Coleen Paratore, author of 26 Big Things Little Hands Can Do, recalls this story about a day when her son was four years old. She was driving when suddenly snowflakes began to fall all around, settling on the windshield, clinging to the grass. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw her son's small face filled with delight. Coleen said, "Dylan, look, snow! How do you spell snow?"

Coleen watched all the excitement drain from his face and his little body deflate. In exasperation, he said, "Mom, you don't SPELL snow, you ENJOY it!"

We can sometimes be too interested in turning every moment into a teaching session that we forget to just enjoy ourselves on this marvelous journey. Let me share three easy-er ways to create joy as well as scholars. 

It Is Easy-er to Mentor than Master

I taught my son how to cook. You might not think that is amazing, but you haven't been to supper at my house.

At age seven, my son asked me to teach him to cook. In fact, he announced to me then that one of his aspirations for his life was to be a chef (along with a builder and a business owner).

So, about 3:30 every afternoon, he showed up in the kitchen and we cooked together. Time passed, and his skills grew. At age 14, he won The Golden Rolling Pin, the first place prize in our annual Men's Bake-Off. He bought cookbooks with extra money, he watched the Food Network, and he experimented with seasonings. At age 16, he kicked me out of the kitchen. (He's in college now, and I'm back in the kitchen to everyone's dismay, especially mine.)

Homeschooling is like that. I'm just a mom. When I survey my skills and abilities, I come up short. I'm not focused enough, disciplined enough, or prepared enough. I have many learning gaps and subjects I have not mastered.

But somehow, by God's amazing grace, my children are mastering concepts, ideas, and spiritual truths that have taken my entire life to understand. It is easier to be a mentor to a child than to think we must master each and every subject matter before we can hope to teach it. It is a strange phenomenon that we, as ordinary mothers, can have extraordinary results in our children. We can learn together, grow together, experiment together, and remember together. We can inspire them and excite them to reach further than we can take them.

It is Easy-er to Pull than to Push

In the study of simple machines, we learn one of the laws of motion. If you want to get a box up on a high ledge, an inclined plane can make the job much easier than lifting. With the box at the bottom of the ramp, you have two options; push or pull. When you attempt to push a box up a ramp, you have to overcome the weight of the box and the resistance of gravity by force. However, if you tie a rope around the box and pull, you can haul it up with little effort.

What is the difference? When you pull, you are enlisted the help of another simple machine (a lever) which provides the power it needs to move.