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| Photo By LittleCrunchy |
Homeschooling does not have to be school at home. It can be more organic and natural and it can flow with the spirit of the child, the home, the season. This might not sound like formal education, maybe because it is not formal. It is down and hopefully dirty too.
Spring is when nature calls many animals out or their dens, and many children out of their desks. I think we all feel the pull of it if we take a moment to look at the change, to smell the air, to feel the sun. So many children find it hard to sit still, find it hard to come in from playing, find it hard to go to sleep before the sun falls. I say, don’t make them sit still, don’t force them to stop playing, and let them help come up with a night time rhythm that is not a battle for you or them. I believe we need to work with our children, their instincts, and the nature of Spring.
With these beliefs I was so happy to read a blog post about the different classes that specially fit with different seasons for this other family and I am sure many other families like her. “The Case for Seasonal Education“
I agree with her that Spring is a great time to learn:
We love to get out and do outdoor field trips to state parks, play grounds, zoos, and we love to travel far and learn about our country and history. Though I think fall is a perfect time for history blocks! Spring we strive to focus on the Sciences and Social Studies. We review math, we fit reading in those others areas and we let creativity fly free. My children talked me into hatching duck eggs again this year as a science project. We should get them in the next week or so. Going to the rescue farm and doing this project was very educational last year and I am sure we will learn even more this year. I could have told them no, but why? They clearly love it and they care so shouldn’t I encourage that? I think I should, and my husband does as well.
We try to only say no when there is a very good reason.
I didn’t have one!
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| Love Bubbles |
I will not say we are unschoolers but we do believe and watching and nurturing our children in ways that work best for them and not trying to force what just works for us or society on them without valid reason. “Because everyone else does” is not a valid reason.
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| Blowing bubbles in Spring |
(I loved taking photos and trying to blow bubbles on this beautiful spring day with a sky that could not make up it’s mind on how it wanted to bless us. The clouds where nice and the sun moments where too!)
So I have grass heads growing in the dinning room, morning glories inside the house climbing the window, hyacinths making me smile every time I smell them and all these rocks the children have been finding outside. Now to keep my darling 4 year old from rescuing the neighbors beloved flowers when ever she thinks Mom might like them! LOL She is just so fast about it. She and her older brother tried to replant them on the play ground remembering all the things plants need to grow when we explained they can not take things that do not belong to them. If only flowers grew back that way! Hopefully before the end of Spring they will understand why flowers do not do that and why some plants do! Grow little indoor ivy clipping, grow! I need you to help me explain to the little ones! I joyfully urge the house plants to make this easy on me.
Homeschooling can be easy, if you let it be. While the easy thing is not always the right thing, I think there is a lot of stress we put into situations, so much worry, so much fear of failing, that simply gets in the way. You learned to walk without an expert right? You learned to talk without an expert? If you hadn’t what would your parents have done? They would have found you that expert. It is the same with homeschooling. You can teach it, they can learn when the time is right for them, and if they need help you can not provide you can find those experts. Not everything though demands an expert, sometimes they just require parents to protect their childhoods, protect their precious time, so that they can get there in their own ways. Finding your own path, while it might take longer teachers so so much more than simply following the path everyone else takes and it can lead to so many discoveries.
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| Even Teens Love Bubbles! |
Walking the same path as everyone else never changes the world. Make your own! Let them make their own.
(We all tried telling her that bubbles are not for eating and that they taste badly but she didn’t agree. Being non-toxic and safe we did not ruin her bubble fun time. She loved it! My little bubble gnome!)
New follower…stopping by from the tuesday blog hop!!
http://just-us-five.blogspot.com/2012/04/tuesday-blog-hop.html