"Train Up a Child?!" ~ True Homeschool Story of Encouragement

As we enter into a new school season, I hope this true story that occurred in my first year of home education will be an encouragement to you (and perhaps offer a few smiles)...

"Crash! Boom! Bang!" 

What was that noise in the kitchen?

It was three o’clock in the morning and I was wiped out from the long day. It was my first year homeschooling and I was not sure that things were going the way they were supposed to. My daughter was four years old and I was attempting the role of the pre-school mother. What I had pictured in my mind of the eager student waiting wide-eyed for instruction was proving impossible. Instead, I had a little girl who wiggled as I read, got distracted by every noise and lost interest in all the fancy craft fun that I presented to her.

Arts and Crafts

For example, she loved reading about castles... I stayed up late into the night, cutting out a cardboard box in the shape of one, turrets and all! It took me a good hour to get this masterpiece in appropriate dimensions. I felt like the homeschool, mother-of-the-year with a project like this. I purchased paints, some decorative gems and told her she could custom-design her very own castle. And she loved the idea! For five minutes…

Well, maybe she wasn’t the artistic type?

A B C’s and Amnesia

“Why don’t we just play with letters today” I said, trying to be patient after our last flop.

We sat down with wooden letters and I asked her which one was which. She had known what “s” was the last two days but suddenly amnesia came on. It was a “c” today. I took a deep breath and gave up that subject.

Maybe she was more science minded?

Science Segment

My next attempt had me reading about birds and discussing all the magnificent ways they were created. I did a darling demonstration about how they were able to fly. She seemed to really grasp this and I got very excited. There was progress in this school!

I figured it was best to call it a day while we were finally ahead.

Dinnertime Delusions

It was at the dinner table when I completely lost it. I was going over all our activities of the day to my husband. I asked my daughter to explain to him why birds were able to fly. She stared at me with a confused look on her face. I began to prod her even more. 

“You know”, I said, “how their bones are created special?”

I am rewarded with another blank stare.

“We went over it today. Remember the bird book we read together?”

She proceeded to put another piece of spaghetti in her mouth.

I begin to wonder if I was teaching anybody today? Was this homeschool a figment of my imagination? Was this a complete waste of my precious time?

When the dinner dishes were finally cleaned, I felt like a total failure as I plopped onto the couch. My daughter approached me with a bedtime story, God’s Wisdom for Little Girls: Virtues and Fun from Proverbs 31. Defeated, I turned the pages and read the very same book that I had read to her all week. Of course, I lacked enthusiasm at this point and read in a monotone voice. She doesn’t seem to be paying attention anyways. She is staring at her toes this time.

Bedtime Blares

Mentally tired and exhausted from what I thought was a fruitless day, I was woken up by some clanging noises. It was either a very clumsy burglar or some sleepwalker (hopefully from our house!). I crawled out of bed not wanting to wake my dear husband. What I saw as I entered the kitchen freaked me out!

It was my little girl... with flour all over her pajamas and a pathetic apron dangling off her right shoulder. Crumbs of dough were sprinkled all over the floor and clumps of it were swinging from the freezer door. Pots and pans were strewn savagely all over the sink. This had been going on for some time.

“What are you doing? It is three in the morning???!!!”

She looked up innocently and attempted to quote scripture...

“She waketh up early to prepare food for her family."

I just stared.

This was what she learned today... She gleaned “the good part”(Luke 10:42)!

She was applying God’s word.

While some girls were playing princess, she was the Proverbs 31 woman.

Comforting Conclusion

How quickly we forget our reasons for homeschooling. It is so easy to lose focus and worry about when they should recognize letters and read, do specific math problems according to the government school schedule, that we forget our “first love”(Revelations 2:4).

I have come to the conclusion that while we are homeschooling our children, God is homeschooling us. He used quite an incident to show that His word is alive and was working in my daughter late into the night while her mother was exhausted from the worldly goals she had set for herself.

That messy kitchen suddenly became an orderly sight! It all made sense. Perhaps tomorrow she will know an “s” when she sees one, but in the meantime, I will be there to nurture and love her, read God’s word with her, learn about His creation, and snuggle up together with wonderful books. You can be sure that God is doing His work with what seems to us like chaos (Romans 8:28)!

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: Modest Mom Monday's, Teach Me Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Simple Living Wednesdays, Homemaking Thursdays and Deep Roots at Home. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.