Oh rest! How I dream of you… but not really… because you have to sleep to dream and I don’t seem to know how to sleep. I thought once my children grew out of the baby and toddler years, sleep would return to our home. My kids are 14, 12, 9, and 7 and we still have restless nights… bad dreams, sickness, midnight visitors who come to the bedside with thirst and hopes for comfort from parents who have been startled out of sleep. Oh rest… what are you? How can I teach from rest if I don’t even remember what rest feels like???
Last year, I made a goal to read 50 books over the course of 2018. It was an ambitious goal considering that I had not read a book for myself in several years. I made it to roughly thirty books. Nothing to sneeze at, but still not the goal. As that weird week between Christmas and New Year’s came around again this year, I started feeling ambitious again. I thought, “Fifty books is really do-able. I should totally make that my goal again.” False. I should not. I will not read fifty books. I cannot listen to the crazy thoughts that come into my brain during the week that time stands still. I decided not to make a number goal for reading this year. Rather, my goal is to always be reading something. Always be ready to answer if someone asks me, “What are you reading right now?”
I kicked it off with Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie. I have listened to a few of Sarah’s podcast, The Read-Aloud Revival, and highly recommend it. I love reading to my kids. It is a sweet time that I have grown to appreciate more and more as they are getting older. There have been days when all school has been forsaken save the reading aloud… and I have no regrets.
This book, Teaching from Rest, would be a great read for a weary homeschool mama. With all the amazing resources and curriculum and activities out there, homeschooling can get really overwhelming. It can become easy to feel discouraged or less than when homeschooling in today’s world. Homeschool mamas put a lot of pressure on themselves and feel the weight of responsibility for releasing functioning humans into the world.
In this book, the author shares from her personal experience in paring down and finding what is truly important in her homeschooling. She recognizes that we all have different strengths and passions. She reminds us that this work is a holy calling. When God calls us to as task, he does not then turn away and leave us to our own devices. He equips us and carries us as we move forward in obedience. She shares how, on a practial level, we can have the freedom to not worry over every detail, reminding us to strive for faithfulness before successfulness.
We will never be able to give our children the perfect education and our attempts to so can lead to defeat and exhaustion.
Teaching from rest offers practical advice. It is a fairly quick read (112 pages) and very engaging and relateable. This is a great book for homeschoolers in any stage.
Giving up control, trusting that the Lord does indeed have a plan and a reason for calling you to this task can lead to incredible freedom. In that freedom comes rest… and oh, don’t we all need rest!
Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie was published by Classical Academic Press.
Just in case it needs to be said, I am by no means a professional book reviewer or book critic. I just like to read and share what I have learned. I am also an affiliate with Amazon. If you click through and purchase through links on this blog, our family will receive a small percentage from the purchase. Thank you.