Are you ever just sitting around minding your own business when out of no where you get a spiritual prompting that you're like, "Um... this doesn't apply to my life at all..." And then you get the same revelation again, and again, and again. That's basically what has happened over here the last few weeks and it was something I wasn't expecting at all.
Whenever Derek and I are making big life decisions, we always like to pray about them to see if we feel peaceful about the decision, and mostly to ask Heavenly Father to slam all doors in our path if the thing we're trying to pursue isn't right for us. When we were looking to put money down on our lot and build our house, we prayed to know if that was right for us, and felt peace with the decision. All the pieces fell together perfectly, and the lower price, and shorter commute time for Derek just made sense.
A few days after we put our money down on our lot though, I got this little whispering that I needed to be okay with the idea of homeschooling Em. WHAT? Why would I ever homeschool Em?! She LOVES preschool, talks about it non-stop, and begs to ride the school bus everyday (although we live too close to the school, so she can't). So like any preschool loving parent, I ignored the prompting because ain't nobody wanna hear that they aren't getting preschool next year after having 2 1/2 hours of parental freedom five days a week for the last eight months. Just no, no, no, no, and no.
And then I got the same prompting again, and again, and again.
Finally I called the school that we're zoned for and asked, "Hey, the school has a special needs preschool right?" and she said, "Yes, but they're combined with the typical students." (This was a red flag since I knew the typical students in our current school only go two days a week, while the kids in the developmental preschool go four.) I asked, "Do they go two days a week or four?" Sure enough, only two days. Because I'm stubborn, I thought the lady didn't know what she was talking about and called the school district, to which they confirmed that Em would only be going to school two days a week when we moved.
There were so many thoughts going through my mind. "Em loves preschool. She gets four days now, two days is like a demotion. There must be another preschool I can stick her in for the other two days to make up for what she's missing out on. Dang it we're not moving until November/December, everything is going to be filled up. Crap, homeschooling."
I know how to homeschool a preschooler. I did it with Jay. It's just that I've always felt inadequate to homeschool Em because of her special needs. I've learned though over the last few weeks that we've been prepared for this. Em used to be so high strung and grumpy, that any attempt to work on school type projects with her was just out of the question. Then she started her miraculous chiropractic regimen, and I bought her a preschool workbook at Sam's Club, and all of a sudden she LOVED working on that with me.
I've learned through watching her teachers at school that teaching Em isn't about drilling all the details into her brain in one sitting, but yet giving her gentle exposure to the same things again and again. Unlike with homeschooling Jay through preschool, the idea is no longer perfection, but progression.
I've mentioned before how dissatisfied I was about homeschooling with Jay, and the struggles I went through with teaching him to read, and I think part of the lesson learned there was to know to not even push with Em. Just be gentle, play, and expose her repeatedly to the things she needs to know.
There is a part of me that is admittedly sad to be loosing all the free running and working time that I had each day this year, but there is another part of me that feels excited about getting some precious one on one time with Em that I've never gotten before. We'll be able to go to playgrounds together where I'll be able to help her in her gait trainer and help her have fun. We'll be able to go to library story times which I think she'll really enjoy. Our new home is literally right at the base of the Qquirrh Mountains, and I'm so excited to get a hiking pack and take her out on the trails with me. Sure I'm losing five hours of freedom each week since she'll only be in school those two days, but when I sit and think about it, I'm gaining so much more.
No comments