Organic Momma

Tuesday I began the long process of educating my children at home, beginning with preparing them through orientation. I was optimistic that this would allow me to set before them what was to be expected of them and to show them what lay ahead of them for the year. I had hoped that by treating them with a new maturity and talking with them (instead of at them), this would inspire them to take on this task with new meaning.

So…..suffice to say that when Wednesday came along, I was a little dissappointed at my 8 year old teasing his 3 (nearly 4) year old brother. My 2 year old daughter running through the house making an obscene amount of noise, while my eldest daughter (now 10) is nowhere to be found. Then it hit me………… I Am Going To Need To Bring In Reinforcements!

My little sister is no help. She tried calling in some sort of “bomb” threat or “anthrax” threat, just to get the kids off the hook for doing school. On their very first day of school no less. And lest you think my husband would be of help, he broke our very important rule of “No Calls Before 12 pm”! Yep, this was going to be a banner year.

This is when I force myself to stop and remember why I do this every year and continue to do this till they are through with school. I want to be the main influence in their lives. I want them to be the reason they have bad habits. I want to say that my son can read because I taught him. I want to smile when my daughter is figuring out the perimeter of that quadrilateral and succeeds. And while they still have so much outside influences in their lives (there is not shortage of social life here!), I want to be the deepest root in their life. Something that can not be moved in the face of a tough decision, because let’s face it- we can’t be with them 100% of the time. I think I will be if they remember who taught them what they know and that they will always have a safe place to go to………their home!