Life and Learning

After a bit of a slump in our homeschooling, I'm beginning to realize how much my girls really learn every single day by just living life and having fun. I had started to panic after we got back from our trip to the States and really buckled down on the girls to do a lot of work. More worksheets, more "studying," extra projects.

That went over like a lead balloon.

I was feeling especially frustrated when God so gently reminded me that I was a)weak and in need of His strength to do this child-rearing AND educating thing and b) totally turning into a basket case for no reason other than my own misguided attempts at making my children into geniuses.

I just get so worked up with fear that my homeschooled missionary kids will fall behind. Let's face it, we expect homeschool kids to be either really stupid or amazingly intelligent. And we all expect missionary kids to be both super self-righteous and completely weird. Of those choices, I'd choose amazingly intelligent, wouldn't you?

Silly labels.

God showed me how much the girls are learning - both scholastic things and just plain old life things - that are so special and valuable just as a by product of our life as overseas missionaries. Their world is so much bigger than mine was when I was their age. They already know so much more about wildlife, geography, history, and languages than I did even in high school. Things really are going well!

Okay, deep breath. I'm relaxed again. No more frantic attempts or ridiculous expectations. Homeschooling is a process that takes years. Each day we build just a little more on the foundation. We read. We study math. We write in our journals. We have fun with history books, play in the yard, explore the jungle, watch documentaries, talk about places on our maps, Google our questions.

It's going to be just fine.

(in the photos - catching frogs in the yard has become a new hobby, expecially for Maddie who caught over 20 the other day! Over the weekend the girls camped out on our screened in porch, dolls were of course invited. Tea parties are just a regular part of life around here, though we try to make them special every once in a while with real scones!)