Why I believe mothers can do it!!

This was originally going to be my comment to Sonya from the previous post but it got to be so long I decided to make it a post of it's own because I have heard so many mothers tell me they just couldn't do it because "I'm not patient enough" or "I'm not organized enough" or many other lies that they've allowed themselves to believe. It doesn't take an expert to teach our children. It doesn't take someone with superhuman qualities to do it either. It's just takes a mother's love. Period. And this is why I believe that.

When our children were born they were empty sort of speak, having only the instincts that God gave them for survival. Everything we did from that moment on grew them both physically and mentally. And we as mothers were able to take these babies and successfully teach two of the hardest things for human beings to learn: to walk and to talk.

Walking
We do it all the time and mostly without thinking about it, so is it really so hard? Well I know that if an adult has to re-learn it after some kind of tragedy, yeah I'd say they'd call it pretty hard. Yet we as mothers were able to, relatively easily, teach our babies to do this task. Did we do it by sitting our babies down and saying "ok little one, now it's time to do our walking curriculum. So take out your walking book and let's spend 30 minutes working on this now." No of course not. We taught them to walk by modeling (showing them how it was done), encouraging them, cheering them on and doing it regardless of whether or not it was scheduled for that time. We let them be the lead. When they were ready to work on it, we worked on it. We didn't force them, and we didn't have to. They were born with a desire to learn, a curiosity, a drive. So no, we didn't need to push them in to it, they were already pushing themselves. And it made a huge difference that it was you who were there to kiss away the boo-boos that inevitably happened as a result. No one loves your baby more than you do, and your baby knows that. There is no one else on earth they would rather have cheering them on. And in this case, you did it. And you were successful. They are A+ walkers now.

Talking

Another really difficult thing for human beings to learn - an entire language with it's accent and usage. And by about 5 or so, you're little one can speak perfect English (or whatever language you speak) and some kids can even speak two languages if the parents are bilingual. Sure they may need to learn a few more slang terms or expressions and probably need to brush up on some grammar rules, but for the most part, they've got it and they speak it completely fluently. As adults, we can only dream of being able to add another language to our repertoire with such fluency. We can never do it so perfectly as when we first did it. And who was there to teach it to us, our mothers. And again we taught them when we simply talked to them, over and over. We didn't have to search the curriculum hall for the perfect fit for our family. No we just did it. We just instinctually knew how to do it and they had that perfect combination of curiosity and drive which led to success.

I just firmly believe we are equipped as mothers to give our children all the education they need and it doesn't have to be so hard. I believe in teaching them the fairly easy subjects of reading, writing and math and then working hard on building their character. With those things in their back pocket, there is nothing they can't learn. Whatever it is they need to learn or just desire to learn, they will learn. And I haven't met a kid yet that doesn't ask a million questions and love exploring. If we could just stop filling their days with useless (quickly forgotten) nonsense that will have no affect on them whatsoever as adults and calling that education, we might actually be able to maintain that love of learning in them.

I think the mainstay of any "education" should be reading aloud. If you can squeeze that in to your day (and really who can't find some time to read to their kids) your kids will be getting the best education there is to offer. I've heard several moms tell me that during hard times in their lives (bed rest due to pregnancy, death in the family, etc.) that all they could do was read to their kids and when it was all said and done, after that season, they scored higher on tests than they previously had. Just by reading. That's not so hard. And if you start early, they'll love it. They'll never grow tired of hearing you read to them.

So anyway, that is what I firmly believe to be true. We as mothers are given by God all the talents and abilities we need to educate our children. We don't need "experts" or "professionals" to do it for us. In fact the education they give is usually far inferior to the one you could give them. The last post was just an article I wanted every parent to read, so they could have all the information before them when making the choice. If in the end, they choose to send their kids to school, that's cool, no skin off my back. I just want parents to make informed choices. No more sending your kids off to school without a thought just because that's what you did or everyone else in your neighborhood is doing. Oh and please, no more thinking school is "neutral" ground as far as religion goes. NOT TRUE!!! They themselves (the leaders in the schools, not the teachers necessarily) tell you that. But that's for another post. I'm not trying to force anyone into homeschooling. Do I wish more people did, of course. But I love the (quickly dwindling) freedom to choose homeschooling for my family and would never deny another family their choice. I just so want people to know the facts. That's all. There are so many factors that go into a decision like this and I don't think people think about it all, so sometimes I just feel a real need to post something about it. And the lies that we as mothers love to believe, that we're not good enough or qualified to actually finish what we started (raising our own children), is something I'm hoping to dispel in this post. I'm not looking for a debate. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want, it doesn't make it right :), but they can believe it. I can't do a big discussion in the comments, as I just don't have time right now. I'm getting ready for a garage sale, weekend getaway for my husband and I, Mother's Day lunch for our mothers, on top of raising an infant, 10 year old and 7 year old which are full time jobs in and of themselves!