The Peanut Butter Story

I am a homeschool mom.  If you are not a homeschool mom, please keep reading.  This story works for everyone!

When my kids were younger, I always had a plan for the day.  Usually it involved a down to the minute schedule of regular bookwork and detailed unit studies with hands on projects and thematic books.  One day, I woke up and had nothing planned.  Nothing.  This was very unusual.  I laid in my bed and looked up at the ceiling.  Nothing!  So I prayed, "God, show me what you want me to do today."  Then I got out of bed in a very bad mood and got ready for the day.  I made breakfast in my very bad mood.  I was not happy with myself.  My then tiny daughter asked if we could make homemade peanut butter.  We had bought the ingredients a few days before but I just hadn't wanted to make it.  No reason why.  Now today I was grumpy.  I didn't have a plan for the day.  I didn't like it.  She begged to make homemade peanut butter just as she had done the two previous days.  I grumpily said fine.  I grumpily made peanut butter.  It was pretty easy to do and the kids enjoyed it.

I decided to roll with the peanut butter theme.  I printed out simple diagrams of peanut plant parts to label.  We found online biographies of George Washington Carver and learned all about his life.  He had found over 300 uses for the tiny peanut.  His research turned around the economy of an entire state. One topic kept leading to another.  By the end of the day, we had had an amazing learning experience.  We covered history and botany and science!

Towards the end of the afternoon, I was so interested that I continued to research George Washington Carver just for myself.  I came to site which explained his faith and that each day he got up very early in the morning and prayed.   During that time, every day,  Mr. Carver asked God, "What am I to do today?"  I was stunned.  That was exactly what I had prayed that very morning.  We had an incredible day together.  What if I could do this for life?