“Silent Night” Challenge!

We speak every year of how crazy the Christmas season is…shopping, cooking, rehearsing, baking, wrapping, decorating, traveling… So, I’m here to give you a challenge. I was actually inspired by something I saw posted yesterday.

silentbooknight

Raise your hand if this sounds like a fabulous idea to you! I LOVE it! I’ve seen various posts in our group at Schoolin’ Swag about favorite Christmas read-alouds, or wrapping up 25 holiday books so that one can be opened and read together as a family every night. So nice.

I like the idea of quiet at Christmas. I really don’t think the actual Christmas night those many years ago was literally “silent”. Think about it…a thundering heavenly host, the raucous clamoring of the shepherds as they scrambled to spread the news, the crowds in Bethlehem, a stable full of animals, and a newborn baby. Okay, so really think through this with me…the sweet Christmas song says “But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes”… I think this is just a bit romanticized. Who wouldn’t be concerned about a newborn who makes no noise? 😉 Jesus was fully God and fully man. Babies cry to communicate all sorts of things. Let’s reconcile ourselves to that.

The quiet I relish at Christmas is for worship. It’s for thought. It’s for breathing the heavy sigh of contentment in being surrounded by so much beauty this time of year. I love the stillness of an evening with fresh falling snow, away from city lights, far from traffic noise, when you can look up at the crystalline sky and imagine that Star. I like opportunities that take my spirit to that level of peace.

So, here’s the challenge. Find time for a “Silent Night” during your Christmas break. It can be Christmas eve, as suggested above, or another evening that is convenient. OR…even MORE than one! Turn off Netflix. Get away from the *beep* *boop* of phones, PS3’s, and all the rest. Savor quiet.

I remember one of my favorite things to do during Christmas vacation as a kid was to lie down under the Christmas tree, looking up through the branches, and listening to the favorite Christmas LPs we pulled out every year. Calming. Focusing. Restful.

I’d love to hear about your “Silent Night” attempt! Share in the comments below, message me, or come join Schoolin’ Swag and share with all of the wonderful folks there!

Taking “Perfect” Out of My Vocabulary

I used to be very challenged. I LOVED order. I mean, I wasn’t quite “Monk” level in my organization, but I tidied, alphabetized, fluffed, matched, sorted, vacuumed and “staged” my apartment into excruciating pristine-ness. Re-do makeup on lunch break. Re-iron clothes between classes in college. I remember my little southern room mate exclaiming, “Dah-ay-anne. People KNOW you sit day-own.”

Maintaining that level of perfection is exhausting. It is also depressing because the ideal is never quite met. It buys only a temporary sense of well being at best. And generally speaking, it makes things miserable for a lot of other people.

Now, try to apply this mindset to homeschooling. You read blogs, see great articles (with pictures to help you visualize your perfect homeschool situation), lurk on discussion boards where everybody has their own definition of what perfect homeschooling is…and THAT, my friends, will ruin you. I spent a few years trying to “do perfect” in our schooling, with imperfect kids, imperfect budget, imperfect room layout, and (last but certainly not least) imperfect ME. Cue ominous music.

It took me years to understand that NO curriculum will fit every kid. We are not the public school that issues a copy of a textbook out of one big box for every student. And… even what feels like the perfect curriculum in September may morph into really NOT perfect by January. Because kids change and grow. Because circumstances are never static. Because budgets change. Because life happens.

So, let’s make a promise to ourselves. Just do today what is great (not perfect) and expedient for today. If that means Hamburger Helper for supper, do it. If that means the laundry stays in the dryer, so be it. If that means this kids get some reading and math in and watch Magic School Bus and Fetch! for the rest of school because you are not feeling well, alright then. Pajamas all day? Okay! Learning to compare prices at the grocery store and stick to a budget for math? Yep!

Bottom line…if it’s “one of those days” just remember that it won’t always be like this. Don’t compare with the friends in your co-op. They are not you. They don’t have your kids. They don’t live your life in your home. No…I won’t break into a chorus of “Let It Go”. 😉

“Perfect” is what fits. It’s the favorite pair of soft, old jeans. The fuzzy slippers you snuggle into in the morning. That cup of “just right” coffee that makes your brain say “Ahhhhhhhh….” with it’s warmth. Ask God what “perfect” should look like today. I suspect it will likely be different than what you had in mind!

finalhedge Now. See this little fellow? A couple years ago he would have been banished from “my tree”, because “my tree” already had its colors, layout, and theme chosen. A purple hedgehog doesn’t say “Christmas”!

I’ve come a long way. Know how far? The kids set up and decorated the tree entirely by themselves. And I have not touched it since. Life is too short to focus on controlling every aspect so that it is safe, pleasing, wrinkle free, and convenient. We miss an awful lot of joy that way. I’m so grateful to be freed from who I was. Jesus is my perfection, and that’s where that issue begins and ends.

So, Merry Christmas little Hedgie, and Merry Christmas, lovely, less-than-perfect-but-so-much-happier homeschool friends!

For the Love of Learning (and Sanity),

Diane

You threw off my groove!

Getting back into the groove…maybe…perhaps…by next week? Any other home schoolers who took a Spring Break feelin’ this? Ugh. Slow as molasses starting today, and each subject for the little girlie was backwards. Just so you know, homeschooling life is not perfect, even for those who have been doing it in excess of a decade.

Today, we forgot what direction our numbers go in. Today in handwriting, we decided to make up our own cursive letters…in orange marker. Today, we were helpless in all ways in navigating on the computer. Today in grammar, the knowledge that any such thing as “opposites” might exist mysteriously vaporized. Today, in an assessment, we felt the need to become a mime, and do all answers without words…except when we needed to ask when we would be done. Today, we ran around the house like a banshee, in our continuing role as “Sooper Katherine”, providing profuse narrative for every action, thought, gesture, and facial expression.

I ask for prayer in our schooling, and people just don’t seem to get that I’m serious. They see these snippets of this spirited, clever little girl, and think it is entertaining, engaging. They have never tried to teach her.

So, no…things aren’t perfect. We had more to do, but we’re done, because I’m done. Any more effort to persevere I think will cause brain cells to selectively begin to wave their little white flags…for both of us. The synapses are twitching.

And no, I’d never consider sending her to school. She’d never be able to be herself there…it is simply too time consuming for a group setting. Secondly, she’d end up being sent home as a disciplinary problem more often than not, so why not just keep her here in the first place? 😉 Third, I can give her patience (most days) and the scriptural instruction that she needs to hone all of this quirkiness into the woman God wants her to be one day. They’re not allowed to do that at school.

School is not about getting done. It’s about getting US done. Not just the students, but the Mom, too.

Katie’s orange handwriting page today said, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We are learning Psalm 23 by memory now that she’s done with her A to Z verses. I shall not want. He has all the grace, patience, creativity, ingenuity, organizational skills, ability to interpret and discern, prioritize and triage…He has all I need.

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isa. 40:28-31

I’m getting my ducks in a row for tomorrow. I want to remember to ask Him for all I need. I dare not do this on my own. The Mom, with God’s grace, will prevail!