"Are we there yet?"
Patiently you explain how much further there is to go. It doesn't make much difference because a few minutes later:
"Are we there yet?"
And so it goes throughout the day, until you are ready to pull your hair out in frustration.
While I've seen this scenario in comedy movies, I'm happy to report that my children actually never did that much, though we have had our share of family road-trips. We cultivated the attitude that "getting there is half the fun."
If you've read my blog for very long you know that my family loves road-trips. We can easily spend 15 hours or more a day driving, and have very few complaints. We enjoy conversation, audio books, travel games, looking at the scenery, and stopping at points of interest. And yes, we do look forward to arriving at our destination.
Today's topic for the Sonlight Blog Party is to share the best homeschool advice I've been given, and it's very similar to "getting there is half the fun."
Rather than focusing on the daily ups and downs,
enjoy the journey.
I remember the daily ups and downs. How excruciating it was to sit beside an emerging reader listening to her laboriously sound out the words in her first grade reader. Days when it seemed like we didn’t accomplish anything we meant to. Days when I wondered if the kids were really learning, or if they would be better served going off to public school.
"Are we there yet?"
Mixed in with regularity were the delightful days reading piles of wonderful stories… and laughing and learning together.
The years went by way faster than it seemed like they should, and before we knew it we had arrived at our destination. It was a wonderful journey!
5 comments:
Great post. Great analogy. I remember road trips fondly, too. In all those hours on our semi, Matthew never once said "Are we there, yet?" (I may have) ;-)
Great photo of the four of you, too!
And I would kinda like to go back to school...just every now and then...and enjoy the journey a bit more.
Having trouble with my computer...I'm sorry if my comment posted twice...I hope it posted though...no cooperation today.
Loved this, Karla! And such a cute picture. I think back to the early days of teaching each of my six, and realize only one of them was easy, and he taught himself listening to the phonics records. It was hard; but it was so worth it! So glad for joy in the journey!
Exactly! I looked up this morning and my six year old has jumped from laborious read aloud times to easily reading her weeks assignment smoothly in a sitting. It goes by so fast!
Perfect analogy! I love that! (I'll keep reminding myself of that as I see the finish line approaching...)
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