Supplemental Activities

With our current homeschool curriculum, we try to hit certain subjects a couple of times a week: Math, Science, and Language Arts.  We're also given 12 more hours to do other learning activities not provided in the curriculum.  For us, that's Bible, cooking, music, field trips, and art (when we get to it).  We're racking up the hours in P.E. with Bella's cheerleading season in full swing.

I'm seeing the most rewards, not from the assigned textbooks, but from these supplemental activities.  Bella is memorizing about 3 Bible verses a week for her AWANAS club every Wednesday.  We were lucky to memorize one verse a month last year when she was in traditional school!  Training our kids in spiritual matters was one of the big reasons we considered homeschooling while they're young.  There is so much more time to talk about God stuff now!  And she has tons of questions.  I'm so glad that I can be available to help her answer them.

As parents, we have to remember that our children need growth in other areas besides the one-dimensional intellectual academics that schools generally offer.  Our kids have spiritual, relational, emotional, and physical needs as well.  I can already see a sense of peace in my daughter as we are spending loads of time together talking, reading, resting, praying, and hugging.  During this time at home, I hope that Bella finds confidence, security, and purpose before we send her back into a world of harsh expectations, confused morals, and misplaced priorities.  That's the kind of education I'm concerned about.

Don't worry.  She can still read, write, and solve math problems too.