Pressing the “Reset” button

I’m thankful God provides opportunities to press the “reset” button when things are going all wrong with the day.

One day this week, I skipped my morning Bible reading time (ignoring the prompting that I really should go ahead and do it).  I argued that I really wouldn’t have time and wouldn’t be able to concentrate in the short time I had before I needed to get up and go deal with the kids.  Besides, I would do it while they were still quiet during nap time, and also I needed to print some things for a science activity we were going to do that day.

Well, I got my stuff printed, but by 10 am the day had spun wildly out of control.  Disobedient children, refusing to respond to reproof  and correction.  A stressed, frustrated (I believe the Biblical word would be “angry”) mom tempted to just give up on the whole idea of school for the day (but knowing I really couldn’t afford to).

So, I gathered everyone to the couch.  I told them things weren’t going well so far today and we needed to ask God to help us change our attitudes.  I started by confessing my anger and praying for God to forgive me and help me.  Then we read our Bible story for the day (about God letting the Israelites have their way when it really wasn’t His best plan for them) and practiced our memory verses.

Then, we read a book called “The Story About Ping”.  This was such a God-incidence!  In the early morning hours that day, I had been thinking about the read-aloud book I had planned to read to them this week, but decided it really needed to wait till later.  The kids just weren’t ready for it yet ( I could tell by their lack of attention while trying to read the first chapter).  So, I decided on a couple of other books, including the Ping story.

This is a story about a duck who learned that receiving (unpleasant at the time) correction was better than running away from it and facing many dangers – including almost getting cooked for someone’s dinner!

This gave us a teachable moment to talk about what had been going on so far that day (indeed, the whole week or last 2 weeks).

Ironically, the child who was needing the most correction that day is the one who has asked to read this story every day since then!

After reading, we went on with some of the planned school activities for the day, such as…

Making posters for the different types of animals we’ve been learning about in science…

 

 

Examining a rose : observing how the petals and leaves and stem feel, counting the petals (40, by the way), and observing the stamen and pistils with a magnifying glass…

 

And taking care of the tomato plants in our fall garden.  They had been covered with towels, blankets, sheets and tarps to protect them from the near-freezing nights.  It was the perfect opportunity to observe what we read about earlier this year – how plants give off water through their leaves, which normally evaporates into the air.  But when covered, the water condenses on the covering (in this case the towels and sheets), making them wet.  Then we observed how quickly condensation formed when we covered them with clear plastic  bags (to allow them to get some sun while still protecting them from the cold).  There are about 30 green tomatoes on these 3 plants, and I’m determined to do everything I can to get some return on my investment of time, effort, and water on these things! :-)