Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
Col 3:23 (NLT)
My mind is swirling with ideas that I've been gleaning from various books and articles I've been reading about homeschooling methods. I have always labeled my style as "eclectic". I have combined the Charlotte Mason methods with a little bit of classical and even leaned toward guided unschooling in certain seasons, intermingling unit studies for good measure. We use actual textbooks for Math and might use other text books as sources for ideas or topics, but not as a primary source for history or literature. Once we get to high school level, we have used parts of textbooks for higher sciences or even government, although I am setting my aims to use more original documents in our studies.
So back to the swirls! After reviewing the possibilities of all of the truly inspiring books that can be pored over, studied, and ruminated on, I have been digging deeper into Charlotte Mason's methods of education that cover immersion in quality music and its composers, fine art and its artists, classic literature and its lofty ideas, and nature and science study that allows time to observe and understand creation in a way that flying through a textbook in a year can never do.
But I'm also taking another hard look at some of the traditions of the classical mode of education and realizing that I can easily implement what seems profitable without having to be a purist. I feel pretty excited about that because up to this point, I have had a negative view of classical education, feeling that it is too structured, academic, and BORING (I might as well be honest!). Now I'm seeing that I can allow my child (especially now that I'm down to only one that I'm homeschooling) to partake of the best of several homeschooling approaches.
I plan on implementing some new practices and continuing in some familiar old ones. My young scholar will be memorizing poetry, hymns, Scripture, geography, historical events, famous speeches, and more. She will be reading (and listening to) great literature and beautiful music of different time periods. Appreciating and learning about fine artwork will be a regular part of her week. Narration (telling back in as much detail and in her own words after listening to an oral reading) will be a big part of assessment and developing her attention span and language skills. Of course nature study is a given and so is math. Creative lapbooking will be one way to allow my sweet girl to produce a project that can be admired for years to come. As she progresses in maturity, she will be studying Latin and Greek, logic and writing. Hopefully her days will be balanced out with crafts, play, and exercise!
All of these activities will definitely not be crammed into each day. If there's one thing I've learned over these many years of home education, we must move with the ebb and flow of life. Set goals and then be flexible. Allow for delightful surprises that come our way in the form of invigorating discussions, unexpected discoveries, and even breezy sunny afternoons that beckon us away from the books for the rest of the day!
Will we actually follow through on these ambitious plans with consistency and longevity? I really hope so. All I know is that I'd rather set high goals and not reach them than have only mediocre intentions that can be reached with only half hearted effort.
Proverbs 16:9 The mind of man plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.
Schedules. Lists. Charts. Calendars. My adrenaline is flowing from just typing those delightful words! Yes, I have always been magnetically drawn to these tools of organization. Somehow they bring feelings of security and safety to the unsafe and unpredictable homeschooling lifestyle that has been ours for as long as I can remember. Which isn't really saying much, since I can't even remember what I had for breakfast. Anyway, somehow I manage to convince myself every August that if I get everything planned out on paper down to the last detail, there is little room for failure. It's probably just me (I'm sure that you, my darling fellow homeschooler, don't deal with this), but usually within a week, and more likely within a few days, I see that my plan did not and will not flow as smoothly as I had anticipated. Actually, practically every year, I have to tear up the plan, re-evaluate, and start again at the old drawing board at least a few times before I finally come to a point of having a reasonable and even workable plan for my day to day life as a homeschooling mom and for my amazing children. In my mind, that's crazy! You would think that I would finally just have it figured out and each year, it would just come together. After all, I'm no newbie at this!
I remember one year, after I had everyone's schedules including mine all on one sheet of paper, my face just beamed from satisfaction of a well-laid plan. I was so proud of my attention to detail. I had every student occupied at all times with myself going through a rotation so as to give each the one on one attention and tutoring that they would need for the year. It was all in there. Grooming time, creative play time, even P.E. for heaven's sake! After perusing the freshly printed schedule posted on the refrigerator for all eyes to feast upon, one of my angelic sons commented, "Mom, you know that after two weeks this will be obsolete, right?" Aaah!!! How disheartening! But I have to admit that his prophecy was fulfilled in about the time span he predicted.
So what is the use? What hope do I have? Will I always be striving for the unattainable? Speaking for myself (since I'm the only one who goes through this, I'm sure, dear reader), I have learned and am continuing to discover that the Lord directs my steps. As I allow my schedule to "flex" and as I perk my ears to hear the Spirit of God who wants to lead me in each learning decision and academic detour of the day, I find measures of success and have peace and even hopping joy at times in the midst of my unpredictable life. I witness real depth of learning taking place in myself and my student as we move into the rhythms of life, learning from the planned and the unplanned opportunities set before us. The stress levels drop as I relax and realize that just because it's written down, doesn't mean that it absolutely has to be done or the sun most certainly will not rise. Allowing for creativity, curiosity, and other natural motivators mixed with a good dose of disciplined study leads to the joyful homeschooling that I am tirelessly seeking. I'm so glad that my plans don't always work out. God's plans are way more rewarding! I wonder if I'll remember this next August when I'm salivating over my self-published, colorful, and fresh-smelling (you know you can tell if it's a good book by its smell!) home school and life planner. Nope, that would be breaking tradition.
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