The Practical Side of Science

Tradition, if not truth, states that Newton developed the Law of Gravity by watching the apple fall to the ground.

This highly intelligent (and godly) man also developed the First Law of Motion.  Part of it states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by on outside force.

I know when God showed him these nuggets of knowledge, a home school mom was not the purpose, but in my case at least, they definitely apply.

You see, when objects fall to my floor, they stay there.  Oh sure, they may occasionally be kicked to another location on the floor, but they pretty much stay there.  Walked around.  Walked on. 

I have never been an immaculate house keeper.  I had a refrigerator magnet that assured me "Boring women have clean houses, " and I am anything but boring.  When I wanted to make sure I was being biblical, I consoled myself with Proverbs 14:4, "Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox."  My house is a mess because I'm busy being productive! 


And then came home education.  Everyone knows that housekeeping gets laid to the side when the education of future generations is at stake.  Or at least I've been told.  Or should that be consoled? 

In fact, a friend credits this fact to the safety of her home.  They recently awoke to find their front door broken in.  Nothing was taken, however.  She stated that she thought nothing was stolen because the thieves didn't want to deal with the chaos in her living room.  So I think that homeschooling as a theft repellent should give you a discount on you home insurance, right?

Now, I know that there are those that seem to have cleanliness and order built into them, but for those of us who don't, we can have some help from places like House Honcho or Flylady.  (Although another friend pointed out that one new to Flylady is considered a "Fly baby", and a fly baby is actually a maggot.  So now I've gone to oxen as a excuse and maggots as a way out.  Something Freudian about that I'm sure.)

All this to say is that I don't think I'm in this alone.  I think even those who "have all their ducks in a row" sometimes go "quackers" with the rest of us.  And the rest of us who are constantly paddling as fast as we can need to give ourselves some grace.  I think God does.  He lays upon us the responsibility to be "keepers at home".   Now, "keep" doesn't merely mean to "keep" things off the floor.  Keep actually means "to guard."  Guarding our children's hearts and characters is one of the most important things we "keep" at home.

So as we advance our children's education for the sake of the Kingdom, I say let's grab every opportunity.  All the things on my floor are not merely evidence of my poor housekeeping, but a science lesson on gravity and the First Law of Motion.

Oh, and we can add the Second Law of Thermodynamics: any system left to itself will deteriorate.  Yup, that's definitely the science lesson for today!

Betsy