Week in Review

Last weekend, as I looked at the upcoming week, I began to feel a tightness in my chest and those all too familiar feelings of anxiety begin to creep in.  For starters, Tuesday was Veteran’s Day and my husband was off work.  So, I had scheduled that morning for family portraits.  On Tuesday afternoon we had our homeschool book club meeting for which the books were read, but no work had been done on the book reports. On Friday was our monthly class at the science museum.  I also am taking an on-line web design class for which I was already behind by one assignment, in addition to my participation in the Homeschool Crew with The Old Schoolhouse magazine. Those review opportunities were beginning to weigh heavily on my mind.

So, do you know what we did this week?  I celebrated my freedom in homeschooling! We took a break from all our usual morning seat work.  No English, Spelling, Math, Handwriting, Latin, or Greek. I do take these subjects seriously. We are very purposeful in our choice of curriculum for our children.  I do believe that we are teaching the subjects that, at least for right now, God wants us to teach.  However, sometimes I lose my purpose and became a list checker extraordinaire.  I don’t want that for our school.  I want my children to understand that their learning is important, not just checking things off the list because they are there.  So that is why I had such a wonderful week.  I was so much more relaxed.  We didn’t do things just to get them done.

I am not at all saying that we didn’t have school this week.  (Not that it’s not OK to take time completely off when you need to!)  My older children completed their book reports.  They did additional study on the setting of their books.  My 6 year old and 8 year old colored maps showing the location of the setting of their books, while my 10 year old completed a collage of pictures from the location of his book.  We did our Tapestry of Grace literature and Bible assignments for the week.  I had my older 2 children try out Aleks On-line Math, which also helped me prepare for my review of this curriculum.  I had daily reading lessons with my 6 year old using a wonderful program that I am reviewing called Rime to Read.  He also did a couple of weeks worth of Kinderbach music lessons, another product for review.

When I sat down to discuss the book of Judges with my older 2 children, we had a wonderful discussion.  The study was review for them because they had recently studied Judges in Sunday School, as well as hearing a sermon series on the book.   They really seemed to have retained the material, which is not always the case.  They were able to recount with quite a lot of detail both the stories of Gideon and Samson.  I do love it when our learning in different areas all comes together like that!

So, I once again am thankful for my freedom in homeschooling.  I am thankful that God gave me a week to catch up on many things. So today, I do not feel anxious about next week.