Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Joys of Homeschooling

Words cannot express how thankful I am to be a homeschool mom.  I realize that we are still in somewhat of the honeymoon stage…we’ve only been going for three weeks.  But, for Grace, there is NO doubt in our minds that we have made the right decision to keep her home with me.

Every morning she wakes up and eagerly asks what we will learn today.  She loves all the attention she is getting during our mornings together. 

Granted, there have been times of stress.  Even tears.  But I use it as a learning opportunity for her.  And me.  When she gets frustrated because she can’t do or understand something, I don’t let her give up.  We just try a different approach and she eventually learns that she CAN learn.  And she learns perseverance.  Then we take a break and do crafts.  Ha!

For Grace, this is a challenging curriculum.  I’m having to read and research different ways to teach some of the phonetic activities.  But, despite the fact that she struggles at times, she really wants to learn and is so excited when things start to connect in her brain. 

Today was so sweet.  When we finished our daily lessons, I went in the kitchen to make lunch.  I heard her in the school room pretending to teach a phonics lesson to another student.  She went through the whole lesson and all the activities we did today, pretending to be the teacher.  She even gave her imaginary student stickers and lots of verbal encouragement, “Great job, sweetie!”, etc.  My heart just melted and I knew today that we made the right decision for her.

I can only pray that she will continue to grow spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually.  Being her teacher is a great responsibility that I take very seriously.  It’s also a great joy!  All those months of agonizing over our decision of the direction we wanted to go with her education have been put to rest. 

Wedding Cake

wedding cake 2

This past weekend was the wedding of a special friend from high school.  She asked me to make her wedding cake, and I eagerly took the challenge.  Thankfully, she knew exactly what she wanted…and she is nowhere close to a bridezilla.  So sweet.

Doing a wedding cake is so much more stressful than a birthday or shower cake.  The whole time I was decorating it, I was thinking that these pictures will be saved and looked at for generations to come.  I mean, my wedding album gets looked at pretty regularly since I leave it sitting out in my living room. 

I considered calling my doctor and asking for an anxiety pill.  Then I thought if I felt like I needed drugs to get through a job, maybe it was not the thing for me.  So I stayed in a continual state of prayer…l literally prayed without ceasing.

Anyway, there were a few scary moments, particularly during transport, but God is good and it all turned out well in the end.  When I saw the final product, watched the beautiful bride cut into the cake, and saw how much the guests enjoyed eating it, all the stress was worth it!