About Homeschooling-Part 3

I've been trying to figure out what the best approach to this next post should be.  What our homeschool looks like? OR What I want our homeschool to be? Tough decision here.  The good, bad, and the ugly verses "the goal".

Currently our homeschool is nothing to write home about.  Perhaps it's nothing to write about at all....hmmmm.  This fall has found us with a new baby, an unexpected trip abroad, an emotional event at work, extra committee work, a couple of gigs, a big trip for the kids, some sick kids, and a busy concert season.  In other words, this fall we've been living what I like to call "life".  Life has brought our formal schooling down to the bare bones.

We get up, get chores done, have prayer time, do Math, Spelling, (maybe) Science, (sometimes) US Geography and it's lunchtime.  After lunch we do our "after meal chores", I read the nappers a story or two, and the non-nappers have some down time while I read, exercise, check some blogs, or nap (or any combination thereof).  After nap time/quiet time, depending on the day, the kids head outside (when it's physically possible to do so without freezing to death within the first 30 seconds) and, as long as they don't do anything to annoy me, I let them play until we either have to head to town for karate or it get's dark or both.

So there you have it.  Not too impressive I know.  But somehow they are learning (surprise, surprise).  I classify myself as one who leans towards the "classical" approach to education.  When I have my "A-game" on our homeschool is very classical.  We read good stuff, we memorize, dictate, narrate, etc... However, these busy seasons have helped me see the value in a different approach entirely.  I don't want my children to look back on their childhood and say, "but we never got to play".  They play, and they learn while they play, and I don't direct every move and they are learning anyway.  I've become much more of an "unschooler" (I almost hate to use the term) than I ever dreamed I would be.  I have witnessed times when I give a specific assignment and the children complete the assignment and it's fine.  Then, they turn around, tweak the assignment and it's better.  It's almost always better.

It took me a long time to be able to be comfortable in my "this-is-how-we-do-it" skin.  I would feel threatened when I read or saw another mom's approach to homeschooling.  I still enjoy talking to others about what approach they take and why.  There's almost always something I can learn and it's not entirely bad to change an approach because it's working for someone else.  It does become dangerous (and expensive) if you're constantly second-guessing what method you want to subscribe to.  In fact the method I'm currently loving would not have worked even 2 years ago in our family.  The beauty of homeschooling is that you can adapt and you can forge ahead.

I don't know what our homeschool will look like in the future.  I do know that, despite the struggles, I am very content to have these young people at home with me, learning with me, living with me.  We don't separate "school" and "life".  We are not the perfect home or the perfect school.  I don't pretend to  have all the answers (okay, sometimes I do), and I don't consider myself the homeschool mother of the year (really, this time I'm serious).  But, I'm in a good spot.  I'm happy with how our home is running and I pray that I can continue to see the needs of my children and adapt accordingly.