Friday, June 27, 2014

Final thoughts...

You know, it wasn't that long ago that I remember being a young mom and being worried and troubled over what to teach my kids, how to help them learn best, which was the right formula to follow (Charlotte Mason, unschooling, boxed curricula, Montessori, etc…) and worried that I was royally screwing it up every hour of every day. And having (mostly) gotten through that, I can see that it's a natural response to want to save anyone and everyone we can from that kind of burden. We want to shout out, "Over here! I can save you a lot of heart ache, just follow me."

Isn't that what we mom's want to do? Save people/our kids/everyone from pain, from struggle, from hitting every single bump in the road. But we have to realize that just like our anxiety, our struggle, our sufferings were all growing pains on the way to the peace and understanding that comes with maturity, we have to let other mom's travel the journey they are on. We can try to warn them off with a little helpful advice, but ultimately, we have to let them go their way. A child learns to walk step by step, one foot in front of the other but they also learn balance in the wobbling and determination in picking themselves back up when they fall. Those are all necessary lessons too. We have to let them learn.

We are forming souls. But in life, body and soul are linked. Only death can separate them. Our children are made in the image and likeness of God and while that means treasuring their precious eternal souls, it also means feeding and caring for their intellect. Because the two are linked. We are made in the image and likeness of God body and soul. We can't forsake one for the other.

And if you want to read an excellent analogy of homeschooling and cooking, go read Melanie's post.

I definitely approach homeschooling like I approach cooking. I like looking at a bunch of recipes to get inspired in the same way I like looking at a variety of curricula. But what actually ends up at the table is a bit of this and a bit of that, what suits my own tastes, my family’s tastes, the ingredients I actually have on hand, my skills as a cook, and how much time I have to cook. Often the final product of my schooling bears about the same resemblance to the curriculum as the dish does to the recipe: you can recognize the various ingredients, mostly.