I asked my staff a question recently, and I'd love to hear what you think, too. Do homeschoolers need to teach organizational skills to their children? Is there something Sonlight can or should do to facilitate this?

I've always been an organized person. I naturally "give a place to everything and put everything in its place." But not all my children learned from my example or inherited this trait!

One of my children seems unorganized. When he was young, I thought he was just messy. Then in his high school years, he kept nearly everything he owned in a jumbled heap in the trunk of his car; I just attributed it to messiness with a touch of laziness.

But I've since realized: it wasn't that he didn't care. My son truly lacked some important life skills. If I had taught him organizational skills, they probably could have helped him immensely in his high school and college years.

I just finished an interesting book about this very topic: The Organized Student: Teaching Children the Skills for Success in School and Beyond, by Donna Goldberg and Jennifer Zwiebel. It chronicles how they help disorganized public school students develop the skills they need to make it through school and beyond.

The authors say that disorganized students in public schools fear they won't have what they need, so they carry it all on their backs. When the teacher asks for a completed assignment or permission slip, students just rifle through their backpacks hoping the right paper will appear.

In grade school, these kids function OK because their teachers do so much to manage the paper shuffle. In junior high, these students start to struggle. They have multiple teachers with many subjects and no one holding their hand anymore. If they don't get help in junior high, they can really fall behind in high school. Not because they're lazy or unintelligent, but because they lack organizational skills.

I read this and thought, Wow! Are we doing our homeschooled kids a disservice? So often in a homeschool, mom keeps track of every paper, cleans up the school area and makes sure everything gets put back into its place. Students aren't naturally forced to develop organizational systems.

But when students go off to college (or jobs or any other calling), they must keep track of assignments, papers and all sorts of stuff. And, one day they'll have an entire house or apartment to organize. With bills, doctor's appointments and car insurance to keep track of, do they have the skills they need?

I really don't know the answer, so I'm asking you: What have you observed in your homeschool? Do your kids naturally know how to be organized? Do you teach organizational skills? Would you like to teach those skills? Is there a product or service that would help you teach organization?

I promise I'm not asking this to make you feel guilty. The last thing most homeschool moms need is another area to worry about. But if this is a legitimate area of need, I'd love to be able to help somehow. So please, share your thoughts. I'm eager to hear what you think.

Blessings to you and yours,
Sarita

In the last Beam, I talked about how John had just returned, tired but excited, from Virginia. Soon after he got home, it was my turn! My daughter Jonelle, her little girl and I traveled to visit Amy and her family on the farm two weeks ago. We all had a great time, got our hands dirty, put a lot of plants in the ground, and laughed a lot. It was good to spend the week with children and grandchildren.

As promised in the last Beam, I'd like to share lesson #3 of what I've learned from Amy and Phil's adventure in farming. (If you missed them last time, read lessons #1 and #2 here.)

Lesson #3: Resist a discouraging lie

Over the past few years, I've seen how easy it would be for Amy and Phil to succumb to the thought that their lives will always be as they are now. That they will always live in a tiny construction trailer. That they will always be novices at farming. That they will always feel on the verge of being overwhelmed.

And don't we all face a similar temptation? How many times have you thought my house will NEVER be clean; my children will never mature; my son will never learn to read (or multiply two-digit numbers, or ...); I will never feel like I'm doing enough in homeschooling; I will always feel overwhelmed by laundry. And on and on.

I do NOT believe such thoughts come from the Lord. I think they are lies that Satan wants us to believe. The Enemy loves to discourage us, and the lie that "life will always be like this" (especially when we're already frustrated with something) is often a pretty effective way to get us down. But remember—the Enemy is a deceiver. He does NOT know the future! Yet he so often manipulates our weaknesses and tempts us to lose hope.

Only God knows what our lives hold for us. And our God is a God of hope. He doesn't promise that our lives will get easier, but he does promise never to abandon or forsake us. And that is cause for celebration.

I believe knowledge is power here. As we identify Satan's lies in our lives, we are better equipped to resist them. So please: hope in God and resist lies! Amy has learned to remind herself that she will not always live in a trailer. After they get the land in working order, they will (God willing) have a larger, nicer dwelling. But for now, they choose to live in the trailer because of their longer-term goals for the farm and their family.

We too can choose to look at the long-view. Sure, your house may not be as clean as you want it to be now, but maybe that's a trade-off you're willing to make while the kids are young. Someday, when your house isn't full of little people, you can have it as clean as you want!

And chances are pretty good that your children will mature with age, your son will learn to read (or conquer his current academic struggle) ... and your laundry will actually slow down one day.

For now, you choose to keep your children home because of the larger picture of what you want your family to be. As homeschoolers, let us take the long view and keep pressing on.

God bless you in that worthy endeavor.
Sarita