As a young bride I thought homemaking meant having the children dressed well and supper on the table at 6 pm for my husband, doing the shopping for wedding, birthday, and Christmas gifts, signing all the cards, and changing out seasonal decorations.
What I’ve learned over the years that I’ve been at home full time is that being a homemaker and homeschool momma is about much more than the daily tasks and to-do lists.
At our house, I’m usually the one who sets the tone in the family. I’m the one who influences how my family feels about new activities, foods, and ideas, and bedtime routine, just by expressing my attitude (whether that be good or poor).
Here is a real-life look at how this works and why this is important.
In our first year of homeschooling our two oldest kids I had picked a math program that was not flashy or engaging. After the first few lessons I had decided that I’d act like it was simply wonderful and enjoy it the best I could because we’d already paid for it (over $100) & there was no turning back that year. I did my research, I knew this was a solid curriculum. It was just, well dry, compared to the attention-grabbing websites we had used for learning prior to this.
One particular day our lessons were running late and we were watching a math lesson on DVD as my husband, Mr. Awesome, arrived home from work.
He stood in the living room watching for a minute before saying something about how cheesy and boring this seemed. At this point, he wasn’t sold on home educating our children.
I quickly got defensive and asked him to never express a thought like that in front of our children again, because:
1. I didn’t want our children to dislike math based on our opinion of the instructor in video form.
2. I didn’t want it to appear to my husband as though I made a poor choice in ordering this particular curriculum.
We kept using the math program, and in fact, this is the program we continue to use today. It’s a great approach to teaching math that we can (and do) use for preschool up to the senior year in high school.
What I’m saying is a positive attitude is a powerful tool, friends. Keep it in check.
The role of homemaker, wife, momma, friend, etc. is truly a role of nurturing and encouraging.
I want my children to arrive into adulthood remembering that during their childhood their momma was nurturing, reliable, and a ray of sunshine in times of darkness. I want my friends and family to see the BEST in things, that silver lining, where there seems like there isn’t a darn good thing to be found.
I want to intentionally keep my mind free of clutter and negativity in an effort to nurture my own thought process. I hope you will join me in this intentionality.
Ps. Mr. Awesome took over teaching this same math for 4 years. He no longer has a negative image of it, and in fact I have heard him suggest it to other homeschool parents.
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