Phenomenon...

The children have been rising with the Daddy at 6AM for breakfix ever since G#1 was 3 years old. There is a consistent attempt made every work day that they rise and eat a serving of cereal while the Daddy reads morning devotions for them aloud and for himself silently. Then there is prayer time and generally they quietly return to their rooms to play until I go downstairs to begin my morning routine. I am far less consistent than their father however.

All this is to say that, for the last 2 mornings, I've left Bible study sheets on the counter with the Bible open to the reference for that study. I've left the binders where the sheets go once completed and the weather collecting calendar also. There has been no reason for them not to start at their school checklist before I'm there to "wrangle" them.

So, with the cooperation of the Daddy, as he leaves for work a little before 7AM he encourages our reader to lead in the Bible study and weather recording of the day. I've found the children working at the next things on their checklist, whether it be math, explode the code, state bird study or handwriting for a reason.

Yesterday was a big day because we had so much to do in catching up with a few things on the checklist that weren't thoroughly accomplished last week during a loosely organized 4 days of school. There was also the introduction and completion of chapter 10 in Story of the World 2 about the "Bottom of the world." That chapter discusses aborigines and the maori. But all was completed in addition to math test and G#3 final tests from Math-U-See Alpha level.

Today, I was able to go through the entire checklist with the children, mind you less intense because spelling can be done more independently on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, before 10AM. That also included all three reading/listening to their books on tape. Those are The Magician's Nephew for G#1, Through the Looking Glass for G#2 and Julie of the Wolves for G#3. We reviewed SOTW2 chapters 8-10 and now are ready to attack Jupiter during the remainder of this week. Next week we continue with Jupiter and move onto history chapter 11 about the "Kingdom of the Franks."

So, obviously I have diligent children who are thrilled to serve, but I'm no newbie here. Nothing lasts forever except for God's eternal love for us. And, I did only have my own classroom for a year and those were 7th, 8th and 9th graders in rural Iowa, and my experience substitute teaching for sport is very different. What I do know is that we are weak and heavy laden most often and we all need a Savior. I'm praising God for making the last two days a blessing to homeschool my kids. And I'm grateful to be able to teach my kids about the Creator and his Son each and every day by example all day, 24/7 is the job. I just keep trying to enjoy what I've seen them do here and remember that "Mommy is my name - praying is my aim."