Merry-Hearted Homeschool Days
When Ray and I were newly-married and living in Lexington, Kentucky, for Ray to do graduate work in history at the University of Kentucky, we learned an upbeat devotional song based almost verbatim on the first six verses of Psalm 92, which read:
It is good to give thanks to the Lord
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,
With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre.
For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
How great are Your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep.
Psalm 92:1–5
We sang it to the tune of (of all things) “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. Try it. You may be surprised at how well the words fit the tune. Those first six verses of Psalm 92 would be an appropriate theme passage for a homeschool. God made everything, including people in His very own image, so what mamas are doing every day when they teach their children any subject is declaring God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness and His great works. As we walk through the day, we are declaring His lovingkindness in the morning and His faithfulness at night. When we ponder what God has made and what He continues to do in the world, we can easily realize that His works are great and His thoughts are very deep. When we step back and realize that, it is easier to sing for joy at the works of His hands.
Remembering to sing for joy can be a challenge when it seems that one thing after another is falling down around us. Jesus conquered that challenge. Hebrews 12:2 encourages us to be:
. . . fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Keeping in mind these big picture realities can help us enjoy homeschool days that are more merry-hearted.
Illinois wasn’t exactly on our way back to Tennessee from Michigan, but Ray and I decided to detour over to Illinois anyway. The folks at homesschool curriculum supplier Rainbow Resource Center invited us to come to their home office. They wanted us to do some training and to make videos for them to use. We spent two encouraging days with the Rainbow staff. First we spent a morning training their curriculum consultants in how to explain Notgrass History curriculum more thoroughly. Then we spent the rest of the time making sixteen videos, eight explaining our curriculum and eight interviews.
Meet photographer and videographer Laura, graphics designer Emily, and marketing director Jess.
This picture illustrates what it felt like to spend two days working long and hard hours with these three women and with other staff members. We smiled and smiled because it was such fun and because they were such powerfully encouraging people.
In different circumstances this work might not have been fun at all, but with these folks the time went by quickly and we had a blast. Instead of feeling tired after literally hours in front of cameras, we felt excited and refreshed.
The book of Isaiah describes a time of gloom this way:
The new wine mourns,
The vine decays,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
The gaiety of tambourines ceases,
The noise of revelers stops,
The gaiety of the harp ceases . . . .
All joy turns to gloom.
The gaiety of the earth is banished.
Isaiah 24:7-8, 11b
As a homeschooling mama, you don’t want to hear your merry-hearted children sighing or the gaiety of their tambourines ceasing or their joy turning to gloom. You have the opportunity to teach your children in an atmosphere of joy and encouragement, an atmosphere that is downright merry-hearted.
- You can watch your children to see what exasperates them and decide whether you need to persevere in that subject anyway right now or lay it aside until a more teachable moment or even postpone it to another semester or year.
- You can punctuate your homeschool day with simple and fun diversions.
- You can surprise your children with a day off from “school.”
- You can be an example of joyfully fulfilling your responsibilities as a mama so that your children know what joyfully doing their work looks like.
- You can give your children smiles and hugs while they struggle with a new concept.
- You can schedule a regular marvelous Monday, tremendous Tuesday, wacky Wednesday, thoroughly silly Thursday, or fabulous Friday.
Mary Poppins is right. A spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down. What we were doing on Tuesday and Wednesday wasn’t “medicine” at all, but the “sugar” certainly did make the work a joy. We left merry-hearted.
But now I come to You;
and these things I speak in the world
so that they may have My joy
made full in themselves.
John 17:13
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