Learning Rewards...

Learning enriches our lives. By that I mean that it makes everyday interactions more enjoyable!  

I experienced that this last fall when my Bible study group was going over Daniel.  That one highschool year of delving deep into ancient world history paid off in huge dividends as we explored the book of Daniel in depth.  I was just amazed as I unpacked all of the biblical prophecies about the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires.  Because I already had a rich understanding of these cultures, it made the comprehension and appreciation for what God spoke to Daniel so much easier to understand.  'A-ha' moments galore!

One of my top academic goals is to instill in our children a love of learning.  If they have the inner drive to want to learn, to thirst for knowledge, it is going to be so much easier to equip them with the skills to feed this drive.  And once that is accomplished, they will be set for a life-long exciting journey of discovery and application!

The wonderful thing is that we get to taste some of those sweet rewards of our learning adventures even now at these young ages...

I've had books relating to Africa lying around the house for the last two months. With all of our travel, theater performances and then sickness we sort of meandered through them. But the week after Christmas brought the payoff!

After a morning of reading through some of our favorite books on the African Savannah (countries of Kenya and Tanzania) I rewarded them with a movie night! I could not believe how much more they enjoyed The Lion King after we had read books on the region.

Keegan squealed with delight when he saw Rafiki (which we discovered means 'friend' in Swahili) climbing around in the Baobab tree. He was delighted because he KNEW what kind of tree that was and why it was so important to animals in the Savannah.   The excitement was almost tangible as each of the boys spotted things in the movie and made connections because of their newly acquired knowledge of the African Savannah!  It really enhanced their experience.

Being a mom is a lot of work.  And being their primary teacher to boot makes the job even more intense.  But the rewards are so sweet.  Getting to sit back and watch my kids make those connections and enjoy life more because of what they've learned was the adrenaline rush I needed to plan out and keep going strong on this wonderful adventure of learning together!