Rediscovery

Yes, it's been almost a year since I've blogged last... A lot can happen in a year! I'm not dwelling there though. I woke up today with a sense of urgency to write down what I've been rediscovering lately...so here I go...




I've been an official homeschooler for about 2 years now. I don't fall into a category (sorry for those who like to label everything). I mix unit studies with unschooling with Charlotte Mason with child-directed learning with classical education with school at home... you know, whatever seems right that week, day, hour. Since I was 12 years old I've wanted to homeschool my children. I was home schooled briefly in 7th grade. I liked it, but was lonely. I appreciated being at home, learning different things (like quilting with my mom!), and the flexibility. But I desired being a silly social junior higher like everyone else. The biggest reason I decided I wanted to homeschool is when I saw a few examples of families that did. I noticed they were different. Sometimes weird, yes, but they didn't care. I saw they respected each other, cared about their little brothers and sisters differently, spoke more "grown up", seemed less worried about their peers' opinions. The families liked each other. As a 12 year old, I noticed that, I wanted that for myself someday. I planned on having 10 kids, living on a farm, homeschooling...being old fashioned...

Well, most of that isn't really happening. But the homeschooling part...it's becoming a reality.




I'm thankful my husband feels strongly about homeschooling too. Maybe for slightly different reasons, but we agree on the basics. Here's why we homeschool (I think this will be in the correct order...)




1. As followers of Jesus Christ, and believers in the absolute truth of the Bible, we are called to "train up our children in the way they should go". We hold to the scripture that tells us to Teach them (the laws/rules of our faith) to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. I know this is possible to do if your child is is tradition school, but for us, we didn't see it being a possibility. If our child was gone for 8+ hours at school, then maybe sports, or music, or social activities... when would those lessons come in? When would we be sitting at home, or walking along the road with our children? We'd be too busy! Now, I know a lot of wonderful families that accomplish this...but our personalities and lifestyle...I think I'd fail at this. I believe my biggest calling in life, in my faith, is to disciple (train in spirituality) my children. And I believe the best way to do that is to keep them at home.




2. Flexibility. We like to be spontaneous. We like to go to museums instead of doing workbooks. We want to go on vacations, mission trips, anywhere, as a family. We want to say "yes, we'll do that" to great opportunities, instead of "oh shoot, we can't take them out of school". We want a full, exciting life that is spirit led, not schedule led.




3. Educational opportunities. If one of our kids is a science, art, math, whatever genius... We love the idea of them pursuing that as much as they possibly can...now, before they're grown up and have "more time". We don't want our child held back in a subject just because the classroom isn't there yet, or our child pushed in an area he struggles with. We want them to develop at their own pace.




These are the main ones... There's probably a million little "ooh I love that" about homeschooling. We aren't keeping them home to shelter them or to keep them from scary public school or from the dangerous peer pressure. We are giving them rich opportunities to learn and grow.




So back to my original topic: rediscovery.

In the midst of homeschooling, and having 2 little ones...I've started gaining an excitement for learning. I'm fascinated by animals all of the sudden. How did God think of all these strange creatures? And why? The life of a butterfly is amazing to me once again (since I'm sure when I was 5 it was...but then after a while it's like "oh yeah, they transform...no big deal"). I think spiders are crazy and incredibly intricate. How animals just "know" what to do without being taught is fascinating to me. Oh, and how exciting is the water cycle? How God provides us with a whole system is so cool. Adding and subtracting is fun too...how things make sense and it's fun to do calculations when playing with dice or games! It's really amazing that King David was a Shepard (Solomon's favorite bible story right now), how was he so brave to fight a giant? There's a whole world that I thought I knew about...but really.... I'm just discovering how amazing it really is.




What will I discover today?