THE START OF GREAT THINGS

A few weeks ago I spoke to the mother of two grown children, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of homeschooling here in South Africa. We were chatting about questions I had about the social skills of homeschoolers and after she had laid my concerns to rest with wise advise that was born from experience, I asked her when is the best time to start home schooling. She gave an endearing chuckle and said: "My dear, you started the day your first baby was conceived."

In that moment, something 'clicked' in my head as I realised just how true that is!

Sweetpea, my gorgeous two-year old daughter, was conceived on the way back from a missions trip. During an eight hour drive earlier that day, her Daddy and I prayed what we called Two Kilometer Prayers: we would chat about something that was on our hearts and then pray about it for the next two kilometers of the drive. One of those prayers was to ask our Heavenly Father to bless us with a little baby girl. As I think back on that conversation, I realise that we had started what would become the training of our children in the car that day. We were laying the foundation for their education as we spoke about our ideals for and beliefs about child rearing. We were already setting up boundaries and formulating game plans and chiseling out a model for teaching and training that would eventually mould our family's own, unique character.

Off course, after Sweetpea's birth, some of these preconceived ideas were altered as we grew as parents and got to know the character of our little girl better and better And that process of 'alteration' happened easily and quite naturally at times, and on other occassions this tiny little person would just mercilessly smash our half-baked parental philosophies with a good dose of reality!

We listened to seasoned parents and read authors that we respected and studied God's Word for guidance and truth abour raising our children, and all the while we were training and moulding them already. I see now that education is not an event that starts on a specific day when my child turns a ceratin age or walk through the doors of a school. Training them and teaching them happens in every moment of every day.

My purpose with this blog is to document a little bit of the the learning that happens in our house. I love learning and borrowing inspiration from the thousands of very wise and creative moms out there who readily share their ideas on their blogs and websites, and I will give recognition to them whenever due. Since I am also a consultant for Idem Smile educational products, Play2Learn toys and games and the Suczezz range of educational tools, I will feature these products here, too. Especially those I use in teaching my own children. For the rest, I'll just be sharing my own experiences as I 'train up my children in the way they should go.' May you find my musings edifying and inspirational -  I look forward to receiving your feedback!