Knowing My Limits

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I love the photo above... it speaks to me of possibility and what lies ahead.  It speaks to me of expectations.  

I've spent the better part of the past two weeks DEVOURING the third edition of Educating The WholeHearted Child, by Sally and Clay Clarkson.   This book, along with several other situations have been slowly changing my attitude about home education and just LIFE in general.

A section that spoke to me over the weekend was "KNOW YOUR PRIORITIES".... the Clarksons give five things the home educating mother can limit.   I love these, and each one spoke to me LOUD and CLEAR.    

I'm going to share one with you every few days for the next couple of weeks.  If you feel like these speak to you, please chime in and discuss with me.   This is something very impromptu... I just wanted to get some thoughts out as they have been so powerful to me recently.

#1:

Limit Your Expectations

Quite simply, the books says - "Your priorities now revolve around doing everything you can to raise wholehearted Christian children.  Your expectations about life must change accordingly." (p. 287)  Wow.  My expectations have changed dramatically over the past two years, and will continue to change.  

My house is no longer pristine.  My closet isn't packed with beautiful clothes.  My husband and I don't know about the best restaurants in town.  My days aren't full with going to the gym and meeting friends for lunch, or pursuing the career in which I have an advanced degree!  My free time can no longer be spent surfing the web, scrapbooking, or pursuing selfish interests.    Notice how I keep using the word "my"?   I cringe as I type this.   

Had I been a home educator from the beginning, I don't think this be quite so hard for me.   I had several years with my children in school... and before that I had a good ten years of adult life before I had children.   Why do I feel like I am just now (at the age of 39 - soon to be 40 in 3 weeks!) I am truly understanding what it means to sacrifice myself for my family?

I feel God at work in me and I am grateful.   He is helping me to limit my expectations and to be CONTENT in the process.    

Much to think about...

Weekly Wrap-Up #10 - Where Life Got In The Way

Sometimes a week doesn't go as planned.

Sometimes there are things from real life that get in the way of homeschooling.

Things like doctor's appointments, unexpected phone calls, and cleaning up JUNK before mom explodes!

In the midst of this, however, I believe real learning is still taking place. 

I can also see that my whole philosophy of learning and homeschooling changing, largely because of a book I am reading.   I no longer feel the need to schedule every single thing and make checklists and curriculum plans.   

One thing we did focus on this week with both children was keyboarding.  They both have done basic keyboarding, and we had the opportunity this week to review an online typing program.   We also revisited Dance Mat Typing (free - and we love it!) and Typing Instructor For Kids.


They spent a lot of time at the computer, keyboarding and also using Big IQ Kids (oh how we LOVE this!) and Always IceCream (review to come soon!).  I spent that time working in each of their rooms cleaning out clothes and other junk.   A part of me really dislikes doing this, but I feel so good when it is done!    

We have been using our cash register quite a bit.  At lunch a couple of days each child had a chance to be the cashier and they ordered their lunches and had to pay for them.  Last year we had a candy store in our dining room - I love real world math!  Yes, we also did our math workbooks, but the more we do those the more I see the importance of teaching the children real world applications.  This is also why I like the Charlotte Mason Business Math series so much.  

We took a trip to the library and got a lot of great books.   Miss B is still reading all about horses, and GMan wanted to get books about ferrets and the food pyramid.  I picked out several books about Wyoming (our state of the week) and some art books.   I feel that art is lacking in our homeschool and I need to change this. 

We finished a Five In A Row title, Three Names (I did a whole post about it if you click the link).  What a sweet book.   Read-alouds included tons of library books, a biography about Betsy Ross, and King of the Wind.   We also have been listening to Prince Caspian in our travels in the van.  I think the kids' favorite book this week was Absotively Posolutely.  Thank you to Masterbooks for this wonderful resource! 

The kids each had a lot of music this week... listening to Aaron Copland and piano lessons was just part of it.   They each also had swim practices and baseball games.  We had co-op Thursday and stayed for an hour afterwards just to play outside with friends.   The weather here has been beautiful! 

I have been asking the kids to write for me daily. I get prompts online and the kids have seemed to enjoy this.   One of the prompts this week was about McDonald's and how bad junk food is for you.  Did you know that McDonald's distributes more toys than Toys R Us?   Miss B had to write a persuasive paragraph to convince us not to eat junk food.   We had some interesting discussions about this and did a lot of research online.   

  

GMan helped me make some baked apples Friday morning in the crockpot.  They were SO yummy!

  

We ended the week with seeing Granddaddy all of Friday afternoon and then going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  The kids love the buckets of peanuts on the table!   My husband and I had one of those moments at dinner where we felt all of our hard work really pays off.  Both children ordered their dinner so nicely and used great manners the whole evening.

  

This weekend we have a baseball game and swim meet... it is a busy weekend.   I am blessed to have healthy, happy children who enjoy their activities.  And, I'm blessed to be leading this life where I can have so much time to enjoy them.  

How was your week?  

Linking with Kris!