"Why aren't you in school?" is asked by random strangers almost every time I went to the store with my kids...directed at my kids...with one eye on me. "Normal" here is if your like 2....your in school. So seeing a mom with THREE children at the store is well...unusual. So hence the questions.
I'd see those moms with their crumb free cars, hair perfectly done, being able to go into change stalls without worrying about your 1 year old escaping while you are trying on a swimsuit, no one asking you for juice, or food, or crying cause it's a bit close to nap time. And a small part of me at that moment would think..."yeah...exactly why don't I have that kind of life...and why aren't my kids in school...I mean...they could go for free to the preschool our church offers...so why am I doing this exactly?" (while my hair is up in a wet curly bun instead of blow dried straight...and oh, is that spit up on my shirt...and crumbs in my hair? quickly wipe with a wet wipe...and Jude is crying cause he's tired)
But then I'd think about all the small lessons we'd learn on the way to the store (being kind to your brother, he's tired now, don't fight about who gets to hold on to the shopping cart...share, see the beautiful cloud, God made that isn't it awesome? etc etc) ...and all the awesome chats that wouldn't have happened on the way, and I remember I'm doing this cause I LOVE my kids and part of life is shopping, and there are tons of lessons to be had at home and out especially the little years. The first 5 years are so so important.
We aren't a family that is "only homeschool" or "only private/public school" and we said we'd take it 1 year at a time and evaluate every year if it was time to send our kids to school or not. This last year after praying about it I homeschooled Noah and Autumn. (3 and 5) It was great, they learned so much and so did I. Noah learned how to read alot this year, so did Autumn..she just picked it up from Noah. We did a bit of math and Bible memory as well, and some science. Noah's mind is SO SO eager to learn that I actually couldn't keep up. Like we went through a weeks worth of homeschool stuff easily in a day. Then I'd have to make it up as I went along the other days.
This year we prayed a lot again, we went to open days at schools to see if Noah would fit somewhere for Grade R (Kindergarten) and the Christian school down the road seemed perfect just perfect for him...and he seemed ready. Very ready. I usually trust the decisions he makes, he's not clingy anymore but confident, he makes friends easily, and he was taking A LOT of my time teaching because he's just so so so eager to learn. All the "information" kinda books (planets, space, animal life, oceans, volcanoes) you name it we had read it, several hundred times it seemed like. We even exhausted all the library books on these topics. And I felt I needed to concentrate a bit on Autumn and Jude and not miss those crucial years with them because I was keeping up with Noah's very eager mind.
So we prayed and on Wednesday was his first day at school. I thought I would ball, really. But it just seemed so RIGHT and the Lord's timing seemed so perfect, that I didn't even think twice about it. And off he went into his classroom and he loved it. He's been there 3 days now, and he loves it. He's a bit shy to make friends but all those kids have been going to that school since they were 2 and know each other, so it will take a while, but he loves his teacher, and she loves the Lord which is awesome. They start every day with a devotion, and he's learning that it's fun to just "play" and not learn all the time, something I've been trying to teach him too!
So now I have special morning time with Autumn and Jude, which is special to me...Autumn I'm still trying to teach the basics of the gospel, and Noah would answer all the questions and now SHE'S forced to think about things for herself. Which I'm VERY thankful for. And well, with Jude...he's now learning his body parts and what sounds animals make. :)
