One of the nice things about belonging to a homeschool group, is that there are times when someone else provides a day of learning for my children. Yesterday was one such day. One of the moms in our group is a self-proclaimed Science Geek, and she offered to do a Science Day for the kids. She set up our usual First Friday meeting room as a lab, complete with equipment and experiments. She somehow managed to provide four experiments each, for four separate age groups of kids (31 kids total!), which kept them busy and learning for the better part of two hours. They mixed and built, tasted, smelled and logged, magnetized, melted and exploded. It was awesome.
I was wearing Genevieve on me in the carrier the whole time, three full hours by the time we got home. She had slept all that time, so she was starving when we walked in the door. I had the boys make their own sandwiches and eat while I nursed her, which left me famished. The older boys had served morning Mass, it had been a long day already, and I didn't have it in me to make my lunch while still holding Genevieve. I held her out to Blake, "Here honey, could you please take her, just for a few minutes? I have got to eat something." He took her, and as I walked out of the room, I heard my thirteen-year-old boy say: "I haven't held you all day! I don't think I've even
seen you." I looked up at the clock - it was 1:00. If he went to school outside our home, he'd never see her before 4:00, and it certainly wouldn't be noteworthy that he hadn't held her during the day. He cradled her and talked to her while I ate in peace, and I couldn't help but think that he's experiencing something that most teenaged boys never will.
Homeschooling isn't perfect, and it isn't for everybody. Some days are so hard they leave me in tears, others have me questioning my very sanity. But there is good in this life we're living. There are relationships and time and love, and I pray these things outshine the struggles, when we all come out the other end and look back.
