Happy Wednesday, friends! I hope your week is going well so far. We're continuing our Foundation Month theme this week, and I have a confession that involves my bedroom floor and a whole lot of clothes. 😅

Life

Have you ever decided to organize something and immediately regretted it?

Last time I decided to deep clean and organize my closet, I pulled everything out. Every hanger, every cubby, every pile of "I'll deal with this later" that had been accumulating for who knows how long. 🫣

And within about ten minutes, my entire bedroom looked like a disaster zone. Clothes on the bed, shoes on the floor, random stuff I forgot I owned piled up in the doorway.

As I stood there in the middle of it all I couldn't help but think, "This is so much worse than before I started. Why did I decide this was a good idea!?"

There's always that moment, right? Where you're knee-deep in the mess and you're seriously considering just shoving it all back in and closing the door. (Please tell me I'm not the only one lol)

But I didn't shove it back in. I kept going and sorted through everything, got rid of what didn't belong, and put it all back in a way that was actually organized for once. By the end, my closet was cleaner and more organized than it had been in months!

The mess wasn't a sign that I'd made a mistake.

The mess was a necessary part of the process.

Homeschool + Math

Going back in math feels the same way.

When you realize your student has a gap, maybe in fractions, maybe in place value, or maybe something even further back, the instinct is to keep moving forward. Because going back feels like losing ground, doesn't it? It feels like admitting something went wrong. And honestly, the first few days of revisiting an earlier concept can feel messier than before you started, because now your student is face-to-face with something they've been building around for a while.

But that temporary mess? It's the same thing as my bedroom floor covered in clothes. It looks worse because you're doing the hard work of sorting through what's actually there.

Here's what I've seen over and over again in over twelve years of teaching: the families who are willing to pause, go back, and rebuild a not-quite-there concept are the ones whose students end up the strongest every single time. Because understanding that's been repaired from the root holds up in a way that a patched-over gap never will.

So if you've made the brave call to go back and revisit something your student missed, and it feels like a step backward right now, I want you to be encouraged: you aren't falling behind!

You are doing the most important work you can do as your child's math teacher. You're pulling everything out of the closet so you can put it back the right way.

And on the other side of that mess is a foundation your student can actually stand on confidently.

Grace

I think God understands closet moments.

Those are the seasons where He asks us to stop building, pull everything out, and let Him sort through what's actually there. It never feels productive in the middle of it...instead it feels like backsliding, or like everyone else is moving forward and you're standing in a pile of your own stuff wondering what happened!

But our God: He's not in a hurry. And He's not afraid of the mess.

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6 (ESV)

He started this work in you, in your homeschooling, in your student, and in your own heart. And He's not going to leave it half-sorted on the bedroom floor. He finishes what He starts. Even when the middle looks nothing like the end. ❤️

See you soon!

-Mrs. Holman

P.S. My closet stayed looking amazing for a record amount of time, by the way. Turns out when you take the time to do it right, it stays that way a whole lot longer. Same goes for math foundations.