It is sometimes funny how God directs us. I was praying about what to do for school for my 3 year old this year and felt God guiding me to study Character Qualities. You can find the list we are using here.
I thought I would walk y'all through it as we go to give you a picture of what it might look like, that and it will help me keep me on track. :D
Day one we started with a working definition of what Orderliness is: Arranging myself and my surroundings to achieve the greatest efficiency. Then we started memorizing I Corinthians 14:40.
Here's the funny part. When "I" chose orderliness, I wasn't thinking my daughter was particularly disorderly and this would fix it. Nor did I think that I was in need of training in being orderly. And yet, as I teach my daughter, God is showing me just how disorderly I am and how far I have come from His established order. Don't get me wrong. I love to keep things clean but I have always struggled with clutter. Just ask my mom...or on second thought, don't. You don't have that kind of time. Anyway, the point being, that in teaching my daughter these character traits, I am learning things I need to be learning too. I'm so thankful God is big enough to organize all this for me. I am surely not that orderly! :D
Day two we read a few stories that deal with orderliness from Living Like Him (out of print) and worked some more on memorization.
As I am preparing Day three, I found this helpful advice at Lifestyle Homeschool:
We must remember that Orderliness is a character trait - it is not a life’s purpose. Our life’s purpose is to be used by God; bringing our life out of chaos will make us more effective.
~If you think of it – do it
~Create appropriate times for your activities
~Set a timer to keep you on track
~Leave a room better than you found it – this means pick up after yourself and possibly others. See this as blessing others rather than the usual response of “It’s not my mess!”.
~Have a “home” for all your stuff (piles are not homes!)
~Stop a task a few minutes earlier, giving you time to pack away before the next activity.
We have to remember that if we are going to teach things like Character traits, we have to live them first. It is not enough to drill our children in the study of them during the day but not show them by our actions. Honestly, that is the most challenging part of homeschooling; you can't tell your children what should be done and ship them out the door. You have to live it, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day.
So tomorrow in addition to showing my daughter what an orderly home and life look like (or trying at least), I think we will be studying Creation. I can't think of a better example of the importance of orderliness than God's perfect order in creating all things.
Good order is the foundation of all great things.
~Edmund Burke
