Reinventing

I do believe that I, as a homeschooling mom, am daily reinventing what learning looks like in our home. Our days can differ so drastically, and yet the core of what we are after lingers in and out throughout.

I spoke with a friend earlier today. She is another homeschooling mom that I enjoy sharing my days with. We chatted about how we are indeed designing our own home life each day. The freedom that comes with that, as a homeschooling mom, is sometimes so uncomfortable. I really get to choose the flow of the day, the week, the month. The responsibility can be overwhelming and in the same sense it can be so liberating. Every homeschool is unique. There is no handbook. You create your own.

Our homeschooling morning flows so differently now, than it did in Boone. Scott and I were usually up a little after 6 or so and he was off to work around 7:15 or 7:30. There would be many mornings that some of the children didn't see him before he left for his 8 to 10 hour day. Now, my early birds sleep till about 7, they retreat downstairs, and the rest of us get up at 7:30. We all enjoy breakfast together and start chores and breakfast clean up, all while Scott is observing and interacting with us all. It is a different season. Our homeschooling starts around 9:15am. I am okay with that for now. The great thing about homeschooling is there is freedom. Freedom to create what is best for our family. No one is peering over my shoulder with a checklist to see if I am doing things correctly. I am the best teacher for these kids and I am at liberty to fashion our day in a way that is suitable for them.

Composing our life here at home requires much more effort than I ever imagined. It also requires flexibility and creativity. Scott and I are not trying to bring the school room from the traditional public school into our dining room each day. No, no. We are establishing something that we have never seen before.

To my homeschooling mom friends, remember the freedom that you have. Don't be hard on yourself when your day starts later or the lessons you had planned may have stopped because of an emergency or a bad attitude. Remember to love. Remember to play. Remember to enjoy the process. I tell you now, as I told myself this very thing this morning when I noticed my focus shifted and I was more concerned with getting through my plans than I was concerned with the heart of my child.