In Gratitude: School

A November Discipline of Gratitude

 

We are learning a lot right now about "being adults".  We are grateful to have full-time employment for the first time (we were students for a very long time!) and a warm home full of creativity.  But we are learning lots about budgeting and how much things like healthcare cost in the US (I promise I won't go into the wonders of National Healthcare - but I will say it is certainly nothing to be scared of... it can be, if done well, a wonderful thing!)  We are wanting to give our boys opportunities, generously give and go out for fun trips, but are seeing that the numbers don't always add up.  I constantly am stepping back to give myself perspective - we are in the worlds standards very wealthy - there is always food on our table and our boys have lots of opportunity (just not every opportunity, which is probably, in the larger picture, a good thing).  But as I've been daily faced with a tight budget and prioritizing the extras we would like to have (because it really is about our wants and not our basic needs) I have been reminded time and time again how important gratitude is.  It gives me so much perspective, because we really are wealthy.  We may not have much extra income, but we are healthy, the boys are getting a great education, we are able to give, I'm able to be home, we have time and space for stories and creativity and we keep whole foods on our table; there truly is nothing else we need.

 

And so in light of this I want to make November here a space of gratitude.  A practice I've done before and have found so helpful. 

 

So here we go... Day One: School

This is Jonah in his History Day costume for school.  They are in the Ancient cycle this year so they all made collars and wore Egyptian tunics.  Such fun!

 

I had so many mixed emotions sending Jo off to school this year.  We loved home educating (and as far as I'm concerned we are still very much home educating - he just goes to school too), but circumstances and personalities suggested that maybe a change was in order.  Oh, I missed Jonah those first days of school and wondered if this was the right thing.  And then, a couple weeks into the school year I met with his very gifted teacher.  In the span of two short weeks she had studied my boy and I was overwhelmed by the insight she had on his strengths and weaknesses, where we would need to support him and where we would need to work to challenge him.  I left the meeting knowing he was in incredibly capable and loving hands.  And I left knowing, that at least for now, we had made the right choice.  I love watching how he is thriving on the structure of school, how much he loves his extra math sheets, how engaged he is in creative artistic projects, the friendships he is slowly building, and how he seems to love being home and with me and his brothers in a new way after school and on weekends. 

 

Yes, I am very grateful for school this year.