A Very Real Look At Our Week…

 Tuesday saw the opening of our ‘school doors’. With well rested students and teacher, we jumped into our first week of Inquisitiveness and explorers. I felt really motivated and well prepared with the help of HomeschoolMentor, so was confident of a good week.

On Monday, I gathered together all our resources plus a few extra goodies for a themed display table. I remember the joy and curiosity this display table would give to my students in my pre-school teaching days before homeschooling. Just because my children are older – I don’t see why we cant enjoy a bit of visual stimulation and fun. It’s a great way to get into the spirit of the theme. Once I had finished setting up my table – which would be added to throughout the week with some of our activities, it seemed to work its magic. My girls peered closely at some of the characters that stood on the table that we would be reading about and questions started rolling in. ‘You’ll have to wait and see’, was my reply *smile*.

Our map – day 1

Tuesday the girls seemed motivated and got up and were ready on time for the start of our day. Yay – victory # 1! After starting the day in the Word {we are using Anne Elliot’s ‘Foundations’ course} we got busy with our KONOS activities. We have put together an ‘Explorers Map’ which will be used and added to over the coming weeks. We are all really enjoying mapping the routes of our explorers as we learn about them, adding some of the things that remind us of their discoveries and sights. The little figures that were on our display table were slowly moved to the map over the week as our studies wove on. This has been such a fun and creative way of doing map work that it has hardly felt like ‘work’ at all. Both girls have been eager to contribute to our map over the week.

Our map at the end of the week.

Our art activity was to make viking shields. I wondered how well this would go down with older KONOS students. Well I need not have worried. Both girls LOVED the task and even got into some viking role play. They took great pleasure in showing their shields to KONOS Papa. We added them to our display table and they have proved to be a focal point to visiting friends.

I would love to say that our whole week ran smoothly, that we had no attitude/character issues to deal with and that we completed all our scheduled work. However, we are an ordinary family, each of us imperfect and in constant need of God’s refining and changing work to be done in our hearts and souls. We got a little behind in our schedule as one KONOS Kid displayed a distinct lack of inquisitiveness and enthusiasm one morning, causing us to have to stop and deal with it. I always find that as soon as we start on a character trait, we have plenty opportunity to practice turning away from its counter-part and to put into practice what God is trying to teach us. This is what I love about KONOS. We are indeed learning and training in academics, but more importantly it is a tool that continually points us to ‘seek first His kingdom’ and to train our children in righteousness. 

For me, I needed patience in dealing with this. At first I felt anger, after all, how could you not be happy to learn this way? How could you not be interested, eager and willing? It’s not like I have asked you to sit down and learn dreary dates and facts and write a 10 page essay on an explorer!

   I found myself needing to step away to regain perspective of the situation. As a mother and teacher, it is hard not to ‘take offence’. After all, I have spent weeks planning, preparing and mapping our a course of learning that I hope will be interesting, challenging, stretching and varied. So when my offspring shows a distinct lack of enthusiasm it certainly is hard to ‘not take it personally!’

Now this is where God begins to work on MY character! {and you thought we were only working on our children’s character through KONOS – not a chance LOL}. 

This is how the rest of the day plays out….

Mom goes to her room and closes the door – she needs a break! Space to breath deeply and think. She phones supportive husband to do a little venting and get his perspective. This works! She realises that she is taking it too personally, that children no matter what form of education they are receiving will have attitude of some sort, and that this needs to be dealt with calmly and after playful consideration. Many other helpful ‘hubandy’ words of wisdom wind their way down the phone lines. The conversation ends with the reassurance that together we will present a loving united front that evening and address the issue. Mom then spends some time with the Lord, asking {begging} for wisdom and insight to deal with wayward child immediately. We have a chat and I discover that said child is lacking in the sleep department at the moment. Although this is not the entire problem, I have no doubt that it is a contributing factor!  Kittens playfulness and sisters movements are keeping her awake longer, depriving her of her much needed rest. We decide together that she should move into the room currently used as my office. We spend the rest of the day moving furniture, printers and computers and making her ‘new’ room cosy and comfortable. That evening we have a positive family conference, KONOSKONOS kid to help encourage her and keep her accountable. Everyone is feeling positive and motivated again. whew!

Friday dawns, the girls are in good spirits and both participating and eager to get involved. We have a smooth morning, spend lots of time chatting and talking together over our tasks. We wrap up our week  – a couple activities short of planned, but that’s okay – there’s always next week ;o)