Snack time taught me three very important lessons today:
1. Part of the joy of homeschooling is that I am there to experience the unexpected. Today I got to listen to my four year old son regale me with a "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" style cooking show complete with refrigeration, mixing of fruit pouches and cinnamon, and plenty of pouring back and forth. Aside from giving us a lot of laughs, the experiment taught him about responsibility and cleaning up, and I had a reminder to ignore the messes so that I can treasure these out-of-the-blue blessings.
2. If I want to be a patient parent and embrace the unexpected, I need to physically prepare myself. It is much more of a challenge to view this mess (... as well as the rest of the table... floor... bath tub... and everything else the camera didn't catch!) as a blessing in disguise when I am overly tired, hungry, stressed, etc. Keeping myself in balance makes for a more pleasant experience for everyone!
3. Keep coffee and cookies at the ready for those really big, time-consuming, or expensive experiments ;).
