Starting School (at Home)
It’s been quite a summer of learning and growing.
Our big prayer request right now is for the upcoming school year (which for us is September through August - all year round). Since Hannah is now six, we must include her in our homeschooling schedule, starting this September. By law she is required to have 4.5 hours of “school” each day. Please pray that I’ll be able to figure out how to work that into our schedule. With the older girls, I don’t worry about how much time we spend on book work because they are tuned in to their surroundings and learn from the educational environment of our home automatically. Their natural curiosity and nurtured love for learning drive them to learn all day long. With Hannah, however, I think we’ll have to be actively interacting with her for learning to take place.
Now, that being said, I want to praise God for showing me something over this summer. Because of a crazy schedule and other circumstances, I haven’t been daily spending time with Hannah doing ABA or RDI therapy. We’ve been doing sporadic RDI, but nothing consistent. But over the past month I’ve noticed a significant increase in Hannah’s playing with Sarah. I’ve also noticed improvement in her awareness and commenting on her surroundings. For example, this week we went to some friends’ house for dinner. One of their children was in a high chair off the corner of the table. The four of us parents were in the middle of an animated conversation when Hannah said, “Oh, he wants more cheese.” She was looking right at the child in the high chair. He was quietly asking for more cheese. She had noticed a person’s need and effectively communicated it (she spoke loudly enough for me to hear her) in the middle of a high level of noise from our conversation.
The Lord is pointing out to me events like that to reassure me that I don’t have to panic about the upcoming school schedule. He also reminded me of what’s most important by having a visiting missionary at church mention 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. He didn’t expound on the passage, but it pricked my heart and called me once again to focus not so much on Hannah’s physical capabilities (“what is seen”) but on her spirit and soul (“what is unseen”). By the way, she’s starting to interject her own short sentences when we pray aloud as a family or at bedtime!
So, bottom line, please pray that I’ll have the clarity of mind to focus on what is most important and create a daily schedule that will reflect those priorities.
