If you're anything like me, when you decided you were going to be a homeschooling momma you had great ambitions of planning amazing lessons, crafts, and fun projects... only to see your plans crumble into a pile of unfulfilled ideas! You bought a wonderful little lesson planner and you filled it with all your grand plans because you just knew that you could stay on top of everything and that your sweet, little angel would be able to complete all the tasks you were going to assign because... well... she's a genius! And nothing could possibly come up that would interrupt your plans, right!? Or maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm the only mom who had all these plans, glorious plans, only to fail at implementing them! But I think, or at least I hope, I am not alone in this and that you may be in need of some encouragement. If so, this blog is for you :)
There's a verse in Scripture that I find very interesting. Proverbs 19:21 says, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." If I could rewrite this verse, it'd say Many are the lesson plans in the mind of a homeschooling momma, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. It's not just BIG plans that fall to the wayside, but little plans too. Even lesson plans. But do not be dismayed. There is hope.
I believe God gave me a little epiphany about all my failed attempts to keep up with my lesson plans. STOP WRITING THEM. OK, say what now? That's right. Stop writing all those expectations only to see them scratched out or incomplete. There's something a little more practical that we can do. I'm not saying don't ever plan. That would be total chaos. But I am saying that this hyper-planning, guilt-driven, failing way of homeschooling just doesn't work for me and all it does is frustrate me. So here's the compromise the Lord showed me...
I took a large poster board and split it into a 6-square grid. On one square I wrote "Daily" and on the other 5 squares I wrote Monday through Friday. On the "Daily" square I wrote the things that I want to do with my children everyday, without fail; those things include prayer, Bible study, exercise or physical activity, and reading. Notice I did not write anything about math, English, science, or history :) In the remaining five squares I wrote nothing. They are blank. Here's where the compromise comes in. On Saturdays I am going to sit down and write out assignments or points of study on sticky notes that I hope to do with the children, and place them on my chart. For example, I may write, "Savanna: write a letter to pen pal..." and place it on Monday's square. And "Samuel: practice ABC's using flashcards..." and place it on Thursday's square. The nice thing about writing it on a sticky note is that I can move it to another square if a certain assignment takes longer than planned or if something unexpected comes up. I can also add sticky notes at the end of the day for anything that we may have done that was not listed on the board, ie. a spontaneous game of "Speed Letters" at the dinner table. At the end of the week, I print out my Blank Lesson Plan Sheets for each child and fill in what's written on my sticky notes. This way each week I have an accurate portrayal of what we did that I can keep in each child's portfolio along with any completed work! It also really boosts your confidence if you see a lesson plan that was actually fulfilled :)
At the end of the day, I may not complete all my glorious plans, but I can rest assured knowing that the Lord's purposes will stand. The Lord has purposed in our hearts to homeschool our children and that will stand. So I'm trying out a new style of homeschooling; one that I should've been doing all along... rely more on the Lord's purposes and less on my own plans! This might actually work.
Bye for now,
Kristina
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