Shhh...A Fairy Lives Here

Though this isn't strictly about school, it's about life and imagination--both of which are integral to our family's education....

It was last month that N "found" the first evidence of a fairy in our back yard. She told D, and the two of them kept watch on the little house under the fir tree. N would often spend time out there, but it was D who usually came running in with the exciting news that something else had changed where the fairy lives. It wasn't long before we nicknamed our fairy "Spring," because she loves the sunshine and flowers of the season as much as we do.

Each week, Spring's home becomes more elaborate and more beautiful. Dishes of flower food, a well (filled with water), a wood shed, a "landing pad," and a leaf-drying rack are just some of her possessions. D was sad when a "For Sale" sign appeared in Spring's yard one morning. After I talked with N, though, it turned out that Spring was just selling some of her rocks.

We all "help" with developments around the home site, so D knows that not everything is done by the fairies. But Spring is real to him; he speaks of her the way he does of his imaginary dragons--he wants them to be real. My older kids worried that it was bad for D to believe in a fairy, but I don't think so. The other day he asked me, "Do you think Spring is real?" I hope I answered wisely when I told him about my childhood dreams of little people in my life and said,"I would love for her to be real."

Homeschool Memories

K said:

--Historical fiction in history. (This is always the first thing I think of when asked for favorites.)
--Field trips, specifically the East Coast trip. (This is the second thing.)
--The time line/century book idea.
--The lifestyle of learning. The fact that you and Daddy knew all of the answers to our questions. The love of learning.
--The confidence you instilled in me that I can learn/understand/do anything.
--The way you got excited to relearn calculus with me.
--I liked that typing tutor program we had, and it has served me well.
--I think it was very important that I wrote the senior research paper that I did. I think we could have done more writing in high school, since college is all about writing."

B said:
" One of my memorable moments occurred when I took two classes at the public school. I thought my public-schooled peers were ahead of me academically. To my surprise, I shot straight to the top of my high school classes and it was then I realized that homeschool had prepared me better academically than public school would have. With homeschooling I was able to learn at my own pace which, while it varied between subjects, was overall vastly more effective than the public school environment would have allowed."

Rhythms

What do I mean by the word “rhythms” when referring to school/life at our house? Basically, it’s just the structure of our days, weeks, and years.
Probably every family has a daily rhythm: up at 6:45, school at 9:00—or whatever works for your family.
But have you ever considered your weekly rhythms? I’m grateful that Sunday is a unique day at our house. It’s a day for worship, for attending church, for wearing special clothes, for staying at home with our family. It refreshes our spirits and gives us a break from the rest of the week. Sunday is also when I write out our school assignments for the week. Monday through Friday are often much alike, but we have rhythms there too: Monday we clean the kitchen, wash clothes, and have music lessons. Tuesday is downstairs cleaning, making bread, C’s paper route, and youth group. . . . Each day has certain activities. Saturday is our day to do big projects and to get ready for Sunday.
Yearly rhythms are the most fun. We try to celebrate many special days, not just the ones that the retailers think are special. We take note of Christian and Jewish holidays, including those not so well-known. We also observe days that mark the passing of the seasons. (Growing much of our own food really connects us to the cycles of the earth as nothing else can.) Thus, we recently celebrated the Spring Equinox, Passover, and especially Easter. A celebration can be just a special meal (or even one special food), a certain ritual, or a whole day of activities. We never spend much money, though we may spend a lot of time. Sometimes we “try” a celebration and decide it’s not important to us. But other celebrations we look forward to for months. What matters most is that such cyclical events provide joy and stability for our family.
While it may not seem intuitive, I’ve learned by experience that children thrive on such structure. It gives them security, because they know what to expect and they anticipate familiar favorites.

There are several books I have used for seasonal celebrations, but my favorite is probably Festivals Family and Food by Diana Carey and Judy Large.

Learning Together

I don’t know how many times I have mentioned that I homeschool my children and people say “That’s neat” followed by “I could never do that.” The reasons they think they could never do that seem to fall mostly into two categories:

1) I’m not patient enough.

2) I don’t know enough.

I take issue with both of those reasons (though I’m not sure #1 is an honest reason), but it’s #2 that I want to address.

Nobody knows enough! I personally have a good background in math, which is what most homeschool parents seem to worry about, but I had almost no background in social studies when I started. (I got perfect grades in history, but I promptly forgot any facts I had memorized because they weren’t relevant to my life.)

The great thing about homeschooling is that you get to learn right along with your kids. And it’s fun! For those who think you can’t learn this stuff as an adult, how can you require your children to do something that you’re not willing to do yourself? How can you convince them that it’s important for an adult to know something that you don’t know? What an opportunity you have to build relationships with your children as you discover new things together.

One of my greatest blessings from homeschooling is the chance I’ve had to become a history buff, to review calculus, to renew my art skills, to learn more biology than I ever got in high school. In the process, I hope that my kids have seen that learning never stops, that every kind of knowledge is relevant, and that education is a delight.

Don’t tell anyone, but the student who learns the most in our homeschool is…me.