Make Room for Fun!

As our month of October begins, our thoughts often turn to costumes as our kids start asking “what shall I wear to our Harvest Party?” Well, I want to encourage you to consider, “What costume do you want to wear as a homeschool parent?” Not for an upcoming Harvest Party, but all year long!

Some options might be:
Mrs. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus – always has an answer for everything and fun-loving
Sherlock Holmes – always serious and carefully studying everything around him
The Hulk – strong and authoritative letting your anger get the best of you
Maurice, Belle’s father from Beauty & the Beast – very loving and smart but lacking in common sense
Fairy Godmother from Cinderella – focused solely on making everyone’s dreams come true and keeping them happy
Or perhaps…..Mary Poppins – “Practically Perfect in Every Way” – the nanny with the perfect balance between seriousness/responsibility and a love of play and enjoyment of the fanciful.

Most of us start out our school year with fresh new books and lesson plans and we are determined to stick to them and stay on schedule. Our day becomes all about making it through the assigned pages. I’d like to encourage you to not forget to allow for an occasional trip into a “sidewalk chalk painting” and allowing for everyone’s imaginations to flourish! Let there be purely “fun” moments in your day. Don’t get so over committed to outside classes and activities that you can’t just drop everything and go outside and pretend to be the honey bees you were just reading about in your science book. Stop and have everyone put on some eyeliner like Cleopatra wore. Trace the outline of the state of Texas on your sandwich bread with a knife at lunchtime. Have everyone practice an Irish accent as you talk about the potato famine in Ireland. Give your dining table a voice as it begs to be cleaned up for dinner time. Have fun! Be silly!

These “diversions” may slow you down and may mean that tomorrow you might need to do two pages of math instead of one, but it will be SOOOO worth it! These fun and silly moments will be the things your kids will remember and will help them build a tighter bond with you. Jane and Michael loved Mary Poppins because she played with them. She didn’t just smile at them and spoil them like their mother and she wasn’t just strict and logical like their father either. She was a balance of discipline and whimsy which is what Jane and Michael needed to snap them out of their selfish whiny ways.
Ask the Lord for creativity and for help in developing a playful spirit and you might be surprised what tricks He puts in the carpet bag of your Mary Poppins costume!

Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

With a  joy-filled heart as I pray for you,
Susan Truman

---