Our eight year old son learned multiplication today.  This will be burned in my mind forever as a sweet homeschool memory.  Like Mary, I will cherish “these things” in my heart. Why, you might ask?  Between each problem, my kinesthetically inclined boy decided to give me a kiss on the cheek.

This is the boy who learned to read by jumping on the bed while I held his phonics book and I shouldn’t have been surprised that he would connect multiplication with action either.  But the kisses did surprise me. He counted them out, one by one and each more precious than the last because he persevered through the lesson. Best of all I knew he did it all of his on accord. 

It had been a sick day for momma and pushing through school had been difficult.  Part of me wanted to claim a “teacher in-service” day and go to bed, but I knew we were on a roll and I didn’t want to loss any momentum.  Those kisses were my son’s little way of smoothing out the rough edges of my day. His token of love melted my heart and it reminded me afresh, this is why I homeschool.

Math is not my favorite subject.  In fact, if I could figure out a way not to teach it, I probably would.  Give me a history book, a copy of the bill of rights, a poem to analysis or a worm to dissect and I am very content.  That stuff is exciting, it is engaging, it screams “TEACH ME” but math is not like that.  Of course I fully understand the necessity, but most of the time math sessions are merely an application of diligence.  Mom is diligent in teaching the concepts and the children therefore must be diligent in doing the problems. 

Homeschooling is like that at times, a test in perseverance and diligence.  We keep plodding along through the aspects that are tedious but necessary, and we savor the times that are sweet and enjoyable.  We can’t skip the difficulties any more than we can skip the math assignments.  They are part of the equation, but sometimes, special blessings show up even in the mundane and difficult bits of our lives, just as those kisses showed up at just the right moment for this mommy.