Homeschooling Goals = Life Goals

I just finished reading The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggars. I'm not sure what even possessed me to check out the book from the library... but I found it to be an uplifting story! One of the things that struck me was a comment about why they homeschool their children...

Our homeschooling lessons are designed to prepare them to be successful leaders at home and work, but overriding the practical skills are our two primary goals. I tell our children over and over, "You can gain all kinds of training, but no matter what skills and talents you possess, if you do these two things you'll be successful: first, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and second, love your neighbor as yourself." [p. 112]

YES!

Life: a process toward progress...

A friend and I were recently discussing various aspects of motherhood. On one hand—how quickly we bash ourselves for our mistakes... Why couldn't I just be perfect? is often my whining utterance. I just want to ARRIVE... to not struggle with selfishness or laziness, or be longing for the past, or be straining to find the easy button...


And on the other hand—to be WILLING to endure the difficulties of parenting... the 24/7/365-ishness of it... the patience that can quickly run dry... the training and retraining of the children... and to know it's OK for your kids to be human, to make mistakes, to recognize that they need time to mature—A LOT of time.


When I can take these things in stride, I will be much more peaceful and joyful in the parenting journey!

Jim Jackson says something about that in his book —that we need to change our perspective to viewing life as a path of God-created opportunities.... and viewing the challenges our children create as an opportunity for God's purposes to be accomplished. This is a HUGE paradigm shift for me! It's like, stop looking for the fruit of "good parenting" but instead view life as a process where God is growing & refining us, as well as our children, and accomplishing His purposes through the challenges!!!

So during this conversation, my friend and I came up with this definition of life:

Life is a PROCESS toward progress, not perfection.

How easily we get frustrated with ourselves when we make mistakes! (Quite often, in my perfectionism, I'd like to throw in the towel!) Yet our goal must not be perfection; rather, it is progress—growth in our character as God uses the circumstances around us to shape us more and more like Christ.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. 29 For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son [hello, refinement!], so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Romans 8:28-29, NLT

Science outdoors

One of the things I love about home-schooling is having the flexibility to conduct school when we want, where we want.


Today's science lesson: an experiment with air! We're using the Thames & Kosmos Little Labs Stepping Into Science kit. See the cool airplane in Brandon's hand? What a fun way to learn something about how air affects things!

Has spring already sprung in Minnesota??

We have been wearing shorts and t-shirts almost every day for a week—during the second week of March! This simply does not happen in Minnesota!


Having the windows open and letting the fresh scent of spring waft through the house is incredibly refreshing after 4 months of winter. (Although, we had a pretty mild winter too—so no complaints here!)

Whether or not this spring-like weather is here to stay—there is certainly a good chance we could see more cold and snow within the next few weeks—I am simply happy to bask in it. :)

Shorts & t-shirts in March!

This picture is from today... March 14. Notice the boys are wearing shorts and t-shirts? In Minnesota. Mid-march.

Today's high temp was in the low 70s—breaking the record high (which was 64 degrees in 2010)! My boys were more than happy to be outdoors enjoying the warm weather. And this warming trend looks like it's going to stick around for several more days—yahoo!

Veggies

Do you know what these are?


Starting at the top left: a sweet potato (technically it's a yam), turnips, carrots, and parsnips. Did you guess correctly?

We are making strides to eat more vegetables at our house. My naturopath is recommending 5 servings per day. And that's not a combination of fruits and vegetables—that's five servings of just vegetables!

As you can imagine, the ol' green stand-bys (green beans and peas) got old pretty quickly. We do also enjoy Brussels sprouts, steamed broccoli, and asparagus. But that's not a lot of variety when you're eating vegetables so frequently! We also eat cauliflower and carrots, and add big handfuls of fresh spinach to our smoothies. But it's still not enough. (Five a day! Need variety!)

So, on I venture... into the wild frontier of vegetables unknown to man... er, I mean to me. :)

A few weeks ago, we tried roasted beets. Not too bad. A few days ago, we tried roasted root vegetables (see picture above—and note that I omitted the rutabaga from the recipe on this first attempt—ha!). This might take a little more getting used to.

Anybody out there have a delicious recipe for parsnips, turnips, and/or rutabaga?? Also, as if delicious isn't enough of a requirement, it needs to be gluten-free and dairy-free....

Paper Plate Masks

I love that Brandon is at the age (6-1/2) when he asks, "Mom, can we do a craft today?"

Yesterday, Brandon wanted to make an animal mask. After doing a search on Google, I decided on paper plate masks. Brandon chose a lion and Ryan chose a zebra.

We used Crayola washable paint for Brandon's lion, which provided nice coverage. (The time it took for the paint to dry was a REAL test of his patience!) Since Ryan's zebra is white, the only additional color required was the black stripes—which I applied with a black Crayola marker... (I started out with a Sharpie, but quickly realized the fumes might overcome him!)

The masks are tied in back with a piece of yarn.


Not too shabby, eh? The boys LOVED them!


Hooray for a fun Saturday activity!