Lessons with Iris

This morning I had a lot of fun with Iris. Sometimes I am so distracted...mostly by unimportant things...that I don't take the time to sit with her and do things that I always made time to do with the boys. I had planned on homeschooling the boys and so I had a lot more drive when it came to things like reading lessons and reasoning skills. This morning seeing her eyes light up when she read a few words...wonderful. We were both so happy! I decided to go one step further...went and got Heather's math tools...a handful of kidney beans straight from the plastic bag. We counted, we added, we subtracted...we laughed and giggled. These are the things happiness are made from. How blessed I am to have five children so that these moments can be multiplied.

Learning with Iris this morning reminded me of the reasons I loved homeschooling the boys. I genuinely like my children. Hearing their ideas and thoughts on how things work is amazing. I have at least one child that asks me weekly to home school and I find myself standing back from the possibility for a variety of reasons. My main excuse right now is that I worry about his academic possibilities. I worry that I won't do a good enough job. I worry that we don't have enough money to do and buy the things I would want to for schooling them. For Jon, he wanted to go to school...so I am mindful of the "grass is always greener on the other side" mentality. I have said to Josiah (the child mentioned above) that he can choose to be content or not...but in some ways I wonder why should he have to? If he can be homeschooled why make him withstand boredom? I have seen home schoolers well educated and I have been appalled by others. I have seen homeschooling parent's (usually the mother) completely exhausted and drained...I don't want that for myself...but I am not sure I would be? These are some of the many thoughts I have already had this morning and I think this blog can perhaps help me sort them out.