Permission to Change

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”

Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

 

This is only my second year of Official Homeschooling, though Jonah and I started when he was 3 with preschool. And each year, no multiply times each year, God shows my how to change and tweak things to make our homeschooling better. 

 

I am not a creature of Change, in fact I don't like it much at all. So when I get headed in one direction I tend to stay in that direction even after I realize it's stressful and isn't working! It's one of the million things I'm learning and changing about myself through this Homeschooling journey.

 

I'm learning that God loves me and knows me so well, well enough to teach me gently.

 

We started this school year working on 6 subjects a day. (That was WAY too much for a 4 and 6 year old) I was flustered at the end of each day when it was 2pm and we had been at it since 9am! My day had evaporated, the kids were exhausted. It wasn't working!

 

So I cut down the days to 5 subjects and alternating between science and History, with one day for Art. It was STILL too much. We were still  too worn out by the end of the day to get to Science and History. Those were the kids favorite subjects and we were rushing through them and not enjoying them very much at all.

 

Then God opened a door for me and he has been slowly opening it wider and wider allowing me to peak in on what our days should look like. And I had to give myself permission to follow His lead. See even though I say I want God in control, my actions don't always speak to that. I do things the way I think they should be, set up our schedule the way I think it will work best. But in reality, I don't know best! He does.

 

He put it on my heart to have one day a week where all we do is Science, History and Art. I cried out,"But what about READING!!! and MATH!!!!!" Nope, just Science and History and Art. So we have been going on that path for a few weeks. Then this week again I was praying, giving God control and telling Him how I still wasn't happy about that ONE day. Again He showed me a new way for us to do things. I'm so excited now, I wish we had done this all along! 

 

This week I spent time (way too much time), putting together 2 Units for the kids. There are tons of great resources, vidoes, activities, games out there on Every subject! Believe me I even found a FREE power point show on The Babylonians and Assyrians! Amazing! So now each week instead of just doing the worksheets provided by Sonlight, and Story of the World.....I've added to it, plugging in FUN along the way. That way we can dig into a subject on Fridays and the kids can work through the unit throughout the week at their own pace! When there is down time, or I need to nurse a baby, they can pull out their Unit studies and do a little!

 

Eventually I'll get a post up of what that looks like (complete with photographs)......but for now, I've gotta get kids dressed and ready to learn about some Arctic Animals! BBBrrrrrrr!