Writing with P

I. love. homeschooling. Is it hard work? Yes. Is it tiring? Of course. Does it make me want to pull all my hair out and senselessly beat my head against the schoolroom wall? Well yeah, sometimes (I'm half kidding here, of course.) 

In all seriousness, it does take a lot of work but I love to watch my kids learn. And I feel like I get an inside peek into their minds that I may not experience if someone else were teaching them. Take for example a recent journal entry by our sweet P. 

The assignment was for her to pick her favorite color and write several sentences relating to things of that color which she likes. Now, in my head I'm thinking the typical response from a little girl would be "pink" or "purple" because "they're pretty". But not our P. It's no secret around here that P's favorite color is brown. And why, you ask, is P's favorite color brown? Because it's the color of most horses, of course. 

So, I knew at least two of the sentences she was going to write, but I was very interested to see what other 'brown' things she came up with that she liked. What she wrote was definitely unexpected.

I love the coler brown.
I love horses.
I have a brown sister.
I also like chocolate.






You love the color brown...mmhmm...definitely knew that.  You love horses...yep....expected that. You like chocolate...okay, good...so do I. You have a brown sist...wait, what?!? You have a what?!? My sweet P being the sensitive type I held back my laughter and calmly said "Oh, you have a brown sister. Can you tell me more about that?" She went on to explain that she and Bubs were "white-skinned" (truth) while Squid was "brown-skinned" (let me clarify, here.....while Squid definitely carries a more golden undertone than her siblings she is by no means "brown-skinned". I assure you all three kids came from the same gene pool!). 

I loved this on so many levels. I loved that P ranked her sister right up there with horses and chocolate. I loved her tender honesty. Most of all, I loved the fact that it started a very important conversation about how not everyone may look like us (yes, even our own siblings) but we are all still fearfully and wonderfully made in God's image. We are to love others not based on how we feel, but based on the truth that they are God's creation and precious in His sight. :-)