Today we began homeschool! Which around here is a very soft start. Mainly I meet with each kid and talk through every subject, where they left off, make notes of curriculum I still want to purchase, and talk about a special thing they want to learn about this upcoming year. More than “the first day of school” I’d call it, “now where were we?”
But to make it official, we took first day of school pictures. (Some with a book they are particularly excited about…)
Can I tell you what really happened though? It has to do with the darling teacher planner I got at Aldi a few weeks ago. The one that I’m holding above, and birthed all the high hopes of an organized school year that a mother can have on the first day of homeschool.
I began our first day with a lesson on meekness. I just ordered Homeschooling with a Meek and Gentle Spirit, knowing I’ve got areas to grow in here and had begun my own morning reading the first chapter. I suppose I was cramming for the first day of school.
Maybe you can see where this is going…
So I taught the kids everything I had learned in the first chapter. That meek means not being easily provoked to anger. That there are two people in the whole of the Bible that are described as meek: Jesus and Moses. And that the Bible even makes it perfectly clear that, “the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.”
So we talked about being mild of temper, soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated. The definition of meekness from Websters 1858 dictionary.
And then I had a meeting with each kid mapping out the year. Every kid got an “elective.” Elsie chose quilting, Hattie’s is organization (I picked for her!), Alden chose drawing and Elias wants to learn all about horses.
I stepped away from the table to get a few workbooks for Elias and when I came back I found my brand new teacher planner had been found. Abel had scribbled all over and ripped all the fun, darling post it notes and arrows from the movable book mark.
The trouble was I took it personally. And was immediately irritated. And felt sulky. (Self-pity was rearing her nasty head!) Even Rory told me he felt sorry for me knowing how excited I was for the fresh start of a clean slate. And then just a few hours in, the slate was scribbled all over.
These things are always funny in retrospect, and because this is my eighth first-day-of-school as a homeschool teacher, I am wise enough to know this is exactly how it goes. And I know it’s actually not a big deal. A listening friend might repeat, “so you’re upset that your 2 year-old wrote on paper with a pen? This is better than the pink marker on your bedroom walls though, right?”
Thankfully we have many days ahead of us to keep refining. To keep training and teaching. Mostly the two year old. Who I’ll be homeschooling the next sixteen years. Just think how meek and gentle I will be!
Until then, I’m off to read chapter two.
