Homeschooling Journal

Lucy’s BD party was Sunday (the 5th), so cleaning, baking, pizza making, and socializing all occured.

Lots of dress-up, including one “queen” being chased by one “tiger”.

The manger scenes are out, and were in constant use for a couple of days.  Lucy remarked several times that she “can’t wait for baby Jesus to come”, as the whole thing is a little empty without Him.

Trip to the zoo with Dad for Lucy’s actual birthday.

Trip to the library today for story time (Christmas themed).  Lucy made a beautiful paper stocking with sequins on it, and demonstrated her superior cutting and gluing skills.  Samantha demonstrated her tearing and glue-spreading skills.

New books from the trip include, Josephine Wants to Dance; Did Dinosaurs Eat Pizza?; Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening; The Legend of the Candy Cane; Art and Max; Watch Out, Little Wombat; and Arbor Day Square.

We returned Brother Juniper; Martha Doesn’t Share; Jamberry; Cinderella; and whatever else I’m forgetting.

Advent project today was to paint ceramic ornaments.  Lucy did a snowman and Samantha an angel.  They are quite colorful.  Craig called Lucy “Picasso”, but she was very meticulous about making sure all the edges were perfectly covered.  She’s coming into her own with the art things now, I think, and really enjoys painting, stamping, cutting and gluing, and the like.

“So here is a great new upheaval in our ideas! From this fresh point of view, the purposes of the living seem to be related rather to the doing of work needed by the environment. It is almost as if the living were agents of creation, charged each with a particular task, like the servants in a large house, or the employee of a business. The harmony of nature on the earth’s surface is produced by the efforts of countless living beings, each of which has its own duties. These are the forms of behavior that we observe, and it follows that such behavior serves purposes far beyond the mere ministering of each to its own vital needs.”

~Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

It is easy to apply Montessori’s description to the environment in general, but I love it as a model of the family (which I think is generally where Montessori is going here). Contrary to what we seem to hear from our culture, particularly in the “I want” spirit of the commercial Christmas season, it is not the good of the individual which matters the most, but the growth of the group. Keeping this in mind, we can see how the sacrifices each member of a family may have to make can work together to create a stronger whole. A teenager giving up a night out, an older sister being patient with a younger sibling, the dad who doesn’t buy a new fishing pole for himself so he can spend the money taking his children to the zoo, families who sacrifice the luxury of a second income for the sake of homeschooling…there are a thousand possible examples.

Try counting how many sacrifices you make for your family in a day. How many sacrifices do you recognize your spouse or older children making for you? This is starting to sound pretty Lenten, but I think it could be a very useful exercise preparing for Christmas. Think of each of these sacrifices as little (though very important) Christmas presents you are giving to your family. And imagine how thankful you will be when you have recognized what you spouse gives up for you in the course of a day! This kind of change in your relationships, and your attitudes towards them, will last much longer and be much more appreciated than another sweater or unwanted gadget.

So we pulled out the Advent calendar and wreath, bought new candles, and cleaned off the prayer table, which has to this point been sadly neglected. The next question is, in this latest attempt to bring some sort of consistent prayer and general structure into our family life, what might have a chance of actually working?

It’s true, we have two kids and our schedules can get pretty crazy. (I’m sure they pale in comparison to many people’s schedules, but I’m a home-body, and a little lazy, and it all feels pretty overwhelming to me!) I’ve seen plenty of great ideas for prayer with kids. We have copies of saint books, missals, Bibles in several languages, children/family/mother oriented prayer books, Liturgy of the Hours…the list goes on. Icons, rosaries, crucifixes, candles. We have all the stuff of a great prayer life, we just don’t seem to have the stick-to-itiveness required to put some or all of it together and make it work.

So what to do? Thank God He does not require immediate perfection! I’m tying my husband down this evening (as literally as necessary! ) to talk about what we want our prayer life to look like as our family continues to grow. What do we want our children to learn from this prayer time? How can we effectively lead them and ourselves to a deeper relationship with God?

I think (I hope!) this Advent will be a time of trial and error in an effort to find a style of prayer that is both fulfilling to my husband and I and functional for a two-year-old. (Obviously, I do not expect a few minutes of family prayer to be sufficient for the full prayer life of an adult, but it has to be engaging enough to get us to do it every day!) I don’t expect to stumble upon a magic formula that will work for the rest of our lives. I know that as our relationships with God and each other grow and change, so will our prayer. But for those relationships to grow and strengthen in holiness as we would like them to, I believe we have to get started praying more seriously, and we have to start praying together as a family. Pray for us that we persevere! I’ll try to keep you updated on how it’s going. And feel free to drop an email to remind us of what we’re supposed to be doing!