Home schooling is a natural part of engaging as a family. Learning takes place in all aspects of what we do with and for our children.
Home school
I know that the privilege of being able to home school your child is not always feasible for some parents! But there are ways to intercede in your child’s learning experience and take charge of what you want your child to learn and be exposed to! There are gaps in our institutional educational system that we as families can fill in. School or learning is not confined to Monday thru Friday- 8-3! There are teachable moments that happen organically and there are opportunities for us as parents and grandparents as well as extended family and the village we create and sustain to support our children.
I have been blessed as a grandparent to participate in home schooling our grandchildren, and after 34 years of teaching children and teaching teachers in training to teach children, I get to have the honor of teaching our grandchildren to love the gift of learning! One of the most critical gaps in our educational system is not integrating the need for curriculum that is eclectic, focuses on the needs of individualized learning, and the role of social emotional develop that needs to be engrained in the overall curriculum. We have a world that is evolving in some unknown direction at warp speed! We have a responsibility to step in and slow down the life our children are being engulfed into!
They need time to discover who they are and what they are passionate about. And we need to be present for them so that as they engage with the world in and out of school, we are afforded the depth of observation that can take place in the home schooling environment! I don’t want to generalize and say that every home school program is perfection because each of us are doing it differently, but opportunities are there to invest daily in the education of their children.
Those parents that can’t or chose institutional programs must still keep these elements in the forefront of educating their children! I will confess the most difficult challenge I had as a parent was how and where to educate my Nikki! I listened to her and followed her direction. At 4 years old she told me she had to go to a school where they talked about God everyday. So she started out in the Lutheran schools and by 3rd grade she decided she wanted to go to Catholic school and did so thru her college education! It was a fit for her! You have to find the fit for your child!
P.S. I don’t know how she found out about Catholic school because we were not Catholic! But it was sooo Niki!
Ua is an influence in his sister Aoluna’s life everyday and he takes being part of her world seriously
The beauty of learning is that it is limitless and shared with this we love!
The Three Streams of the waterfall could represent the past, the present and the future-our lifetime adventure from beginning to eternity.
Henry Van Dyke wrote: “Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”
Okay, so this is what surfaced today! Time kept coming up till I gave in and got the message. Time is perhaps the most valuable gift we receive in the process of our birth. In our culture some of us have a relationship with time as something we are trying to control and manipulate our life around. We see it in terms of a constraint that holds all the things we have to do and accomplish with self-impose deadlines for the “when” these things must come to fruition. Others of us don’t really operate in the sort of “Linear perception of time”, so we just see it as a continuum where we take the ride to wherever it takes us. Some of us get anxious about what “time we have left” to stuff our bucket list in, so we don’t miss out on anything that our hearts desire. I would like to address each stanza of this quote.
“Time is too slow for those who wait,”– If we live in the world waiting for the tomorrows to come flooding in with the things and circumstances we want out of life- time will move slowly and so will the quality of our life. There is too much to do in living life to sit and wait for our desires and aspirations to come in the “Sometime”, or in the “Eventually”!! Waiting for our life to be in full expression and for us to have the feelings of exhilaration and accomplishment, is a waste of valuable time, energy, and purpose. Time waits for no one! We must be active participants in our life! We have to be busy living life and making life a worthwhile experience. It is time to be in the state of implementing the blueprint of our life’s story. We make the story! We manifest everything that our hearts desire. It is in the now, not in the tomorrow!
Time is-“Too swift for those who fear”- If we use fear as a way of avoiding what time has in store for us, again we will lose out on an opportunity to take advantage of the precious gift that “Time” provides for us! We lose out on practicing our “Faith” in “Great Spirit” and faith in ourselves. We have to leave fear in the dust and push ourselves forward into the space and place that calms our soul and slows things down to a pace that is in harmony with our spirit and the blueprint of our life. We don’t want to shortchange ourselves from missing something that we deserve or needed to take in order to take the next step on the road.
Time is- “Too long for those who grieve”. Grief in respect to time is so very personal. The pain, discomfort, disappointment, anger, loss, and void can be unbearable at times especially if we are grieving for someone we dearly loved. No one can punch a clock and tell you that the alarm has gone off and your grief time has expired. This is one time that you are completely in charge of “Time”. We all must go through the process of grieving that will impact every part of our being. The pain touches our mind, body and soul. Speaking from experience I can share with you that when I have lost a family member or a dear friend, it seemed like the pain lasted forever. There seems to always be moments when some of the feelings of loss and void space passes through my heart and I feel it in every cell of my body. The important thing is to remember that “this too must pass because we can’t live in a pain body”!
Time is – “Too short for those who rejoice”. Sometimes it seems when we are in the midst of feeling really good about the blessings that are overflowing in our life, it can feel like a fleeting moment in “Time”! Just when we are steeped into being our happiest, in rolls a boulder that tries to run over our joy. Well, we have to come to terms with the reality that yes this can happen, but we can face it through our joy and not succumb to the distraction or attempted destruction of our happiness and wellbeing. We can’t give anything or anyone the power to steal our joy. It is important therefore that when we carry that joy in our heart, that we cherish it and protect it. As the elders say, “There is always joy in the morning, and the morning rises everyday with new beginnings an opportunity for us to bask in the sunlight that radiates our time and space for joy.”
“Time can be (not but) for those who love, -time is eternity”- This is where time is of the utmost importance! This is where we wish we had forever to be in loving relationships with the person or people that touch our hearts and stir the emotions of loving and being loved. It is the most important experience that life has to offer. Whether it is our parents, children, sibling/ husband/ wife/ partner, or friend, the gift of love is priceless. It is the best investment in our life. It is timeless! It is a love that if nurtured, honored, respect, and cherished, will follow us throughout our lifetime and into eternity. That’s deep abiding love that can rock our world! It fills our cup, why not let it overflow with- “Love”!
My parting words- Cherish your time in all circumstance of your life. Hold your “Time” as a precious gift that needs your love and attention. Don’t let it slip away from you. You deserve “Time”!
