Loving School, Hating Busywork

Pin It I am having a hard time not being a hater of preschool. I have scoured too many blogs where I see moms creating lapbooks, doing unit studies and 90 different things with play dough. Honestly, I don't really care if other moms want to do that. It is all about your motives, but it seems so crazy to me. My kids love to play, read books and anything to do with learning. I want to keep it that way. I want them to LOVE to learn and not have to sit at my dining room table for an hour until they get a concept right.

"Cut, my man, CUT"

I just think it is so wrong to evaluate a 4 years old on how well they can cut or color. Do we think they will never learn to cut? Will they be sixteen and have not learned to draw straight line? If they really love books and when you read to them they will be motivated to learn their ABC's.

That being said, we ARE doing school this year. Not because I think they need to meet certain standards, but mostly because they are kids and they get bored and start bugging each other if they are left to play all day. We need to have a schedule or mom and everyone else struggles. When we move from thing to thing it keep the day interesting and gives us some sort of structure. I want my boys to know how to sit quietly and play and I have a ton of fun things that I would love to do with them.

We start our school time asking, "why do we do school?". The answer is to love God, to praise God, and to obey God. If we are not doing that then it is pointless. The main focus of our school time is the Word of God. I know my kids will learn to cut and color, but they will not know the word of God with out some active memorization and study. We are memorizing scripture and reading bible stories as much as we can!

So... here are a few pics from the first day of school!

 Recess! Except the dress code was very informal, if not, nonexistent. 

"MOM, we were making mud." Of course you were. 

Reading about Adam and Eve and coloring... or swording...

The View From My Window

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I love looking out the window over my kitchen sink. My mom had a window over her kitchen sink in the house we grew up in that looked right into our backyard.

Mine does too.

I find myself there quite a bit looking over my little ones playing, or fighting, or surviving out there. Today I was remembering my mom shouting from that window. I know, I can hardly believe she yelled either. I seem to have blocked out all unhappy childhood memories and can only remember my mother as a saintly lady who raised six kids.

However, I can remember our backyard...

"Stop slapping each other"

"Laura, don't hit your sister with the tether ball... or put it around her neck"

"Don't come in this house like that"

"Julia, Krista does not want to play circus with you again."

"Give everyone a turn threw the sprinkler and where is Alisa's swimsuit?"

"The doors are locked and your not coming in unless it is an EMERGENCY (A.K.A bleeding)"

Hmmmm.... sounds quite similar to my shouting through the window.

Today as I was watching and thinking... I watched the boys share, Abigail come in and out of the sandbox and then wander off to something else. The hose get turned on, the hammock get turned over (with a few kiddos on it), the yard being FULL. Even though this full house seems too crowded at times, today I was thankful for the noise and the playing and the punishing.

That noise and these kiddos are forcing me to be less selfish and more patient. They are helping me to chose joy even on the days that I don't feel like it. Now when I look at the window I can be reminded of this journey to holiness.