Preschool and Beyond: One Room Schoolhouse or Three Ring Circus?
Posted by Michelle Osborn on
Welcome to Yellow House Book Rental! We are primarily a homeschool curriculum, rental service. However, we offer a variety of services. You can compare each one, at Yellow House Book Rental, and decide which is best for your family.
**This post contains affiliate links and we will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on affiliate links. Thank you!
Guest post by Gena Suarez, Publisher of TOS
Preschool through high school: one-room schoolhouse or three-ring circus? At our house, it's a three-ring circus, for sure. If you’ve ever seen my monkeys, you’d know why. But I wouldn’t change it for the world (grin!).
It’s just that it's so loud. It’s messy. The house is like a barn. You clean. But when you turn around, it’s a disaster again. And the day is monotonous. Over and over, the diapers. The worksheets. The drills. The books. The squabbling and whining. Phonics never ends. Well, it does, but then it's time to move into chapter books. Again and again, “Sam I am . . . ” until we graduate to Peter Rabbit.
There’s cereal ground up into the carpet again. No time for a shower. How? Who will watch them? Look, fingers under the bathroom door again. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, are you in there? What are you doing in there, Mommy?"
Can I have . . . a minute alone, maybe? Please?
Fast forward a few years: If they are no longer trampling over your feet, they’re turning cartwheels on top of and deeply inside your heart (and mind). No longer monotonous, life becomes the unknown from day to day. What. Is. Next. With. This. Kid?
Time goes fast, but you get to learn some good, hard lessons along the way. Better hope your relationship is strong; better realize parenting is not for the faint of heart. Snot on your shirt and two-year-old tantrums are nothing; could we just go back there for a while? Please, can we just do the sticky high chair thing, and wet-gum-pressed-on-the-wall days again?
Fast forward again: God has a way of fixing things. Grace rules. Love really wins. Christ is glorified. All that work you did . . . oh, all the pain. It was worth it, Mama. They get it! They got it! Tears again, but the joyful kind. The cloud lifts. You exhale.
Fast forward one more time: You’re not in charge anymore; they are. You prayed hard, you planted the seeds. You watered them with your tears. And He came in and did the rest, because He is faithful. They did not depart from it! Mama, they did not depart!! “Train them up,” He said. You didn’t question it; why doubt the Word of the King of kings? You just did it. And His Word did not return void.
It’s just that it's so loud. It’s messy. The house is like a barn. You clean. But when you turn around, it’s a disaster again. And the day is monotonous. Over and over, the diapers. The worksheets. The drills. The books. The squabbling and whining. Phonics never ends. Well, it does, but then it's time to move into chapter books. Again and again, “Sam I am . . . ” until we graduate to Peter Rabbit.
There’s cereal ground up into the carpet again. No time for a shower. How? Who will watch them? Look, fingers under the bathroom door again. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, are you in there? What are you doing in there, Mommy?"
Can I have . . . a minute alone, maybe? Please?
Fast forward a few years: If they are no longer trampling over your feet, they’re turning cartwheels on top of and deeply inside your heart (and mind). No longer monotonous, life becomes the unknown from day to day. What. Is. Next. With. This. Kid?
Time goes fast, but you get to learn some good, hard lessons along the way. Better hope your relationship is strong; better realize parenting is not for the faint of heart. Snot on your shirt and two-year-old tantrums are nothing; could we just go back there for a while? Please, can we just do the sticky high chair thing, and wet-gum-pressed-on-the-wall days again?
Fast forward again: God has a way of fixing things. Grace rules. Love really wins. Christ is glorified. All that work you did . . . oh, all the pain. It was worth it, Mama. They get it! They got it! Tears again, but the joyful kind. The cloud lifts. You exhale.
Fast forward one more time: You’re not in charge anymore; they are. You prayed hard, you planted the seeds. You watered them with your tears. And He came in and did the rest, because He is faithful. They did not depart from it! Mama, they did not depart!! “Train them up,” He said. You didn’t question it; why doubt the Word of the King of kings? You just did it. And His Word did not return void.
Tears still come now and again, but they’re wiped away by a Godly, caring daughter who is devoted to her elderly Mama, the one who loved her no matter what. The one who stood FIRM on the path, always bringing her daughter back to Truth, no compromise (even though it was an emotional roller coaster at times). Your daughter now helps you, sweet Mama, along the path, in your sunset years. And she wouldn't have it any other way. Her Mama is still the one she runs to for counsel, support: You're her best friend. The value is priceless, this relationship. It's God-breathed.
It's so worth it, Mama. Just keep walking, but do not neglect the wisdom you gain daily from God's Word. Where do you think this well is, which holds all the abundant wisdom you're drawing from? That's your road map—His Word. Christ is your Way, and He is faithful to light your path, because you love and obey Him. Don't give up. Not now. Not when you've come so far, and have so much more to do. He's got His hand firmly on your head today, but you know that, don't you. Faithful Mama.
It's so worth it, Mama. Just keep walking, but do not neglect the wisdom you gain daily from God's Word. Where do you think this well is, which holds all the abundant wisdom you're drawing from? That's your road map—His Word. Christ is your Way, and He is faithful to light your path, because you love and obey Him. Don't give up. Not now. Not when you've come so far, and have so much more to do. He's got His hand firmly on your head today, but you know that, don't you. Faithful Mama.
~gena
Visit our sponsors!
Share this post
- 0 comment
- Tags: Children, Encouragement, Family, Highschool, Homeschool, Motherhood, Parenting, Teens
0 comment