What does a 6-year "veteran" of homeschool in a panic about the fog that has settled over her ability to find point "b" from point "a" do the next day? She visits her local Christian homeschool hub, of course!
The center's curriculum store is 4000 square feet of wall-to-wall fictions and biographies -- most of which you won't find in the public library. There are Christ-centered approaches to every subject under the sun, toys extolling the virtues of feminity for girls, and educational helps like timelines and maps and puzzles. For every school subject, there are several to half-a-dozen choices of publishers, and then each of them has a dozen choices as to educational level or emphasis. To say it makes my head spin is an understatement. But when I do spin myself around, I'm faced with a whole rack of study guides for a few dozen books that...well...we just...enjoyed! I didn't know I was supposed to study them with guides and worksheets. For cryin' out loud!
Finally I reached my limit when I escaped that aisle only to find myself coming under the same self-scrutiny with the rhetoric-level bible study rack. Oh, the materials that are available -- they're beautiful. Think of it...all this time, I've just been reading my bible! My plain ole' bible.
Everywhere I turn in a store like that, I'm dogged by doubt. Is that curriculum over there better than this one? How much is this? $18.00? That's too much to spend on a mistake. I'd better be sure, sure, sure that I'm going to utilize this. (Fifi, can you please watch the girls?) What if this one has "holes" in the scope and sequence that the other one over there doesn't? (Cuddlebug, go back with Fifi please.) Should I have waited this long to start formal grammar with Fifi? (That's pretty, but no Dumpling, I'm not buying that today.) Should I do it differently with the younger two? (Cuddlebug, you're going to have to sit down in the stroller now because you won't obey Fifi.) Am I falling into the trap of bringing conventional school into my home, rather than exciting the learning instinct from within? (Let's go girls...I can't think.)
And then it hit me. None of my children -- not one -- is going to learn everything there is to know, or even everything they ought to know, from me. I've got to prayerfully pick a curriculum and just trust that it will be good enough. Sometimes, I've just got to let good enough be good enough. Otherwise, nothing gets done. And that isn't good enough.
Something really good happened at the check-out though! Fifi spotted it first. She pointed it out to me. She was thinking of Dumpling, I think. It's a book that every little girl ought to have read to her -- often. Check out my review of it here.
2 comments:
I overwhelmed myself in that exact place about a month ago....I think I had a headache when I came (and still when I left too!) I really think it's neat though how the Lord directs each mother/family uniquely in how they homeschool their children. I am so glad it's not a cut and dry thing, and that we can seek the Lord on it and HE will direct us. And there is PEACE knowing that He will enable us to give/teach them what He wants them to know. Isn't this whole homeschooling for us moms to learn something too? At least it is for me.....somedays I think I learn more (character/patience wise) in a day than my kids do. Oh well...bottom line is may it ALL be done for the glory of the Lord.
A friend of mine got a really good book for teenage christian girls, must ask her what it was called!
She's also read some books called Fabulous Phoebe, by Kathy Lee. There are a few of them, though they are for older girls.
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