Planting your Child's Garden - Planning

I love how our Lord spoke to us in parables. I love reading through them and truly meditating on His word. As I was reading the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9), I was struck by how we could apply this to our homeschooling and our children's education.

There is no doubt...I am a planner. I like seeing where I have come from and where we are going. I find that with a plan, we have a better year all around. Now I am the first to admit that things happen and we must make adjustments. Families come to visit; sickness; an opportunity to serve arises. When I have a plan I have the big picture in mind so I can be flexible without feeling tremendous panic. I like planning on two different levels. First, I prayerfully consider the overall goals of each child. This helps me decide on the details.

Once I have that in mind I begin planning how I will accomplish this in a school year. I do this over the summer using an excel spreadsheet. I also take this time to educate and nourish myself. Too often, I think we run on empty and an overtired, stressed mom is not a good teacher. I still must be reminded of this because I can fall into that trap all too easily! I love taking what I have read and making it my own. I love putting my personal stamp on an idea. Creativity like that doesn't come when we are exhausted!

My favorite gardening tools during the planning phase:

a spiral notebook
I carry this around and scribble all kinds of thoughts and notes as they come.

excel
This is where I start mapping out my year

a book on education

ie Charlotte Mason A Philosphy of Education; For the Children's Sake; The Whole-Hearted Child

A Quiet Place

Tonight I am sitting outside on my deck listening to the sounds of outdoors. My dog, Izzy, and I are silently enjoying God's creation. As I sit here, taking it all in my mind wanders and time stands still. And then a thought invades my mind...

Why don't I do this more often? The painful answer is that I don't value this moment enough. There are too many other things that get in the way. But each time I sit in this chair, I feel so relaxed. I feel so calm and can actually stop and enjoy all the events of the day.

Recently, we started something new in our house. This quiet reflection time was not only missing from my day but also from my children's day. Where was the time for them to reflect, imagine, or create? We were all getting too wrapped up in our "to-do" lists! So we implemented a "no electronics" time in the house. Every afternoon from 5:30-7:00 we put it all down (yes, even the phone)! As you can imagine the reaction was mixed. This was going to be an adjustment for all of us. However this week, I caught my daughter in her garden weeding and talking with a friend. She was enjoying herself so much that she didn't even notice that it was past 7:00. I hope we will be able to extend this quiet time but for now, I am content to just take baby steps!