{"id":2052,"date":"2014-12-28T00:46:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T07:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/\/?p=2052"},"modified":"2015-07-06T10:26:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T16:26:28","slug":"the-baby-is-the-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/the-baby-is-the-lesson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Baby IS the Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" One morning on my daily walk, I was fretting and stewing over what I could possibly do with my one-year-old during school time. I was feeling some despair with a new baby on its way. I couldn\u2019t see any end to the disruption of babies in my home school for many years to come.<\/strong> I was praying and scheming at the same time: I could wait until the baby\u2019s nap to teach school, I could rotate the children with baby-sitting chore away from our schoolroom, I could get a playpen . . . all solutions that didn\u2019t feel right\u2014babies needs their moms!<\/p>\n

As I walked and pondered, suddenly the Lord introduced one sentence to my mind and revolutionized my mindset entirely! \u201cThe baby IS<\/em> the lesson!\u201d<\/strong> I thought I was trying to teach Math, but in reality I had been teaching, day by day, how an adult values the precious gift of children. My children, by watching how I deal with the frustration of a crying baby or keep a toddler happy and busy with some of his \u201cown\u201d pieces while we play a math game, are soaking up \u201cthe lesson\u201d. Unfortunately, I had occasionally been teaching that the baby interrupts<\/em> our lesson.<\/p>\n

How to be a Christlike person is the most valuable lesson a child could ever learn! The lesson is learned moment by moment; watching a parent being patient, handling frustration with kindness, pressing on for the goal in spite of numerous interruptions, valuing each child\u2019s needs regardless of inconvenience. That valuable insight\u2013how Mother handles the baby is the real lesson\u2013has dramatically changed how I view my home school. I am teaching foremost my values: godly character, kindness, respect for others, individuality, sacrifice and a host of other Christlike attributes. Teaching them reading, writing, math, etc. is very important to me but my perspective has been altered. \u201cMimic me, follow me and I will show you the way a Christlike person acts and what he values\u201d. That is the message every parent relays to their children whether they are aware of it or not. Children try to copy everything anyway (our mannerisms, our daily activities, etc.). We must be certain that we are providing a correct pattern for them to copy, not only in our daily activities but in our attitude, our tone of voice, and our facial expression. We need to conduct our lives so that we can say \u201cfollow me\u201d. If our children are to \u201cbuy\u201d our values, what a tremendous responsibility we have to make sure we are living our best so the lesson is clear and well learned! What more could you ask for from your homeschool than to produce Christlike people?!<\/p>\n

Teaching your children basically means getting your own personal life in order and striving daily to be the leader for them to follow.<\/strong> Of course, we fall short and they must look to Christ for the perfect being but they need to see daily how one acts, speaks, lives, solves problems. We are acting as a proxy, in a sense, for Christ. Since they can\u2019t have his daily role model, then he has given his children parents to be an example, to point the way. Along with lesson preparations, we need to prepare ourselves by asking: is the pattern I live the way Christ would act? Can I say today that I have marked the path for my children to follow? Children learn from seeing their parent\u2019s role model. Watching an adult make a simple mistake (such as being too punitive with a child) and go through the process of repenting is 100 times more effective than your devotional lesson on repentance. This means children must be intimately involved with you in your daily life. A few hours a day after school won\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

\"dough-13726_640\"Children should be involved in the adult\u2019s life rather than daily life rotating solely around the children. Research has shown that children who have grown up to be productive well-adjusted adults are those who have been drawn into the parent\u2019s world; their daily activities, work, and interests; rather than having parents who centered their world on the child. When I began home schooling, I never could find the time to do the things I felt were important for my life; such as writing in my journal, corresponding with relatives, studying my scriptures, and more. Somehow, in my busy-ness of trying to teach the kids how to write in their journals, I was neglecting my own journal writing. Thankfully, we now have journal writing time in school daily, and we write letters to relatives together as a family on Sunday. Homeschool life should help parents do the daily necessities, rather than usurp the time needed for them. Home maintenance, chores, food preparation, gardening, food preservation, budgeting, clothing care (mending and sewing), planning family social relationships, caring for small children, record keeping, quilting, raising animals, etc. are all wonderful life skills that can be done together that enhance a child\u2019s education!<\/p>\n

The parent\u2019s joyful task is to lead and guide the child into the real world\u2013not set up a contrived pseudo-world to teach skills that the children would easily learn if they spent their time around adults who were striving to live good lives. What constitutes an adult trying to live a \u201cgood life\u201d? Being a productive adult would constitute a full-time curriculum! Plant a garden, read good literature, serve the needy, be politically aware, keep a journal, vote for honest men, develop your talents, etc. The exciting part about leading a child into the real world is that they are self-motivated. The moment I sit down to play the piano, all my children want to play and want me to teach them to play something. No sooner than I begin typing on the computer, I have the whole family \u201cneeding\u201d to type. My efforts at writing have, humorous to me, stimulated the production of \u201cbooks\u201d from my youngest children. Modeling is so much more effective than lecturing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"book-691489_1280\"Studies show that the biggest determining factor for a child\u2019s success in reading in school is if they have seen a parent reading in the home on a regular basis. This is especially true for boys if the parent who reads is their father, rather than their mother. Somehow, the example says far more about the value of reading than endless hours in school reading groups.<\/p>\n

In every area it takes instruction to teach skills to little people. Children need to master the basic academic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic), social manners, music competence, and a host of other abilities and that do take focused concentration and time from mother\/teacher to accomplish. It isn\u2019t realized just by living in a family. But shared family life practices and contributes to those skills. Having taught my little girl the numbers and the plus, minus and equal signs and how they worked, she jumped right into figuring out how many plates she needed to set the table using her new skills: (\u201cWe have 9 and the boys are gone to college so that is minus 3, so we need six\u201d).<\/p>\n

When we think of homeschool, sometimes we get tunnel vision, and think \u201cacademics\u201d, \u201ckeeping up to speed\u201d and other worrisome concerns that don\u2019t really tell the whole story. Homeschool is the growing and nurturing of fine, upright people.<\/p>\n

So, how we treat and value the baby really is the lesson.<\/p>\n

Class never dismissed.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\"\"
\n
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

May I recommend:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"homeschooling_0312_DSCF0021.sized_\"
\nHomeschool With a Baby
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"baby_joseph\"
\nDemanding Toddler
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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\"13455\"
\nOball Rattle\/Teether
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One morning on my daily walk, I was fretting and stewing over what I could possibly do with my one-year-old during school time. I was feeling some despair with a new baby on its way. I couldn\u2019t see any end to the disruption of babies in my home school for many years to come. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,3],"tags":[32,63],"class_list":["post-2052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeschooling-goals","category-how-to-homeschool","tag-baby","tag-homeschooling","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Isaac.jpeg?fit=479%2C639&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IrRN-x6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1047,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/what-to-do-with-baby\/","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":0},"title":"What to Do with Baby?","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This will be my first year to homeschool my 6-year-old. What can I do with my baby while I teach? The baby is one year old. I did read your Best Homeschool Secrets (thank you for the valuable tips), but I don\u2019t have other children to help me babysit,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Concerns"","block_context":{"text":"Concerns","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/homeschooling-concerns\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rebekah ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/rebekah-258x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/homeschool-with-a-baby\/","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":1},"title":"Homeschool with a Baby","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Homeschool with a baby? Yes, it presents about the same likelihood as taking a family vacation to Mars, teaching your dog to talk, or abolishing Santa Claus. Depending on the temperament of your baby, and the number of non-reading children who need instructions read to them during homeschool\u2014 you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/69.195.124.81\/~homescp3\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/homeschooling_0312_DSCF0021.sized_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1102,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/begin-with-the-end-in-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":2},"title":"Begin with the End in Mind","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever feel like you are bumbling around amidst a three-ring circus in your attempts to homeschool? There is nothing like a new baby to restore a teacher\/mother\u2019s humility in the face of her own inadequacies! For our homeschool, this chaos repeats itself every few years with the advent of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Goals"","block_context":{"text":"Goals","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/homeschooling-goals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"lovetosave1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/lovetosave1-e1430360640397.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/demanding-toddler\/","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":3},"title":"Demanding Toddler","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I need help! My toddler is so demanding, and takes up much of my attention and time, that I am having trouble homeschooling my other children. Answer: It's tough\u2014I sympathize! Having a bin of interesting toys for your toddler to play with on the floor while you are reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"baby_joseph","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/baby_joseph-226x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":996,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/co-op-school-add-zip\/","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":4},"title":"Co-op School\u2014Add Zip to Your Homeschool!","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Want to make homeschooling easier!? Try creating a Co-op School! Co-op\u00a0school is simply a few homeschool families getting together to do school together once a week. My family enjoys it tremendously. Every Friday, we\u00a0meet with a few other\u00a0families from 9:30 to noon. Some years, our group has grown to many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/girl-369234_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/girl-369234_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/girl-369234_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/girl-369234_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/girl-369234_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":805,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/precious-body\/","url_meta":{"origin":2052,"position":5},"title":"Precious Body","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Aren't babies the greatest? They don't give a smidgen of care to what you dress them up in. It can be on inside-out and backwards, and they don't complain. They don't mind if their hair isn't combed just so. They aren't self-conscious if they burp. Tummy gurgling in public doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/why-homeschool\/homeschooling-parenting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"emily_elizabeth_closeup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/emily_elizabeth_closeup.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2052"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7239,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions\/7239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}