Homeschool Diva

I am in my third week of homeschooling using the Ambleside prescribed curriculum.  This week both of my boys were sick.  I thought for sure we would bag school.  That was what I had planned to do because I was cleaning up vomit all day.  (That was fun!)  Anyway, I digress.  I realized between the cleaning and the rocking and the laying on the couch (they did watch a video that day) and the not getting out of their pj’s until noon, and the no real prescribed “school time”, they finished ALL of their lessons in 15 min segments throughout the day. 

It was incredible to me that 1) they asked for certain lessons by name 2) they did them in short increments and then went back to throwing up 3) they had fun and it kept their minds off of the sickness thing.  Can you believe it?  I still can’t.  They ask for lessons every day. What do I say…. no?  I don’t think so but what do I know, I am knew to this.   They don’t know  a weekday Monday from a weekend Saturday, so they just keep going.  At this rate we will be done with the math book by Christmas. Jackson is half way through his phonics and it is only the end of August.  I only read the chapters/selections that are slated for the week so they have to learn to think on that one piece for a week before we move on, despite their begging. (Can you tell they love the books?)

Really People….is this normal?  I am thrilled they are enjoying it but I am kind of shocked.   The other day, Chloe said I go to “Turtle River Montessori”  (her old school) and I said, “No honey you go to home school. ” She said “I do?  Where is that?”  I said at home with me and your brothers.  She said “I never have to leave you again?”  I said “Nope” she squealed, I smiled.  It hadn’t even occurred to them that all of these months we had been schooling. 

So what do you think of that?  I guess I just go with it….right?!  OK this is where all the older wiser homeschooling moms jump in and tell me whats up.

“The spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith are like a ghanat(an underground irrigation system) for your suburb.  They are the only means of staying awake to the thicker life amid the toxic fumes of the suburban life. “ The thicker life in Jesus.  It is what I like to call living in “the kingdom”.

 The true life is not possessed by the things we own, or buy but by who we are in the quiet.  It is the unseen that marks us and grounds us in the midst of everyday life.  This book is  a wealth of knowledge in identifying spiritual toxins and the disciplines needed to implement in order to counteract them.  We are not alone in our feelings of busyness or isolation among crowds of people.  It is a cultural phenomenon that slowly and quietly eats you alive until you wake up one day wondering how you got to where you are.

This book calls a spade a spade in a funny way that every American can relate with.  He pokes fun at himself and gives “exercises” that even the author uses.  None of us are immune from checking out to  “easy” living in the suburbs.  This book calls us to another standard and gives us practical tips on moving past the death of the suburbs and into a thicker, fuller life based in the reality of Jesus.