Let's talk about how we mass market children loved school as kids. Every morning was a new learning adventure. As that bus came down the street, my heart pounded as I thought about what my teachers had prepared for me that day. Joy filled my heart, especially for the nice person who may let me sit by them on the bus. (I was always the last one on.) Middle school was definitely the highlight of my personal growth and social development in more ways than one. -- If this is all fiction for you as it was for me and you want to give your kids hope of actually feeling that way about learning, then you may be a homeschooler.
How many of you remember loving history as a kid? When I talk to other homeschoolers and ask them what really gets them excited it is often history. You may think (or have thought before you became one of these counter-cultural homeschoolers), "Boring!" However, once you become an actual counter-cultural homeschooler and begin to hang out with others who share your rebellious nature you'll hear something that goes like this; "I hated to memorize all those facts for tests but now, I LOVE history. It's our favorite subject." Consequently, many of the books we use to devour history were written by moms who became addicted to history, were not satisfied with the materials they found, so they wrote a whole curriculum."
Now, there are all types of families with all types of kids. There are mom's who just pick a curriculum package early on, trust it and then do it faithfully every day. There are unschoolers, who completely trust that their children will learn what they need to when they need to. I, sometimes regretfully, just can't seem to be either mom. No, there could be something better, more exciting (easier to manage), and perfectly suited to the uniqueness of my little darlings. My continual search for the "best way" can lead to my most dreaded form of mental illness, "homeschool anxiety". Can the Discovery Channel be science for the day? Am I doing enough or too much?" I say these things because if you question yourself, you can know you are not alone in these thoughts. You have not failed and you are not unusual. The homeschooling life is really journeying with your kids on their way to becoming their best self, the self they were made to be. With time you know your kids, how they learn and what drives them to learn. You can then sit back and enjoy the progress you make together. The moments of anxiety will become less familiar and the freedom of this lifestyle will make its blessings known.
If thoughts like these continue to bother you, let's relax and go out into my garden for a while. As an avid gardener, I've planned about eight perennial gardens in my yard, laying out the plan on paper, measuring out the distances I would place the groupings of odd numbered plants. According to a saying about perennial gardens, the third year is the "WOW" year. Well, it truly was. Neighbors stopped on their walks to walk through my yard. All was lovely. I put a new layer of mulch over it all that year to celebrate it's perfectly planned perfection.
It's year six in my garden now. Did you know there's no saying for year six? For a control freak, years five and six could be "Let's put the grass back! It's out of control!" For those years past three, the real nature of gardening takes over. If you had a vision for your garden and it was based on knowledge of those plants habits and preferences, there is probably still an element of control in the
appearance of your beautiful yard. But plants, like children, are not ours to control. Some thrive in the sunlight with very little attention, planting little babies in your path, your yard (and your neighbors yard). There are others which will struggle where you've placed them and seem to disappear as those around them choke them out. Left unnoticed, one of your prize plants may just disappear.
If we don't pay attention to the passions of our children to their gifts and challenges, they too may be crowded out. My point is this, letting go of some control and allowing nature to direct your garden and your children to direct your daily plan is often the first step to the blooming of the flowers that are your children. I've learned that I can't fight the nature of my garden and that I can't force the nature of my children. I do need to teach self-control, perseverance, kindness and self-discipline, but the rest is largely inspiration.
The beauty of the garden is not to fight the unplanned, but to rejoice in it and observe it, noticing or transplanting "volunteers" rather than pulling them out because they aren't in the right place. God put everything that plant needed in a tiny seed. The whole blueprint is in it from the beginning. God also formed your child and said, "before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." When we trust that the interests our children have are not mistakes, complications to the "schedule", then they are free to embrace learning in its most powerful form, that guided by passion and interest. Neighbors still come to look at my garden, but I no longer make excuses for the weeds that may be there, but aside from the flowers, they comment on what wonderful kids I have.
Just as I have discovered many truths as I've grown with my garden, I know that as a parent, I don't have all the answers and cannot "teach" them all I know (.. or don't know). Whether you have college degrees or a high school diploma, each day a further opportunity to admit what we don't yet know. Most Americans think they were "educated" through the schooling process marked by some date in time and piece of sheepskin (if they are so blessed). However, the more we grow, the less we realize we know! We learn best when we let go of common thought and challenge ourselves to be free. We hear a lot about freedom, "Those in Christ are free indeed". America is the "land of the free." Homeschoolers are in the best position to fully accept the possibilities of this freedom.
Here you will realize the truth of Mark Twain's quote that "Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." I apply this to what we generally think of as education, force feeding an agreed upon set of facts to children in a set number of years in an order that will give them the greatest chance at "success" in life. We are surrounded daily by those who struggle with the educational system, trying to work with it, in spite of it, as their children's lives pass before them. Search for favorable quotes on the blessings of mass education and you will be hard pressed to find many by those who stand out in history as admired thinkers and leaders. One of the more unoffensive (toward teachers and public institutions) was by Elbert Hubbard, American author, editor and printer who said, "The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher." This image is complimented by William B. Yeats (poet) in his statement that "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." When you know what lights the fire in your child, and give him your blessing to be who he is, you will have unlearned successfully all that we thought we knew about education.
How many of you remember loving history as a kid? When I talk to other homeschoolers and ask them what really gets them excited it is often history. You may think (or have thought before you became one of these counter-cultural homeschoolers), "Boring!" However, once you become an actual counter-cultural homeschooler and begin to hang out with others who share your rebellious nature you'll hear something that goes like this; "I hated to memorize all those facts for tests but now, I LOVE history. It's our favorite subject." Consequently, many of the books we use to devour history were written by moms who became addicted to history, were not satisfied with the materials they found, so they wrote a whole curriculum."
Now, there are all types of families with all types of kids. There are mom's who just pick a curriculum package early on, trust it and then do it faithfully every day. There are unschoolers, who completely trust that their children will learn what they need to when they need to. I, sometimes regretfully, just can't seem to be either mom. No, there could be something better, more exciting (easier to manage), and perfectly suited to the uniqueness of my little darlings. My continual search for the "best way" can lead to my most dreaded form of mental illness, "homeschool anxiety". Can the Discovery Channel be science for the day? Am I doing enough or too much?" I say these things because if you question yourself, you can know you are not alone in these thoughts. You have not failed and you are not unusual. The homeschooling life is really journeying with your kids on their way to becoming their best self, the self they were made to be. With time you know your kids, how they learn and what drives them to learn. You can then sit back and enjoy the progress you make together. The moments of anxiety will become less familiar and the freedom of this lifestyle will make its blessings known.
If thoughts like these continue to bother you, let's relax and go out into my garden for a while. As an avid gardener, I've planned about eight perennial gardens in my yard, laying out the plan on paper, measuring out the distances I would place the groupings of odd numbered plants. According to a saying about perennial gardens, the third year is the "WOW" year. Well, it truly was. Neighbors stopped on their walks to walk through my yard. All was lovely. I put a new layer of mulch over it all that year to celebrate it's perfectly planned perfection.
It's year six in my garden now. Did you know there's no saying for year six? For a control freak, years five and six could be "Let's put the grass back! It's out of control!" For those years past three, the real nature of gardening takes over. If you had a vision for your garden and it was based on knowledge of those plants habits and preferences, there is probably still an element of control in the
appearance of your beautiful yard. But plants, like children, are not ours to control. Some thrive in the sunlight with very little attention, planting little babies in your path, your yard (and your neighbors yard). There are others which will struggle where you've placed them and seem to disappear as those around them choke them out. Left unnoticed, one of your prize plants may just disappear.If we don't pay attention to the passions of our children to their gifts and challenges, they too may be crowded out. My point is this, letting go of some control and allowing nature to direct your garden and your children to direct your daily plan is often the first step to the blooming of the flowers that are your children. I've learned that I can't fight the nature of my garden and that I can't force the nature of my children. I do need to teach self-control, perseverance, kindness and self-discipline, but the rest is largely inspiration.
The beauty of the garden is not to fight the unplanned, but to rejoice in it and observe it, noticing or transplanting "volunteers" rather than pulling them out because they aren't in the right place. God put everything that plant needed in a tiny seed. The whole blueprint is in it from the beginning. God also formed your child and said, "before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." When we trust that the interests our children have are not mistakes, complications to the "schedule", then they are free to embrace learning in its most powerful form, that guided by passion and interest. Neighbors still come to look at my garden, but I no longer make excuses for the weeds that may be there, but aside from the flowers, they comment on what wonderful kids I have.
Just as I have discovered many truths as I've grown with my garden, I know that as a parent, I don't have all the answers and cannot "teach" them all I know (.. or don't know). Whether you have college degrees or a high school diploma, each day a further opportunity to admit what we don't yet know. Most Americans think they were "educated" through the schooling process marked by some date in time and piece of sheepskin (if they are so blessed). However, the more we grow, the less we realize we know! We learn best when we let go of common thought and challenge ourselves to be free. We hear a lot about freedom, "Those in Christ are free indeed". America is the "land of the free." Homeschoolers are in the best position to fully accept the possibilities of this freedom.
Here you will realize the truth of Mark Twain's quote that "Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." I apply this to what we generally think of as education, force feeding an agreed upon set of facts to children in a set number of years in an order that will give them the greatest chance at "success" in life. We are surrounded daily by those who struggle with the educational system, trying to work with it, in spite of it, as their children's lives pass before them. Search for favorable quotes on the blessings of mass education and you will be hard pressed to find many by those who stand out in history as admired thinkers and leaders. One of the more unoffensive (toward teachers and public institutions) was by Elbert Hubbard, American author, editor and printer who said, "The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher." This image is complimented by William B. Yeats (poet) in his statement that "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." When you know what lights the fire in your child, and give him your blessing to be who he is, you will have unlearned successfully all that we thought we knew about education.
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