Three Little Birds

Most of the time, as a homeschooler, I feel as though I'm swimming along, doing a little doggie paddle, soaking in the glow of minds at work, enjoying the ebb and flow of our full days, taking the odd wave of doubt in stride, but then, there are moments when I look up, survey the enormity of the task at hand, the OCEAN in which I swim, and I have myself a good old fashioned panic attack.

I mean really, suppose one day my kids are grown and they can't get decent jobs, so their wives run off with some guy in a Ferrari and their kids wind up cursing the name of their grandma, who with all her wacky homeschooling notions, doomed them to a life of motherless poverty? Then what?

Deep breath, sister. Repeat after me, " every little thing's gonna be alright."

It's just that, when you love someone, THREE someones, so much that it pulls the rug right out from under you, who you are, and what you hold, just never adds up to all that you'd like to give. I worry that I'm not enough to do them justice.

When those days come, I have to remind myself that my children's future does not rest solely in my hands. I believe that they are in hands that are bigger than mine, and I believe that they are made of stuff that will shine in spite of my failings.

Not that I don't think parents and teachers have integral roles to play, it's just that I'm fairly certain that they will rise to their own occasions.

I know this because I see it everyday.

Take this most recent example. We've been practicing our observational drawing.

Here's yesterday's drawing subject:

Here's 5 year old James' rendering of said birdie:

I may be biased, but I think it's pretty fantastic.

Lori mentioned though, that a good way to get kids to think about the lines that make up their intended subject is to have them trace it in the air with their finger. As an experiment in that direction, I bought cheap (less that $3) frames so that they could hold it (or tape it down) in front of their subject and then do their tracing with a dry erase marker. It worked pretty well!

They didn't stop there though.

My middle son soon discovered that his drawing on the plexiglass, would create a "colored shadow" if he positioned it in front of a piece of white paper.

Then, they figured out that they could color one glass yellow, and another blue, hold them side by side, and the "colored shadow" would be green. They experimented with other colors. They layered drawings to make them more complex.

They took this one little idea that I had and RAN with it.

This, friends, is how I know that whatever ideas I could muster about their life, would just PALE in comparison to what they will create on their own.

They are smart little cookies, and Bob Marley is too. Every little thing really is gonna be alright.