Break the Conventions, Keep the Commandments (Love2learn Moments #39)

I find that in balancing my obligations as a homeschool mother, I need to make distinctions between what I can be flexible and open about and what is non-negotiable.

Not only do such distinctions relieve stress when things don't go as planned (and in a family this is a common occurrence!), but they also free me to give my children the chance to make some choices in their day and in their education - which can be a good thing for both of us!

G. K. Chesterton offers a helpful and humorous perspective:

A man's minor actions and arrangements ought to be free, flexible, creative; the things that should be unchangeable are his principles, his ideals. But with us, the reverse is true; our views change constantly, but our lunch does not change. Now, I should like men to have strong and rooted conceptions, but as for their lunch, let them have it sometimes in the garden, sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof, sometimes in the top of a tree. Let them argue from the same first principles, but let them do it in a bed, or a boat or a balloon.

Cross-posted from Love2learn Moments