There are a few million things that I struggle with as a home educator. I won’t list them today. It’s Monday and we should all start our Mondays on a positive note. Thank goodness for Shari Ellen’s wonderful meme Homeschool Hi-Lights. It affords me the opportunity to validate my decision to educate at home.
One lesson I seem to learn over and over again as a home educator is allowing the natural flow of learning to take precedence. Yet for me, this takes a great deal of prayer and patience.
This past week prayer and patience and the natural flow of learning manifested itself in the form of a newly hatched baby chick.
A very dear friend of mine is a first grade teacher who has been incubating chick and quail eggs in her classroom. Early last week she invited Miss Sam and I to visit and ‘love on’ the first hatched chick. Miss Sam didn’t want to go. Not because she wasn’t the least bit curious about the chick and it’s siblings still pecking their way out of their eggs. It was because of the children in the classroom. “I don’t like crowds Mom. I don’t want to go.”
I painfully gave Miss Sam no choice. We went to see the chick and the classroom of first graders.
During our initially uncomfortable visit my dear (very smart and intuitive) friend surprised Miss Sam (she has known her since Kindergarten) by asking her to please teach her class some basic Japanese. The rest as they say is ‘history’.
Miss Sam is now a Peer Counselor for this class. For the remaining school year she goes in to teach some Japanese and to help our dear friend teach reading and math. Miss Sam loves. loves. loves. it!!! Plans are already in motion for her to be a Peer Counselor for the the 2008-2009 school year.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Philippians 4:6 (NLT)
Amen.
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What a wonderful opportunity! That is definitely a great homeschool “hi-light!” Thanks for sharing.
~Andrea
Wonderful. Praise God!
Woohoo! Go Sam!!!!
What a blessing to see you child shine!
Danielle,
Though it was tough, it’s great that you did what was necessary to help Miss Sam broaden her horizons and learn how rewarding it can be to get out there and meet new people–always a challenge for the shy among us. Had you let her stay at home and avoid taking that “risk,” she would never have even realized the rich experience she’d have missed out on. Good for you for sticking to your guns! What a blessing!
When we’re tempted to shy away from new people or situations, it helps to remember that, so often, strangers are simply friends we haven’t met yet!
Jeanne
How cool is that! What a great opportunity for Sam!
That’s awesome! Good for both of you!
great.
and patience is not one of my best virtues either.
thank you for that scripture. perfect timing, kathleen
How cool was that - go see some baby chicks and end up as a mentor/peer counselor/Japanese instructor for first graders!
Also - loved your title for this post.
One of my favorite adages is “Patience is a virtue but I am not a very virtuous person.”
What a super opportunity. This is going to be wonderful hands on learning for her. Plus she will feel good about what she is contributing to the children. It’s so neat how these kinds of things come about.
What a awesome God we have! good for Ms Sam..and for you!
That is really great, and a wonderful answer to your prayers! Tell Miss Sam I said, “You go girl!”
Yay, Miss Sam! Well, you know what they say, never pray for patience!
My patience was sorely tested this morning with what turned out to be a minor computer glitch. Unfortunately, it took my about 3 hours to figure it out and I was down to my last ounce! I don’t think I’m over it yet…