“Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Psalm 34:11
Another year finished and I can only hope the girls are wiser. I know I am.
Each year, educating Melanie has brought new learning for me.
It is hard for me to believe that my youngest child is now 10 and finished 5th grade. I still remember having her at 44 and thinking how wonderful it was going to be to start again teaching all the years of school to her. Melanie and I have studied presidents and their ladies. We have learned how to diagram all kinds of sentences and we even did a bit of geometry in math.
The best part of our school year has been those moments while she is doing copybook or art and I am reading to her. I didn’t get as many books read to her as I had planned but we still had a blast. This course of study will not stop this summer. We are already planning our next book since today we finish Strawberry Girl.
Stephanie, second youngest, finished off a post 12th grade year of studying things like Latin, music, art and writing. Her growth this year from childhood to adulthood has been amazing to watch. Amazing in that she had this transition year of learning to budget groceries and meal planning. Shopping for our weekly food and preparing our daily main meal.
To me, this is the education that is worthwhile. She excelled in piano and cello and her art has been improving immensely. She has had zero pressure to look and dress a certain way or to impress a bunch of boys in an artificial environment (yes, I mean college). Her days have been peaceful and full of reading. Stephanie also decided to learn to drive this year and now has her license. She was hired at Culver’s and is doing very well there.
School is so much more than book learning.
I love book learning. I will always be the student who studies from a textbook just like my father but I have learned over the years of homeschooling that I have so much more to teach my children. My children have learned to play instruments which they now use in service to God at church. They have learned to clean a home (boys, too) which is now serving my adult children well in their own lives. My husband has taught them all basics of car care and how to keep our property cleaned up and looking great.
Schooling our children has not been about dropping them off for hours a day expecting them to come home smarter while we live our lives. School for us has been a family effort of “teaching them to observe all things…” The Bible talks about going into the world and seeing people saved in Matthew 28 but we also see Jesus telling His disciples to teach the people. What greater task do we, as parents, have to do today that teach our children. I just cannot leave this task to others.
So as this year has wound down and I begin to think about the summer, I am excited to carry on the learning through lots of reading, writing and art work as well as being outside with Melanie and watching her explore the world around her. A childhood of innocence, joy, discovery, learning and best of all – being close to her parents.
Here’s to a summer full of imagination and learning.
