Into 2026: Intentions, Resolutions and Reflections
I've always had resolutions for New Years. That's because I like to be intentional - to have aims, things to focus on: in order to know what to do in the day, I need to know where I'm trying to go.
This year is no different, although many things are ongoing rather than new ideas I've just come up with. It's not new that I want to minimise my phone use (a constant battle I've been fighting since before my kids were born!) and be more present to my life, my family. To slow down (re-reading for the umpteenth time John Mark Comer's excellent Elimination of Hurry). To fully enter into the life, walk with, accompany, and guide my children as they grow. This stuff is on my mind daily, and has been for years... but this year, I've put a few headlines together of things that might help in those larger, overarching aims.
Quiet Hour
I came across an idea recently that really inspired me, and after trying it for a few nights this winter break, we're definitely carrying on with it: a quiet hour before bedtime. And quiet doesn't mean complete silence - we might play calm board games, but the idea is there are no electronics (for kids or adults!) from 8pm onwards. We read, or we chat, or we do creative things in silence. There's no blaring TV, no music in the background, we just allow our nervous systems to recover from the day. It's been challenging and beautiful, and it really works for the kids, so this is a practical thing we plan to carry into 2026.
Creativity
I watch my children's creativity blossom all the time, they are so inventive - from imaginative play, to illustrating and plasticine modelling, to story writing. But I have severely neglected my own creativity, with the feeble excuse that it's just not that good. But being creative is not graded in this house... it's just something to play with. This winter break, I have started to play a bit, and am actually really loving it. It's both things I have picked up in the past, and new things: my resolution is to do creative things with my hands. New to me is watercolour (a few examples below) and calligraphy, and I may well pick up crochet and embroidery again too.
 |
| An example of D(9)'s incredible attention to detail |
Faith
D(9) continues to serve at the Altar, and is being trusted with more and more tasks there. This morning, he got to ring the bells - that's positive - but it took the deacon four waves at him before he realised it was time to get up and do some tasks... work in progress! But he is being consistent, he is learning, and he is becoming a valued and trusted team member there, which is beautiful to see.
He even inspired another boy, one year younger than him, to find the confidence to ask about becoming an altar server too, and that boy has been serving alongside D for several months now - with D relishing the opportunity to teach and be the experienced one!
I pray for their hearts all the time, that my kids may really build a deep relationship with God. What will help with that, of course, is building deep and meaningful relationships with others who love God. That is part of why I'm so glad to have D be an altar server - he's building great rapport with the priests and deacons; and we feel very much knitted into the community at our parish now, with a couple of families we really are building friendships with.
That said, my hope in moving to the Cathedral was that there would be some provision for a youth group or fellowship for young people. At the moment there is a lovely regular event where lots of families come, but unfortunately my kids are very much at the top of the age bracket for this, and find the activities at times boring... colouring in just isn't that much fun at 11 and 9. So my hope and prayer for 2026 is that we can help start something for a slightly older age group, maybe from the start of Secondary school age up to Confirmation age. I hear that one of the new priests is very interested in youth provision, though I haven't had a chance to speak with him yet - if there's any way we can help, I'd be delighted to.
Education
Home education proceeds 'as normal' in this house, of course (I never know what to say when people ask me how home education is going... it's just life?) - but 2025 brought the beautiful milestone of both kids quite suddenly getting really into books. N was into them somewhat already, but D has finally followed. He asked for a Kindle for Christmas, because N loves hers, and once he had it he could hardly get his nose out of it! Here's a photo of him going upstairs, well at least that was the plan, but he didn't quite make it to his room because the book got too interesting.
In terms of subject matter, D likes to read Minecraft, Ninjago and Pokemon related materials whereas N enjoys tween graphic novels along the lines of Smile and Babysitters Club - I never knew there were so many graphic novels but the library is a brilliant source of those!
Social Time
The big question all home educators have to contend with is: but what about socialisation? I have written a whole blog post on this (here) but it is a fair question, in that, we have to be intentional about it because unlike those in school, we don't have a ready-made network of people we see daily. So I don't want to be flippant: we do prioritise social time as well.
It's not my place to choose my children's friends of course, but it is my place to offer them times and spaces to meet good people. If this is in the course of an activity - such as the Christian home ed co-op we've been part of for years, or N(11) singing in the Cathedral's Junior Choir, which she loves and where she's met a number of kids she enjoys being around - so much the better, but we also make space to meet up with friends and meet new people at the various home education activities that are on offer where we live.
 |
| Home Ed Co-op year-end photo |
 |
| At Home Ed Club, where they go weekly |
 |
| Forest School |
 |
| Taking part in a one-off funday - learning some circus skills |
 |
| N at choir |
Here's to a 2026 in which we aim for growth, depth, meaning, and love in everything we do. Prosit Neujahr!
Comments
Post a Comment