Changing...

“An eternal question about children is, how should we educate them? Politicians and educators consider more school days in a year, more science and math, the use of computers and other technology in the classroom, more exams and tests, more certification for teachers, and less money for art. All of these responses come from the place where we want to make the child into the best adult possible, not in the ancient Greek sense of virtuous and wise, but in the sense of one who is an efficient part of the machinery of society. But on all these counts, soul is neglected.” 

― Thomas Moore

I can feel myself changing...ideas that I thought were so tried and true seem to be testing me as if they want me to realize that they may not be the right ones for me. As I juggle through this world of homeschooling I wonder if my days are supposed to be filled with nagging the kids to get this subject done or that subject done, or if there isn't something more to this idea of educating my children at home?

Taking advantage of sunny days outside and the abundance of trails and parks around the area in which I live...shouldn't that account for some of what we do at home? Instead our days have been filled with getting this workbook page done, and that workbook page done. There is value in that, yes, but am I placing too much value on that? I think perhaps I am. 

So fearful I am that someone will ask my children what they did that day, and have their response be, "explored the outdoors, made cookies with my mom, created a lego town, made up a new board game", that I pound through each subject just as my weekly plan dictates all the while knowing how ridiculous I am being for holding my family - my kids - accountable to someone else's standards...

Why did I choose to bring them home? What were my motives? To give them the best education possible? Yes. To allow them the freedoms to explore the world around them? Yes. To allow them the opportunity to seek out experiences that will help give them the best foundation possible in the lives that they will each build up around themselves? Yes. 

I need to relax, and take a deep breath, and to not be afraid to let them play their made up board game even if it means we don't get to a subject or two that day. We can very easily get to it the next day. The success of their childhood will not be set in stone in 1 day, but rather the culmination of days that form years and years. Being a pencil pusher will only make them hate homeschooling, and learning in general. That is not what I want. That is not why I set out on this journey. I need to take a deep breath, and realize that it is okay to let them play and explore their world. They can learn without books, and it is okay for me to let them do so sometimes.  

“We can get too easily bogged down in the academic part of homeschooling, a relatively minor part of the whole, which is to raise competent, caring, literate, happy people.” 

― Diane Flynn Keith

“What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children's growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools, but that it isn't a school at all.” 
― John Holt