When you fall off the wagon.... and why we've been MIA.
Sometimes you start off the school year FULL of zest! Ready to go, take it all on, with a perfect schedule and plan.... then certain things happen and you wake up like 2 or 3 months later realizing you fell off the wagon so long ago you can no longer even see the tracks in the road of where it was.
👋 Hello, enter our family this year.
I worked tirelessly to get this site updated, school plans down, hoping and praying I didn't miss anything and yet keeping it general enough to help a broad spectrum. I started the year early with our kids to be sure the kinks were worked out. We woke up, hit the ground running, dotted the i's and crossed the t's.
Then our busy season for our family business happened. September hit and wedding season was in full force. 20 hour work days, 5 weddings a weekend, flowers everywhere and days of momma being away coordinating sunk in. To top it off, with the hubs leading the way through his Bible studies (he started seminary at the beginning of 2017, had completed it by mid year - yes, he was putting in near 100 hour school weeks - and was led to spend a lot of time in prophecy/eschatology) the more our family dove into scripture and then looked at the world around us, it was hard to put our focus and daily schedule on things like grammar and fractions.
But now wedding season is winding down, winter is a slower time for our business, and we've been dealing with a lot in our family/spiritual lives that has us in a bit of a holding pattern. (That can be a topic for another day...) As I've caught my breath (Literally I worked 30 out of 35 hours over Thanksgiving... Momma was tired.) I'd like to get back on track. Here with our hopes to improve the site/potentially help other families, with our kids getting back to 'school' and with some really exciting things to come in 2018, Lord willing.
So, what do you do when you fall off track with your homeschool plans?
Well, especially with a crazy wedding-determined schedule for the past almost 7 years, we've fallen off track before. More than I'd probably care to share publicly. I've tried trying to cram through and catch up on everything we've missed.... boy does that suck for everyone. Fail.
And then I've just said "it's ok". It is ok to get off track. It is ok to skip a week.... or month.... or two. Just let it be. No guilt, no stress, no worry. No panic of falling behind. Life is life, just because you weren't checking off days with some program or schedule does NOT mean your children weren't learning. Weren't growing.
While we've been worthless slackers not doing any of the school for our own program that I worked endless nights on preparing..... our kids:
Improved their independent reading.
Dove into their Bible's each and every day. On their own.
Sit and talk with their daddy about deep theological topics that I never even considered until adulthood.
Picked up an interest/desire in learning an instrument.
Played for hours and hours with the silliest games they invented. Remember- ages 13, 7 and 4 here. All playing together. (insert happy momma hearts here)
Created "helper days" where they individually pick a day to be extra big helpers and do work all around the house and property to help out mom & dad.
Sure, if we had to test today on their age/grade level when it comes to grammar, fractions or some kind of history pop quiz... they might not do so hot. But who cares? The growth of their knowledge, of their souls, of their lives this year has been phenomenal. Their understanding on SO many "not age/grade appropriate" topics just blows my mind! So I'm not going to stress it.
We'll pick up, we'll press on, maybe not to some level of perfection, but these kids? They're going to be just fine. ♥
How's you're homeschool year going? Just starting? Struggling? Not sure? I'd love to connect with you- I'm willing to bet we've been just where you are today... probably more than once. 😆 Be sure to follow my Instagram, join our Facebook Group, friend me on FB, and share any prayer requests you have-- I'd love to lift you and your family up in prayer! 🤗🤗🤗
