On this beautiful July Sunday morning, I am watching these two play and thinking about the coming school year. There are so many things to do, so much they all need to learn. My list for each child--and there are six being home educated this year--is long, to say the least.
Sometimes it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand. Yet, two thoughts are shining a light of hope on all those lists. The first is that consistency is better than cramming. If we stick to our tasks with perseverance each day, neither rushing nor lagging, but moving forward at a steady pace, they will get done. The second is that much can be accomplished in fifteen minutes' time. A quarter of an hour a day for each of the 180 days of the school year adds up to 45 hours. So many things fall by the wayside in the rush of a busy day--poetry, scripture study, math facts drills, foreign language vocabulary, art appreciation, memory work. I am going to make a list of little things that deserve our time and make sure they get their fifteen minutes a day no matter what.
Looking back over the past twenty-one years of homeschooling and looking forward to the twelve or so to come, I thank God for the gift of these children and every single quarter of an hour spent with them. If I could do it all over again from the very beginning, I wouldn't change a thing.
