Graceful Mess Homeschooling Day

I stayed late last Tuesday night preparing our lesson plan for our homeschool.

I needed to have a lesson plan for our homeschooling so I do not need to cram.

For days, I prayed for the Lord to lead me in our studies. There's a lot of books and curriculum to choose from and my time was consumed by looking for the best books to use.

But God led me in using the Bible as our main textbook. We are studying the book of Genesis and it keeps us closer to God studying The Creation and incorporating it with Science, Geography, Math and with other subjects.

We used other resources too. 

Because of sleeping late I experienced the consequence of waking up at 8am and I needed to be ready for our homeschool by 10 am. I was like Lord I need your strength.

I have been teaching Kyle about responsibility and punctuality. He should be ready for our homeschool by 10 am and so am I. But I was rushing today, with more than a dozen of bottles to clean at 9am plus I needed to give Sean and Simone a bath, mop the floor and cook lunch. Aside from that, I needed to photocopy their worksheets too.

Kyle has been diligent in following his call time.

By God's grace, all of us were ready by 10:10 am. I was 10 minutes late, while Kyle was ready on time.

As I was preparing I thought...Why was I not ready? 

God was waiting for me to speak to Him, the moment I woke up.

And I missed our date.

It has been my goal to prioritize Him each day, to read His words and pray and have my Quiet time. I needed His grace, His presence to fill me.

"Apart from me, you can do nothing" - John 15:5

It is only through Him that I am able. 

While I was rushing with all my chores. All I can do is pray, and He was merciful as He allowed my children to cooperate. 

I was glad we were ready 10 minutes past 10am. We were all sitting in our study table and we began our day singing worship song and a prayer. 

Kyle started with his Bible Reading and we discussed it afterwards.

Sean and Simone were able to finish their worksheets for the day. Though they were very competitive and would really ask for my attention, they managed to accomplish their work. There were little cryings on the side but we were able to settle it.

After a job well done I gave them their rewards.

We do not allow them to watch T.V. until 6 pm. It allowed my kids to have more time to read too.

This would also mean a messy home instead. We had our toys everywhere and a lot of clutter. Looking at our messy home, it will usually stress me out. But I asked God not to allow the clutter of our home to distract me of my goal each day.

I prayed that these clutters will not enter my heart and result to a bad temper.

Only God knows my heart and He is answering all our needs as we surrender our homeschooling to him.

When God called me to homeschool I became more dependent on Him, asking Him to lead us each day.

Without His leading, we will be lost.

And I praise God that after so many days that I tried to train my toddlers and asked them to clean up they finally got it. Unlike before, when they would put back one toy, they would think they are done. Sean was more diligent in doing this while Simone is still work in progress.

We had our Read Aloud later in the afternoon. We are studying the Oceans as a group. We are following the story of The Creation and God revealed so many wonders of his power in creating all of these for His glory.

They love this colorful book from national geographic that we purchased through Kindle. It is cheaper and we need to minimize having all these books piling up as try to simplify our homeschool, plus we don't need to worry about it being ripped :)

We enjoyed reading " My First Big Book of the Ocean" together and learn more about it until they fell asleep. We do read alouds whenever I would like them to take a nap in the afternoon. It works for us :)

While they were sleeping I looked at our home and there were areas that were messy. 

But at the end of the day, homeschooling is about filling their hearts with joy, love and laughter. The mess in our home is an easy fix. But fixing broken men will be harder. 

More of our hearts, less the clutter of this world.

More of Him, less of me.

I am joyful and grateful that I gave this season of my life to the Lord and to our family. It is the desires of our hearts to see our children growing with the Lord and becoming God fearing men that will be discipler of Jesus.

All by God's grace.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - Philippians 4:13

" I have no greater joy than this, to hear my children walking in truth" - 3 John 5:15

All Praise and Glory to God!