Monday, December 1, 2008

Those blessed little moments...

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is being there to witness those blessed little moments when my kids show me that they really 'get' something. This morning I was starting a phonics lessons with Reagan and I reviewed the 1- and 2-vowel rules with her since she is just learning how to read long vowel words. But before I could say them for her to repeat, she beat me to the punch and spit them right out! This, after a week of break and only hearing the 2nd one once before. I'm telling you, she has such a great memory!

I am so thankful that this will be one of her strengths but also that I can witness it. Little things like these help me to realize that the Lord has given me the blessing of having a close relationship with my kids, which is helped further by the fact that I must work so closely with them each day in their education. I love to see her beam with the joy of knowing that she has learned something and the realization that she is doing well. I get to see her push through her frustrations as she remembers what I've told her about the goal being practice rather than perfection ... and then beam again as she earns a sticker for not getting frustrated. I love that she smiles at the prospect of sitting down to read... because she's learning bigger words now.

Of course, we all know that not every moment of this homeschooling journey is delightful. But oh how worth it is the work for these blessed little moments....

3 comments:

Darcy @ m3b said...

Is that a gap-toothed smile I see?

Love that!

Sharon said...

A great moment of encouragement. I am loving seeing the fruit of my labour with the kids' reading as well. Keep it up. Did the thanksgiving weekend plans work out as well as you had hoped?

And don't worry about potty training taking so long, either. Two of my kids had a huge gap between #1 training and #2 training that confused and frustrated the heck out of me when it happened with my first-born. When it has happened again with my third-born I just decided to ride it out. With some kids, that's all you can do. But I must admit I am very thankful to have the days of three in nappies behind me!

(5 kilograms = 11 pounds)

~ Sharon

Jennifer@DoingTheNextThing said...

Oh, praise the Lord for that moment! He's so merciful to show us a little bit of the fruits of our labor every now and then, so that we can be encouraged to keep going.