More Learning Together

I get lots of great ideas for homeschool projects, but my children’s results aren’t always as wonderful as I had hoped. When I learned about flap books, for instance, I watched this video where a homeschooling mom showed folder after folder of cleverly made books. (She called them lap books, but it was the same thing.) However, though my children (most of them, at least) like making flap books, their books never turn out like those in the movie.

And then there are the century books. Our wall-hung timelines are for the little kids, but I wanted the century books to be beautiful. Some of my kids would spend a lot of time working on their books, but others would write down some names and be done. I tried to help by asking them to add ten people and events at a time, but only five if the entries were illustrated. That only helped a little.

I was really sad about this situation, until I realized two things. First, I have to remember what my goals are for our homeschool. I don’t like to use photocopied patterns or lots of unique folded papers every day (although the foldables are fun occasionally…). My goal is for us to love learning and to be culturally literate. We can do that without perfect projects.

Second, a motto of the Thomas Jefferson Education model is “Inspire, not require.” I haven’t found that very successful when it comes to most school work (like math drills), but it was the key for this situation. When I work with my children, I really gain an appreciation for the work they put in to complete their projects! And it’s been fun for us to work together on something other than day-to-day assignments. So now I show them my “vision” of what a project can be. I don’t do this every time (I remind them that I did do quite a few of such things before they were ever born), but my participating occasionally has been a real boost for all of us.

Here is a page from my century book. My children have 6000 years to do, but I’m just doing U.S. history!