A Stack of Faithfulness

I helped my nine year old clean out the book bag she takes to CC each week. 

Once all the trash had been thrown away and we'd organized what was left, I noticed the pile of papers she has accumulated. 

I counted. 

There were fifteen essays. 

I thought to myself, "This! This is why I am a part of Classical Conversations!" 

I know. 

I know. 

It's not about the quantity of the work. 

It's about quality. 

But sometimes artifacts can serve as one reliable indicator of how well you are doing, even if they simply indicate how faithful you have been to work at the material set before you. 

That's what this stack of essays indicates to me. 

I don't remember writing fifteen essays, but I know we've simply been faithful to sit down together a few days a week and focus on the content, talk, work through the material, laugh, and learn.

I'm not all that worried about assessing exactly how much my daughter has learned.

But I am sure good things will come from that stack of faithfulness. 

CC is my very deliberate way of bringing accountability to our homeschool. 

We get lots of other benefits from community, of course, but this stack of papers was a reminder to me about the good accountability brings to us.

I have enough self-knowledge to know that if it weren't for the fact that we are in CC, too much of my kids' schooling would be at the whim of my moods, 

or their moods, 

or our combined moods.

We'd probably be skipping far too many assignments, especially the borings ones, far too many subjects, especially the ones we aren't inclined to, and far too many school days altogether, especially when we'd just rather not. 

But simply having to show up weekly at CC means we're all motivated to do the curriculum (or as much of it as we can) and do well (or the best we can.)