the book work that my older kids suffered through.
Post a Comment