Joy in the Journey: Notes on Homeschooling

The other morning, I was visiting with another mom at a playgroup I was at. When I told her we were homeschooling, her first question was, "Do you have time for that?" The question caught me off-guard initially. I thought about it later and pondered why the question set me on edge a bit. I think it is the implication behind the question that homeschooling is something you "fit into" the day some how. Homeschooling isn't something you squeeze in between working out at the gym and going to work. Homeschooling is a way of life that permeates everthing you do. Yes, we have a set time we "do school," (i.e. the academics of homeschooling) but education permeates everything we do. Don't get me wrong--I am not one of those mothers who turns every trip to the grocery store into an all-out field trip (although we have actually done that a time or two!), but I do get the chance to have teachable moments with my children multiple times a day. I might catch a moment to teach Isaac about how to be a good friend when I see him treating his friend poorly, or I might correct his grammar when he is telling me somthing (yes, I admit, I do this 1,894 times per day and it will probably drive him to therapy someday). Or, like this morning, I might take a conversation about how old Grayson is to teach Isaac about how many weeks are in a month, how many weeks in a year, and so on, and have him add up weeks to tell me how many months old he is. I can use the current cold and flu season to teach Graham about why it's important to wash his hands, and the way our bodies work. I (try) to teach my children about the kind of love expressed in God's Word every day, through our interactions with each other. I am not perfect on this point, but this is where I can (try) to demonstrate the concept of forgiveness. I have thousands of teachable moments in any given day and we cover all sorts of topics. If I carved out "time" for these moments to magically happen, they probably wouldn't. I have to have three elements in place to make this happen every day--(1) a mom whose there, (2) a child whose there and (3) a willing heart to learn on the part of myself and my children. Once these three things are in place, the education can happen!
Shaping a little life entrusted to you by God is not something you make time for...it's the work of a lifetime, and I know it's what I was born to do.