We have struggled the past 5 1/2 weeks of homeschooling to have a "normal" day. The transition from kindergarten to first grade has been bumpy as our typical 45 minute to 1-1/2 hour school day jumped to three, four, sometimes five hours a day! It blew my mind how much time we were taking for school when we only added in reading and spelling to our Bible, history, language arts, math and science.
After Week 4, I sat down to compare last year to this year in order to figure out what was drastically different and why things weren't "clicking" as much for us. One thing really stood out. We were doing Bible last instead of first! My child was so eager about starting off with handwriting first (getting the worst over first) that I didn't want to lose his eagerness by taking time to do Bible and pray first. And in turn, I lost sight of our homeschooling priorities.
As I reflected on this year, I saw how much we rushed through or even skipped our Bible lessons because we were tired by the fourth hour of school. My son was no longer alert and essentially shut down. I would then get frustrated with him because he wouldn't pay attention. And of course, I instantly felt guilty for getting upset with him as the Bible lay open on my lap. ...You know the cycle!
Last week and this week, we purposefully moved Bible back to the beginning of our school day. The first day we did that, I was reminded of the sweetness of sharing the Word together and the priceless, unrushed moments of hearing what was on my son's heart as we shared prayer requests and prayed together over them. That sweetness was rarely there in the hurry and tiredness. After Bible, our day went without a hitch and we were done with school in two hours!
I was a bit skeptical that one day of "doing school right" (with Bible first) really could make that much of a difference. But, the trend continued the rest of the week and into this week, until today. Today we couldn't get our act together and everything took much longer than usual which made our school day five hours long (with breaks). The difference: we rushed through Bible and forgot to pray because we took a rabbit trail that tied into science.
After today, I know that our homeschool needs God first before any other subject is discussed. It's non-negotiable! We need God's Word to instruct us. We need His insight to teach us how to love one another. And, we need that quiet time before Him to invite Him into our day and into our school. It requires intentionality. It requires trusting that God will help my child do those harder subjects later. And it requires knowing what is most important for a godly education; otherwise, my child would just be getting an education and God has called us to more than that!
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