Only a quarter of a mile into our homeschooling journey, I have been amazed to see the ways God has chosen to use it to teach me.

I used to joke that God was calling me to homeschooling for me, and hopefully my kids would get an education along the way. The statement is so true.

So here are a few nuggets I’ve gleaned so far:

I have learned that I am lazy. Well, I already knew this, but it confirmed the pretty obvious suspicion. If left to my own devices, I will stay in my pajamas…for days. I will lounge and drink coffee and ask Natalie to get things for Peter so I don’t have to get off the couch. (Can you relate? Maybe not. Maybe it’s just me.)

I have learned that when it comes to hard things, I am not interested. I don’t want to learn anything new that takes more than a little effort. The way that I see my daughter stubbornly cross her arms and say “I can’t do this” after one failed attempt – yeah, I see myself in that. I get it. Hard things are just well, hard. And I prefer easy.

I have learned that I am impatient, and need time for my coffee to kick in before I attempt to accomplish pretty much anything involving other people.

(so true, right?!)

I have learned that I am fearful of the unknown, intimidated by the expectations I place on myself and perceive others’ placing on me, and that I struggle a lot with trusting God, His timing, and His plans.

Sounds really delightful, right? All the things that inspire and motivate hoards to go run after the next challenging thing they sense God calling them to do.

BUT…
I have also learned that despite all these less-than-desirable qualities that I now own about myself (which used to be the very things that kept me from committing to homeschooling in the first place), God didn’t stop here.

God has continued to speak and reveal. He doesn’t choose to show me the ways that I fall short and just leave it at that. He doesn’t work that way. I don’t know why I so often anticipate that is where the story ends (Surprise, surprise. Jenny couldn’t cut it. The End.), but I do.

God continued to speak.

He showed me my laziness, but then He showed me His faithfulness. He called me to join Him in this new process, and those He calls, He equips. Because He calls, I get up in the morning. I may still be in my pajamas, but I pull my hair back and I drink that cup of coffee (and pray, don’t forget prayer), and I start my day. And I cling to the promise that He will give me what I need. And that gives me hope.

And in that same day, He shows me the very fears I so often push back or distract away -those thoughts that tell me that I am ridiculous for thinking that I can teach my kids at home, that they will have what they need in order to succeed, and that maybe God didn’t actually call me to this. And instead of shame, God brings them into the light, where we can talk about it. Deal with it. Wrestle through and climb over.

I literally had to fight back irritation and the knee-jerk reaction today to just stop and say ‘forget this. I’m not going to do it.’  And then my next thought being, ‘Really, am I still here? Am I still at the point where at any given second I can drop the whole thing? Why yes, yes I am.’ (a little inside peek into the conversations that go on in my head, because frankly, there are just no other adults around most days. So I gotta talk to someone.)

And then the next breath, the Holy Spirit enabled me to pray and say, ‘Lord, because You said this is the way, I’m going to keep going. I don’t understand. I don’t see it. I don’t have any idea of how this is gonna look – along the way or where we are going. But I’m going to follow You.’

And even in this, He showed me that He is there. His Presence equips and enables me to continue. He is Hope.

And that despite the fact that all these fears and doubts are still here, there is something new going on. I am learning what it means to trust, to not just to ask what trust is or how to trust. My usual tactic is to  (1) identify, then (2) define, and then (3) attempt to fully understand a thing to make sure that boat is going to float before I get into it, and then possibly (4) taking swim lessons in case something goes wrong (my Plan B’s have their own plan b’s).

But now I am actually stepping into the thing.

Because trust is NOT about knowing that it’s going to work out the way I think it should, or waiting until circumstances change or my current emotional state subsides. It’s not about knowing that I haven’t completely gotten it wrong and misunderstood.

But trust is saying that despite myself – despite all the less-than-desirables that I have just learned and confirmed about myself – that God loves me, that He has promises for me and my family that He will fulfill, and that He is in control.

Trust is saying I don’t have to know.
I don’t have to know.
(Selah.)

 

I am also learning that He has been and will always be the Way Maker.

He provided a way when there was no visible way for me to be home full-time with my babies, and He has continued to make a way through the wilderness of infancy & toddlerhood, through the droughts of sleeplessness and showerlessness (because a shower is like a oasis in the desert – sometimes you run across one, and sometimes you just dream of one, someday), and to rivers of new peace and joy hidden in the middle of raging rapids and muddy messes.

He has been faithful to provide the way, take my hand, and lead me at His pace – sometimes slowly, when I would so wish we would run to just get through it all – and sometimes faster than I would have liked.

“Lord, can’t I just stick my toes in and slowly let my body get used to the temperature of the water?”
“Nope, we’re going all in, today.”

Through it all, He has provided what we need. His provision has taken on different forms, just as different terrains require different supplies, but through it all, He has been there.

His Name is Faithful.

 

I have also learned that if I will push past some of these less-than-desirables about myself, there is joy on the other side.

Here are a few of the joy lessons:

I actually like doing crafts. (jaw dropping for those that know me) I still don’t like to gather all the supplies or clean up the messes, but I really enjoy the doing. And so I’m willing to do what is required in order to appreciate the moments of creating with my kids, and the keepsakes at the end of it.

I can be flexible. (again, another gasp) I can start out with a plan – a wonderful, glorious, structured, color-coded plan, and I can veer off if a child is cranky or the mess happens or they decide they want to spend the whole amount of time for the entire 5-step task on just step 1. I have survived. I have seen the Holy Spirit direct us to conversations that I couldn’t in my best attempts have put into the lesson plans.

And more than anything, I have seen myself stop and take in the moments. I have started to see that it’s in the middle of the really hard days – sandwiched between the worst morning ever and the afternoon that wouldn’t end – that there are these priceless gems that I am given with my kids that I would have missed if I had thrown my hands up in the air and gone back to bed (which is what my body always wants to do). I would have missed them.

So in all of this, I’m going to, by the Lord’s strength, do what is required – trudge through the messy and chaotic and cranky and less-than-ideal – in order to take hold of the sweet, joyful moments that are found in the midst of this journey.

It’s gonna be a long, crazy ride, but I’m really looking forward to it.

On Day 3, we talked a lot about the elements needed for plants to grow.

 

We pulled out some veggies, as suggested in the Teacher’s Guide for Mother Goose Time, and made our own little plants out of different veggies. The kids had fun, and as they placed their carrots down as roots, we talked about the role that roots play in providing food, water, and air to the plants. We also talked about the importance in being rooted in God so that we can get what we need for each day, to grow and thrive like the plants that are being fed as well.

Natalie took her creating one step further and created a veggie mommy.

Do you see the resemblance? (I guess I only have 1 leg?)

While Nat was created her own flower picture out of construction paper (and apparently doesn’t mind working in a messy workspace like her mama),

Peter & I spent some time talking about Sunshine (yellow) & Rain (blue),
putting our weather in the sky picture.

We also practiced counting the weather pieces.

We followed this with another Little Goose activity for sorting colors,

putting the same color paper on the appropriate weather pieces.

This was really great for me to see Peter improving on his color sorting.
We have wondered for a bit if he was possibly colorblind, as he was struggling to identify colors correctly.
But I’m seeing some good progress in this and am excited for him!

“Peter, was that fun?” “Mmm, hmm.”

After this, while Nat was wrapping up her flower picture, we created a plant picture of our own.

Peter was snacking on cheerios at the time, while helping me paste and repeating after me the names of the parts of the plants.
He decided that the sun needed some cheerios, so I gave him some artistic freedom. And his picture obviously represented that plants need sunlight (and cheerios) to grow.

Natalie chose rain to show how plants grow.
And Peter’s sun cheerios inspired Nat to add ‘seeds’ to her plant picture. It is so neat to see how each of them are already benefiting from working alongside each other instead working with each child individually at different times of the day.

Next, we moved into the living room for a fun game.

Natalie pretended to be a plant and she could take a step for each number I called out. If she started near the sun, she was a plant that needed water. If she didn’t get to the water for that turn, she would pretend to shrivel up. Opposite for the rain side – moving towards the sun, and if she didn’t make it, she would pretend to be swimming in the water.

She made it to the rain and is drinking up the rain!

She made it to the sun and is flourishing in the light.

Then the kiddos has some free play with the blocks for a bit.

Peter and I practiced our letters while Natalie made a plant out of the blocks.

This was her original plant.

This was her version after I suggested color-coding the parts of the plant.
(On her own accord, she even added the orange to signify the seeds in the flower. I was impressed. It is SO fun to see her creative side come out!)

This was the final version when we decided to add roots.

We then headed back into the kitchen for some water fun. They each had their own tray and some various-sized containers to play around. The teacher’s guide suggested talking about the different sizes and asking which ones they thought could hold the most water, least, etc.

We also discussed how, just like plants, God created our bodies to need water every day.

The 6 cups represented the amount recommended for a toddler daily. I honestly can’t imagine Natalie drinking this much water every day,
but it has encouraged us to shoot for about three 8-oz cups at a day to start, including myself.

Then we added a little bit of color to the water for fun.

This is Natalie, pretending she is a plant with her roots in the water, growing.

This is Peter, thinking Natalie is hilarious.

This is the drinking Peter plant.

Silliness. And a little scary.

And I was really excited to see how these little cans fit right into our lesson.

These were a gift from my mom for the kiddos a while back, and so we took the time today to get them started.

We talked about the differences between the seeds, too. I personally have loved seeing the diversity in all the seeds, and being reminded of how creative God is. Natalie told me today that He is quite “original.”

We put the flower cans outside, along with some great plants that Natalie and I bought on the side of the road this past weekend.
A local high school was selling them through their FFA group,
and I thought it would be fun to grow them with the kiddos.
So far they’ve helped me water them each day, so we’re also talking about taking responsibility for what we have.

Whew – and this was only before lunch!

I’m learning very quickly that I’m going to have to be a little bit more selective with the activities we choose each day instead of trying to accomplish all that is provided in the daily packets.

Four days in and we’ve really enjoying it!

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.

The first week of Mother Goose Time has been lots of fun! And I’m also quite exhausted from trying to take advantage of ALL the really fun, hands-on activities that were suggested this week.

I wish I had some pictures of show you some of our Circle Time experiences, but I’ve been enjoying it so much with the kids that I haven’t forgotten to have my camera out. The kids LOVE this time, and I was surprised to see Peter’s excitement in dancing around during the opening song each day. His little dance – so sweet!

Monday (Day 2), we focused on Seeds.

Day 2’s packet came with some fun shape manipulatives that were very similiar to some others the kids were given for Christmas, so we had enough for them to share without a mutiny on my hands! They spent a good bit of time playing on their own, which was fun to watch their little minds working.

Peter collected the orange squares,

and ‘planted’ the shapes in the egg carton,

and even decided his shoe would be a good container as well.

Natalie used her creativity to free-design a dog,

create a flower,

and then decided her flower needed a stem & leaves.

I really think they could have stayed with the shapes longer, but there were so many more fun things to move on to.
And even now, as the kids are seeing me post these pictures, they are wanting to go back and play.

We moved on to planting our shapes in our own sand gardens in the backyard. We hadn’t really discussed gardens before, so I printed out a few pictures so that the kids could see that each type of seed is planted in the same row, and that there can be different designs in a garden as well.

We talked about order and also labeling what we have planted so that we’ll know what we are producing.

(I can see so many biblical principles in these lessons and look forward to building on them over the next few weeks. One being that our God is a God of order. We have discussed how in Genesis 1 that God created each plant to produce its own type of seed, so that we can know that apples will always produce apples. In the same way, God was the same yesterday,  is the same today, and will be the same tomorrow. We can rely on Him. This is just one of the exciting ways that we can build off these lessons.)

I had made little flags ahead of time (toothpicks & slivers of post-it notes) to label our rows for each sand garden –

Natalie’s flags had the names of the shapes,

and Peterman’s had the names of colors.

Peter is still learning to sort by color, so we decided to work on one color at a time.

After we were done, I asked Natalie would she thought her shape garden would grow. She said that her blue diamonds would produce blueberries (as she explained because they are blue). I asked her if she thought they would be diamond-shaped, and she said, “No, of course not. Blueberries aren’t diamond-shaped.” So, there you go. She is an interesting mix of imagination and reason.

When then came inside to play with some real seeds.

 

 I tried to encourage Peter to sort the seeds by type, but he found that the more efficient way to get the seeds from the plate into the egg carton was to dump them. I guess he’s not really interested in the order of things quite yet. 🙂

(I am also learning that I’m having to be so ‘hands-on’ with Peter that I’m failing to get pictures of Natalie. I will definitely be working on that in the future.)

Next, we created our garden pictures.

Peterman isn’t much of a color-er, so I opted to cut some stems and leaves for him to maybe just draw a flower.
He wasn’t very interested in the idea, so we decided to glue some beans for the flowers instead.

Natalie drew her self-portrait in her own flower garden.

As I was looking on Pinterest earlier this week to try to find some activities that would reinforce what we are learning with our Experiencing God devos this month (see my previous post about this month’s focus on The Parable of the Sower), I ran across this really cute idea. Since we already had the beans for this lesson, it was an easy addition to our day. And a great reminder to ask the Lord to transform our hearts into good soil, so that His truth can take root and produce fruit in our lives (Psalm 51:10,   Ephesians 3:16-19, Colossians 3:16).

This was a suggested Little Goose activity for Peter while Natalie drew her garden picture ahead.

In the middle of all of this, I saw Peter just sitting in his chair, kicking his feet. And I realized that he was so grown up. My baby was not a baby anymore. I am so thankful that I get to spend this time with them each day. It’s speeding by and I can hardly catch my breath for a moment to take it in.

 

After a VERY full morning, we moved on to lunch.

We decided to explore some real seeds as we ate.


To wrap this all up, I wanted to give you a sneak peak into the mess behind the scenes.

Our kitchen counter now doubles as my work space, seeing as our home doesn’t offer a designated school room currently.

Maybe I will find a better system after I have a few days or week under my belt, but I was a pretty hot mess flipping between the teacher’s guide & Little Goose guide today, trying to take notes and pictures.  It’s a work in progress, but we’re learning and growing, and I’m embracing the imperfection even in this.