A homeschool mom who I respect VERY much brought this article to my attention:
It has stuck with me for several days. Thank you, Karen (I don't know you, but thank you!).
When the author talked about the "simplicity of homeschooling" and how it forces you to rely on God I had a huge "a-ha" moment.
With all of the technology, conferences, modern conveniences, and things that "make our life easier", how easy it is for us to push God to the BACKGROUND?
Sometimes God isn't very subtle about making a point with me.
Yesterday in church while listening to a dynamic young man (a pastor candidate in our small church) preach, he asserted that we should simply be living to proclaim the risen, resurrected Christ. THAT is our mission.
It's not about lifting ourselves up or making ourselves stand out.
I guess that means it's not about all those great ideas I can share on my blog or the number of people that link up with me on a given day. It's not about having children who read the best or achieve wonderful things on a baseball team or play the piano well.
My friend Denise, who shared this article, commented that she will be writing a mission statement this spring and "refocusing on what God has called her to do".
I thought about that A LOT this weekend.
We will be leaving for a nice long vacation this week. When I come back I want our homeschool to be more simple and foundational. I want it to be more Christ centered. I want to tune out the "noise" and I want to create more margin in our lives.
Sometimes I think the sum total of our homeschool should be the Bible, a library card, and nature walks. (Now I know I need to incorporate some other little things like spelling and math, but you know what I mean.... just strip everything back to the bare bones and go from there.)
I don't want to buy another piece of curriculum.
I won't read all those glamorous curriculum reviews and "Curriculum for Next Year" posts.
I am challenging myself to my library basket, Bible and nature walks.
Heart education will be my top priority.
To remind myself of this, I took a picture of our library basket and added some text.... I'm adding this to my sidebar so I see it OFTEN. You are more than welcome to do the same. Maybe it will make us all aware of the necessity to simplify our homeschools.
Heart education will be my top priority.
To remind myself of this, I took a picture of our library basket and added some text.... I'm adding this to my sidebar so I see it OFTEN. You are more than welcome to do the same. Maybe it will make us all aware of the necessity to simplify our homeschools.
As I read Dick Whittington to my children last night ( a great folktale about generosity and humility from Medieval England), they simply sat eating their ice cream and listening. Our family was learning together and the world was PEACEFUL. Once again, I felt that God placed this read-aloud in my hands to bring a lesson for ME as well as my children.
I want more moments like this.
Will you join me in simplifying this spring?
