Little by Little
by Charlene Notgrass
When a new baby comes into a family, parents get excited over little things - a smile, a tiny new tooth, an attempt at saying "DaDa," or one faltering step. We need to hold on to that excitement over little things while we are homeschooling. It is easy to get discouraged because our child still isn't writing legibly, isn't reading as well as we would like, isn't a great speller, or hasn't learned the multiplication tables yet. We forget the things we are accomplishing and worry over things that haven't been completed.
Over the last ten months God has been teaching me to appreciate the little things. When our new children came into our family last October, we quickly realized how far we had to go to teach these children so many things that they had missed in the past 7 years for Daniel, 9 years for Hannah, and 12 years for Ashley Elizabeth (we're calling her Liz these days). Soon we learned to appreciate baby steps in their character. I fondly remember the time one of them walked up from the basement and Ray or I told her to do something. She replied, "Okay." Ray commented to me, "She's learned a new word." "Okay" was much better than the antagonistic answers we were used to getting. While "Yes, Sir," is what we are trying to teach now, at that time the response of "Okay" was a victory!
Yesterday one of the girls said, "I'm sorry." I had not reminded her to say it. I had not insisted that she say it. I didn't even know she had disobeyed me. She just came up to me and said, "I'm sorry," and told me what she had not been doing that she should have been doing. Wow! That was a victory - a big one. What she had failed to do was quite small in the whole scheme of life. Of course, obeying any parental instruction is essential in any circumstance. However, we have had many major explosions in the last ten months and "I'm sorry" was the farthest thing from the response we got at those times. So, yesterday I was quite pleased to hear those two special little words.
Back in June Daniel spent the weekend with a family of close friends. After the mom came by to pick him up by herself, she was a bit apprehensive about not having one of her boys to help carry on conversation on the fairly long drive to their house. It turned out to be a precious time for both of them. Daniel loves the Bible and has read a great deal of it on his own. He and Debi got into a conversation about Bible time people who didn't believe in Jesus and why they didn't. As they talked, Daniel said, "I believe." Two little words: I believe. Praise God for what He has done to make Daniel want to say, "I believe."
Tomorrow will mark eight weeks since my husband Ray's accident in which both of his wrists were badly broken. We have begun to learn again how to be thankful for little steps. Ray is right-handed, and that is the one that was most severely crushed. At first he couldn't do anything with either hand. The first little step I remember was his being able to turn a page with his left hand. Then, he could eat a potato chip or a piece of popcorn with the left hand. After a few weeks, he began to be able to use a fork with his left hand.
It took quite a bit of metal to stabilize what the orthopedic surgeon put back together. On July 23 he and his assistant removed all of the metal that is coming out of Ray's arms - at least for now. On July 28 he began therapy. He has continued to be able to do more and more with his left hand. Now we are beginning to see baby steps with the right hand. Yesterday he showed me that he could hold his cap between his thumb and first finger on his right hand. Today at lunch he held his fork (with its therapeutic rubber holder around the handle) and put food into his mouth with his right hand!
Yesterday the doctor said progress will be slow and that he should continue to regain use over a six-month period. Little by little, Ray is regaining the use of his hands. Little by little, our new children are learning to live. As you homeschool, little by little you are training your children. Be kind to yourself and remember to praise them for what you are accomplishing -- little by little.