Fruit

I am learning that in homeschooling, I am not much of a planner. I like having a good idea in the moment of a day and then the freedom to pursue it. Today, we started talking about fruit. I was reading recently about Jesus telling His disciples that they were “appointed to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” We talked about what it means to have your life and actions and attitudes bear fruit that will last. So, today, we didn’t do much math or phonics or science . . . today I reckon we focused on some character education.

I had the kids go out in the woods and get some “trees” (aka-branches). Then we put them in a flower pot and filled it with leftover sand from the sandbox and rocks from the ditch so that the branches would stand up. Kelty worked hard, and Cade only whacked the branches over with a tennis racket once.

The kids and I cut out different fruit pieces, punched holes, and threaded string through to make our fruit. We talked about the nine “fruits of the Spirit” in Galatians Five–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. The idea is that when anyone in the family “catches” someone else showing “fruit” in their words or actions, that person gets to pick a piece of fruit, write their name on it and the fruit displayed (love, joy, etc) and hang it on the tree. Of course, they were immediately saying and doing blatantly obvious things to get a piece of fruit, but hopefully that will die down, and this activity will be a good reinforcer for their characters.

I also found a half-eaten apple on the ground this morning (maybe I should work on the character trait of cleanliness), and we are going to watch it over the next couple of days get brown and gross–to compare “fruit that doesn’t last” and “fruit that will last.”

Of course, in order to do this project, I had to allow the house to become a total disaster. I am learning that if I really focus on intentional kid-activities, my housework stuff slips, and if I focus on clean dishes and mopped floors, I sure as heck can’t play very well with the kids. I swing between the two extremes, and am trying to learn when to seize the moment to really play and teach and when to seize the moment to turn on the t.v. and scrub the bathrooms. So, lest you think that I am some superwoman, please know that in my life:

All Great Ideas Come with Great Messes