Out of the Mouth of Babes

Children are amazing, aren't they? In one word or sentence, they have the ability to make you absolutely melt with their sweetness, scare the wits out of you, delight you to no end, or embarrass the day lights out of you. They also have the ability to keep you humble!

I must admit that I was feeling pretty good about myself last week. We have been hitting a stride with our homeschool, figuring out what works for us and the things we enjoy, while abandoning the things that seem wonderful but just don't “fit” us. And, we’ve been having a lot of fun.

We had just finished up a two week unit on rabbits where we read Guess How Much I Love You, Little Rabbit Foo Foo, Runaway Bunny, Velveteen Rabbit, and, our favorite, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. We actually started with our friend Peter and regardless of how much my girls enjoyed the other stories, they kept asking for him again. We read the books, watched the animated stories on United Streaming and the ones we checked out from the library. We played the online games at PeterRabbit.com. We had fun having lunch in our "rabbit hole" under the kitchen table and pretending to be Mr. McGregor.

On top of all of that, they were showing off their growing phonics skills every day, pointing out letters around the house and telling me the sounds. They were figuring out how to spell words by sounding them out and singing all of the fun songs from the Leap Frog videos. Yes, I admit it, I was feeling pretty good about myself!

Then, Jordan came up to me on Friday evening and asked to put on Veggie Tales, which again made me feel pretty good knowing that she could have asked for all of the other silly shows we have. I put on Esther, which is my favorite of all of them, and we snuggled together on our big stuffed chair to watch the show. We were having a wonderful time, until Jordan told me something that erased all prior feelings of being confident in my mommy and teacher skills. It was right after the part when Haman was yelling at Mordechai about how he needed to show him respect, when Jordan turned to me and said, "Look, Mama, he's yelling at him!! He's yelling at him . . . just like you yell!"

Frozen, in shock, I turned to her and asked quietly, "Does Mommy yell?"

Sweet and innocent eyes look at me and said quite simply, "Uh huh."

Still in shock, I ask, "Does it hurt your feelings when Mommy yells?"

Again, those sweet big blue eyes turn to look at me and say, "Uh huh."

And just like that, I was completely humbled and realized that I still had A LOT of work to do. I know that my girls know that I love them, and I know that we have so much fun together and laugh more hours of the day than anything else, but I also know that they are three and two and that life isn't perfect. As much as I would love to always put my Love and Logic training into practice, when the two year old is pulling her older sister's hair, or the three year old is sweetly testing her limits for the hundredth time that day, I just don't always pick the best option in dealing with it.

Yes, our homeschool has come a very long way in the past year as Mommy has experimented with different styles, curriculum, methods and schedules. We are finding out what works for us, and letting go of the need to copy the seemingly perfect homeschool down the road. We are having fun, we’re learning and we’re reading wonderful children's classic literature. But we have most definitely not arrived, and my sweet daughter innocently pointed out an area that I have been neglecting while pursuing the others. At the end of the day, will they remember the snuggly reading times, the fun activities, and the stories, or will they remember Crazy Mama yelling her head off? I certainly don't think I fit that description, but you get the point.

So, since we seem to be hitting a stride in our school, it is time to turn our attention to discipline and controlling reactions to the inevitable limit testing that comes with toddlers and preschoolers. If you have any suggestions on how you handle those situations, or if anyone else cares to admit that they occasionally take the lesser road and yell (thus making me not quite feel like the worst mother in the world), please leave a comment. As for me, I'm off to eat some humble pie and love on my girls!

This article was posted on The Heart of the Matter. Please visit for this month's exciting new issue!!