Homeschooling and Haikubes

Wow, it feels like forever since I’ve visited this space.  So much going on at home and too little time to write.  Makes for a grumpy mom.  Truth is, we’ve had some major changes around here since my last post;  I’m now homeschooling our teenage son which has placed a whole new order to my universe.  

Ok, so that’s a bit exaggerated.  Just a little.

I’ve never home-schooled prior to this.  I’ve taught Sunday school lessons and bible school, but that’s about the extent of my experience.  I felt woefully inadequate at the start of this experiment 6+ weeks ago.  I went from knowing nothing about the process to diving into the pool of state and county regulations, curriculum review, lesson planning , reading lists, transcript preparation, history dvd’s, library visits and corresponding with a few homeschooling gurus.  It was more like a mud puddle really, not knowing which way to gasp for a breath of fresh air.

Slowly though, the realization dawned that even seasoned home school moms are still learning after many years of teaching their young ones.  They advised me to just jump right in.  You know, figure it out as I go along.  Figuring it out as I go along goes completely against my grain.  I’m a planner, a studier and I have a pretty wide learning curve.  

But now, all these weeks into it, I am learning.  And not just about really cool things like mosaics, literary critiques, medieval poetry, Archimedes and sculptures from ancient Rome.  I’m learning more things about myself and my son.  I already knew that we are worlds apart in our personalities.  I’m learning just how far I have to depart from my norms, my manner of communicating in order to teach him.  He doesn’t learn the same way I do and that’s a challenge for me.  And even though I’ve struggled against that, I’m beginning to see that it’s a good thing.  It’s good that I am growing in a new direction.  A forced flexibility is more like it!  

Change never comes easy for me.  But God cannot mold us and shape us (Jeremiah 18) if we’re unwilling to bend... to obey.  God is teaching me patience and self-control through this process of homeschooling.  I’m being pushed into new territory where the i’s and t’s are not always dotted and crossed in the way I like.  Today though, instead of letting my frustration get the best of me, I walked into my daughter’s room and grabbed the Haikubes.  

Have you seen these?  There’s a box full of cubes, (63 in all)  with various words on each side and the idea is to scatter them across a table and then find a haiku somewhere in that mess.  This is ideal therapy for me; coming home to words.   While I was searching and selecting words I liked it dawned on me quite softly that my anger and frustration had vanished.  

Treading a new path can be such a great and rewarding experience... especially when it’s accepted for all the wonderful discoveries AND the tangled weeds and sharp stones along the way, knowing that God can work all things for good. (Romans 8:28)

Literary Critters?

"What's that racoon, mommy?"

My 8 year old daughter was working at her little desk beside me, when she uttered this question very quietly. I got up from my desk and walked over to look at her artistic creations displayed across her work space.

“What’s that, honey? What did you say?”

“That racoon...I am trying to remember it because I want to put it on this paper.”

Completely confused, I just stood there looking at her colorful papers, the cut-outs, the glitter, the stickers, looking for some clue as to what she meant. The only thing I could think of was a conversation we had recently:

“The racoon? Do you mean the little racoon that Aunt Jenny raised years ago? Are you doing a story about it? Her name was “Cootie”.

Frustrated at my lack of understanding, her irritated voice said, “No ...not that. The racoon! You know, those words.... I’m trying to remember if it’s seven five seven or five seven five. “

My mind was searching, trying to focus on those key words... five, seven , five..hmm

“Oh! You mean a haiku! “

Her face beamed. “Yes! That’s it! Is it five, seven, five?”

“Yes, it’s five syllables, then seven, then five.”

I smiled, happy with myself for solving the puzzle and relieving her frustration...and even happier to read her creativity:

Joy to you and me!

Springtime is the best of all!

Snowflakes fall down fast!

She inspired me to write one of my own:

Sweet evening sunshine

It must be a blessed cure

For sorrows untold

Racoon portrait is by Ryan Berkley