Diamonds in the Rough

April 16th.  You just thought spring was here!

There are a few drafts in the works, but I will probably never get them written. Life happens. I am going to post one of them for the photos, if nothing else, because in about four years my girls will scroll thru my old blog posts again, and they will be greatly entertained.  

We've been to the history museum, gone to a play, dissected rabbits, shot a gun for the first time, collected maple sap for syrup, started walking (that was before we had mounds of spring snow), visited a lovely farm, baked cookies and muffins and that amazing whole wheat banana raisin bread, nearly slid off the road into the lake (that was today), and gone to a party for the 5th and 6th grade girls at our co-op.

I have taught math and English, reviewed algebra, read up on the terrible secret history of Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia/Finland under Stalin's regime, had a date with my husband, and invented succulent dishes for my family.

And today, after a long hiatus from reading all the weekly posts on the Carnival of Homeschooling, I was challenged again by other parents who are thinkers and movers and defenders of our privilege to teach our own children and to decide what that means. This post by Lori Pickert, at Project-Based Homeschooling, was particularly meaningful. Unfortunately for me, the timing was bad.  My reading of the post coincided with one daughter's bold insistence that this stuff we call "school" really doesn't matter in the long run and is therefore a complete waste of time. Other than my insufficient but standard response, "You need to be able to teach your kids this stuff, so they can teach their kids this stuff," I am out of arguments. She desperately wants a real job, to learn stuff of life the real way, and the PBH post backs her up nicely. I don't know what to do now. But I never really have known what to do, so I'm no worse off today than I was yesterday. :)  Lord, show me! ...I'll probably figure it out a week after I graduate child #4. And hopefully my realization will be accompanied by a sense of affirmation, not one of regrets.

I'll be back.

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He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; 

and what doth the LORD require of thee, 

but to do justly, and to love mercy, 

and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah 6:8

(I didn't see anything about school in there. Did you?)