A Week of Learning. Period.

When I began this post I titled it "A Week of Learning and Tears". However, as the pictures loaded one by one I smiled. Learning happened in abundance. It was beautiful. I wasted hours of my week with discontentment and anxiety about my children's education. I allowed fear to rule my decisions and questioned my ability to do what was best for them, all because I was stuck in minute and had lost the big picture perspective. Here's our big picture...

Tuesday we did Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, and then met friends at the beach. The water was like ice, but the air was in the high 80's. Shells and sea glass covered the sand. The kids saw a couple of sting rays and they ran along a winter sand bar that presented itself like a floor of glass for little feet to explore. Nathan turned strangers into friends, as is his gifting, and he discussed life with them as they collected sea glass together.

This is what I found in Alynna's laundry. I very honestly think there was a leftover body of something or other in one of the shells, because the collection stank to high heaven!

Wednesday was our push day as I attempted to finish off chapters and lessons so we could go on a field trip on Thursday and our homeschool academy on Friday. Nathan seems to go through cycles of learning until his brain just can't handle one more spelling rule or one more math problem, at which point I need to back off and let the new information just sit for a while as life is lived. Wednesday that ceiling was hit. As you can see, Simon had a blast that day. Life was so simple when the biggest problem on your page asks you to count triangles.

After our rough Wednesday we packed up for a Thursday spent out in the great outdoors and my soul sang. We breathed. We explored. We learned. It's how things were meant to be.

Simon drew in his nature journal for a bit. His pictures all looked very similar to Grandma.

I've been a member of the gardens on and off over the years, yet this week I went on my very first docent-led tour. Now, here's something you should know about me. If you tell me I probably can't succeed at something I take that as a personal challenge. Unless you're telling me I can't knit or crochet, at which point I would say amen and move on with my happy little life.

Well, when the tour guide told me four times the kids probably wouldn't last the length of the tour because of all the talking and walking I kindly took my challenge.

The tour was just about two hours and I can tell you that we all learned a ton of information! I was very impressed. Simon and Alynna got a little weary of the walking and the listening, but they hung in there and seemed to enjoy themselves just fine.

Nathan, as always, became personal assistant to the docent.

And to my great pleasure and satisfaction we out lasted all but two members on the tour!

After that we looked at a few works of art until the three younger ones insisted on touching the pieces or sitting on antique chairs with no regard to the guards kindly asking them to stay three feet away from the works.

Simon enjoyed pressing buttons.

Friday was our academy day - the first of the second semester. Simon wrote a love letter to his beloved grandma. I will have you notice that I was first on the list, then crossed out in favor for Grandma, and added in on the bottom. I was so grateful I made the cut!

I facilitated an art class for fifteen kids.

Then we went to the beautiful park with our beloved friends and community.

The kids and I went grocery shopping and I ended up with a few duplicates thanks to my "helpers".

Today we went to the Los Angeles Arboretum thanks to Brad's sister and her family.

That big picture shot of our lives was much needed for this burdened mom soul. My life is not measured by the completed Math lessons or the words spelled right on the page. My life, which is dedicated to Jesus Christ my Savior, has already been measured and paid in full. The challenge is now to walk it out - to enjoy the beauty around me and to teach my children to see it as well. Our formal education, our time spent together, our friends and family, the thousands of resources at our fingertips... it makes our lives beautiful.