48 Hours

March 11, 2000:

We've had an interesting couple of days. I've been reflecting on how I would perceive our homeschool goings on if I were an observer, as if seeing our family through a two-way mirror.

Here are some random thoughts, all based on our last 48 hours at Oakdale Honors Academy. What you are about to read is true. None of the facts have been changed to protect the innocent.

You know you're a homeschooler when:

Your 4 year old son memorizes the scripture you are teaching to your 6 year old son.
Your 10 year old daughter tells you she would rather learn out of the high school English book than the 7th grade book.
Your 6 year old son wants a small guitar, but would settle for a violin.
There are six pairs of hands to help care for a very special three month old daughter, instead of only one pair.
Your 8 year old daughter hides away in her bedroom and reads the first three books of the Chronicles of Narnia.
Your 8 year old daughter does 21 math lessons in one day.
Your 10 year old daughter teaches YOU critical thinking. You realize she is right.
You are teaching your 4 year old son phonics, and he reads the sentence "See me read." He explodes with joy, and repeats about 20 times "see me read!" Then he pauses, and says, "I feel something going up to my head. It hurts. Oh, I know what it is, my nerves are telling my brain what to do when I read."
Your dinner table conversation revolves around an anatomy lesson cheerfully presented by your 6 year old son.
Your 6 year old son wants to do all the problems at the back of his math book, even though you want him to go sequentially.
Your little baby 2 year old son who can still barely talk and is potty training comes up to you and says, "I want to do letters." You take him in your lap and he proceeds to point to each letter and number on the keyboard and tell you what they are (he insists that O is called circle). He wants to know how to say "=" and "&".
You are simply amazed because you have never worked with him on this. You begin to wonder if you should get out the phonics alphabet flash cards and phonics readers.
Your 8 year old daughter helps your 6 year old son with math, and your 6 year old son helps your 8 year old daughter with spelling. Your 8 year old daughter actually manages to let your 4 year old son hold the cat (which is hers) without a fight.
You notice that you have four children all clustered around the computer intently watching the spelling program in progress, like other kids would watch a cartoon show.
Your kids' idea of fun is working on a typing program to improve their scores.
Your 10 year old daughter comes into your room reading 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, and wants to tell you about the neat things she just read.
Your 6 year old son and 8 year old daughter are fighting over who gets to read the encyclopedia.
Your husband gets up early in the morning to type up language flashcards in French and Portuguese before work.
You sit down to have scripture reading, and your children spontaneously sing all thirteen Articles of Faith to you.
After work, your husband teaches your children some more chess rules, and they play for an hour.
You bring in a stack of Scholastic books you just ordered, and your 10 year old daughter races through them and pulls out the math books first. She later tells you that she likes math, she just doesn't like arithmetic, this after a very consistent mantra of "I hate math . . . it's stupid," which you have heard for months.
You and your husband decide to have history as a family read aloud project, rather than individual lessons.
You and your husband continue your ongoing discussion of whether to pronounce the v's as w's or as v's in Latin (you like v's and he likes w's).
Your 4 year old son does 14 math lessons in a day.
You and your husband begin and end the day in prayer that the Lord will guide you as you try to teach your children in the best way you know how, and plead with him to help you organize your efforts, for the children's hearts to be softened, and for your teaching to be effective.

If you had asked me what we did for the past 48 hours, I would have said that I felt like we should have done more, because I spent some time with domestic tasks (my laundry is caught up--yeah! and my house is clean--boy, do I feel like a real woman--you see, we're still unpacking boxes around here), and worked out in the yard (which is full of crocuses and tulips and daffodils), cleaning it up and getting ready for spring planting, and of course attended to my internet devotion.

I guess the lesson here is to really see the little things that occur on a daily basis, and recognize that our homeschool labors are making progress all around us, whether we realize it or not. Don't feel overwhelmed in your homeschooling efforts, because more is probably happening than you give yourself credit for. The tide comes in slowly.

Daily we continue our efforts. Out of these small things grow greatness and success. It is when we try to take on too much, resulting in stress, or when we begin to compare ourselves with others that we can feel overwhelmed. Remember that the Lord has placed in you certain talents, and that you are expected to use those talents for the good of your family. Eternity hangs in the balance.

No more important, eternal enterprise is to be found than that which you have already discovered: your loving, eternal children and all the potential that is in them. God bless you in your work. They need all the love you can give them. Remember, this time is yours to instill in them the proper values of work, honor, and integrity that will go with them throughout their lives.

Their lessons are learned first at your knee. Your heart will be always with them, and they will rise up and call you blessed for what you have done in sacrificing your time and your talents to the building of the kingdom of God in your own home. No greater work can be done.

God has placed woman at the fountainhead of life. Think how much he trusts us. What an honor has come to us, to be blessed to shape and mold our Father's children. May we be guided by the Holy Spirit in all that we think, do, and say. Think before you act.

I love this quote from Harold B. Lee, speaking to fathers (and mothers), he said:

Father, did you share your testimony with your children? Father, you are accountable to the Lord for what you have and what you are. In the future you will surely stand before him. What will be your report concerning your family?

Will you be able to report that your home was a place of love, a bit of heaven? That daily family prayer and secret prayer were fostered? That it was a house of fasting? That in family home evenings and at other times you and your wife taught your children the basic principles of the gospel?

Will you be able to report that you created an environment in your home to build faith in a living God, to encourage learning, to teach order, obedience, and sacrifice? That you often shared your testimony of the reality of your Father in heaven, of the truthfulness of the restored gospel with your wife and children?

Will you be able to report that you followed the living prophets? That your home was where your tender children could feel protected and safe, and where they felt the love, and acceptance, and warmth of you and their mother? (Testimony, p. 163)