Finding Peace In Teachable Moments
It was a long day and we needed a little fresh air. I needed a lot of fresh air.
We headed outside under the oak tree and reclined back. “No more pencils no more books, no more mommy’s dirty looks”, I sang to myself after the math lesson from hell. Deep breath in and long slow deep breath out.
“What’s that?” the little one immediately asked.
I didn’t want to look. I know that makes me sound like this awful homeschooler, but after division I really didn’t care what “that” was.
So I peaked out of one eye to see which direction the little one was inquiring.
His head was thrown backward as if he were catching rain drops. His little dirty pointer finger shooting straight up into the sky he looked down at me with those eyebrows. You know the questioning squirmy little caterpillar ones.
I looked up.
It took me a few minutes, but I slowly began to see them too. Orange fuzzy miniature pom poms decorated the leaves.
I had no idea what they were, but they covered majority of the oak leaves. Only on the underside of the leaf. I looked down where I was trying to relax and spotted dozens and dozens more.
The little one saw me looking down and immediately dropped to the ground to pick them up.
“It’s so fluffy” he laughed quoting his favorite movie. About this time my math hater came over to look at the new discovery.
When was the last time we put down the stress of the lesson plans and just enjoyed the small things? Literally, the small things!
You don’t have to plan a fancy science field trip to find science. You don’t have to pay an expensive co-op to teach your children about the world. Science is easier to teach and discover for us today than it has ever been before! We only have to take the opportunities as they come.
We took one mini pom pom into the house and dusted off the microscope. I couldn’t remember the last time we used it.
After a few google searches and dissection, one of us found a new discovery. One of us found new information. One of us found new peace.
We spent thirty more minutes using the microscope looking at different things.
I am guilty of getting bogged down in the lesson plans and fill-in-the-blanks. The schedule drives us more days rather than a desire to learn.
Most of it is fear that if it’s not done all the way then I some how have failed as a homeschool parent. Isn’t that our biggest fear? That we’re doing something wrong or our children are not getting enough? We can break free from that mindset!
God provides so many teachable opportunities – don’t miss them because of an inflexible to-do list.