Each year we embrace and enjoy the "back to school" feeling in the air, cherishing moments like this:
We buy new supplies, set up our desks, and set out with lists and (flexible) plans.
We enter a season that ebbs and flows with the rhythm of learning tangible.
But, the reality each year remains the same...
We're always learning and "school" doesn't begin in September...or end in June.
Life is our classroom and we're always "doing school"...a phrase we attempt to avoid.
Nevertheless, "back to school" is upon us with intentionality toward our concrete learning.
We have new little learners joining the ranks and they are very eager about their "school".
It's interesting to see them each at their own pace, an advantage to be able to group them together as well. With differences in development (not to mention language acquisition), it works out quite nicely to have multiple learners on the same page.
Literally.
So there's lots of this going on around here:
And this:
This:
As little ones join in and older ones hone in on how the Lord is leading their lives, it's a beautiful transformative process to observe the act of learning. And it's happening ALL the time! It's such an honor to pray each day and eat meals together, to take the time to listen to hearts and gather in circles to read the Bible. As the girls are growing up, they are mastering the arts of homemaking and caring for little souls, something that brings me great joy to witness!! After all, we're raising little women.
(Elka loves her one-handed egg cracking.)
Our boys spend time with their daddy, learning about spiritual leadership, work ethic,
chivalry and responsibility, among other things. We're preparing them to be men.
"But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned."
Titus 2:1-8
So, we read the Word and take inventory of where our children's hearts are headed. We think about what we are preparing them for through their years of education. It's so much more than simply academics, though we praise God for the ability to be the ones to teach them those things too. Yes, the matters of the heart and the skills of adulthood that we get to impart to our children throughout the days are a dear blessing and advantage of homeschooling. What an amazing gift to have the TIME!
So, "back to school" we are, though we never really left, never really will.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
Deuteronomy 6:5-7