Mary or Martha – How I Learned to Prioritize our Homeschool

But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

Luke 10: 41-42

How are you present with your kids while you’re doing school?

Are you there with them?

Are you all sprawled across the floor together working on individual assignments?

Or maybe you’re at the dining room table. Kitchen counter?

Cuddled up on the couch?

In our home, school happened in all of those places!

We’d usually begin in the family room, on the couch for our bible reading and devotions. After that was reading and math. Core subjects worked best in the morning at our home.

One thing I had to teach myself was to be present in whatever space we were occupying at that moment.

Physically and emotionally present.

I had to learn to leave my other Mom chores alone and intentionally focus on the kids. They were the primary goal, and I needed to be there.

I had to learn to stop multitasking, trying to do all the things, all the time. School wasn’t just another item on my daily To Do list. Instead, my children and their schooling was the ONLY thing I needed to be focused on.

I didn’t need to run upstairs and move the laundry into the dryer right now. I didn’t need to answer the phone this morning. I didn’t need to clean while they were busy with Math. Sometimes I even worked out on the elliptical while they were busy with workbooks.

Laundry, cleaning, phone calls and even exercise would still be waiting for me when school was done. The Lord started working on my heart and showed me that my priorities were mixed up.

I needed to stop being a Martha, and instead become more like Mary.

Drop the busyness and focus on what is most important.

Kids notice when we leave the room. They notice when we’re not there. I believe they notice that something is a little more important than them at that moment. They notice our priorities.

I learned to be very protective of our homeschool time. I learned to not answer the phone or answer texts during school hours, which was usually all morning. Sometimes it went into the afternoon too. I let my friends & family know I wasn’t answering the phone in the mornings. I didn’t schedule appointments in the morning, only the afternoons. Activities and playdates needed to happen in the afternoons as well.

God showed me that homeschool time – time with my children – was precious, and I was it’s protector. I needed to make it my priority.

We had made a choice to have our kids at home for school.

I didn’t want to miss it.