Homeschooling My Dream Way+Getting Ready for The Rest of the Year

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One of the things I love most about homeschooling is the freedom to get out into the world and experience more, do more, learn more just by living a full life. When we did public school, it wasn’t as possible for our family to do much outside of the school day routine and homework. The flexibility to take trips when everyone else is back to school is something we take advantage of, often.

Like this week, even. In our local area, school started on Monday. Instead of joining the throngs of families walking to school or carpooling, we went camping. It was the perfect week for us to go, because camp sites were available, and the Great Sand Dunes weren’t crowded. Win.

If you ask me when we’re starting school, I’ll say we started last month, and in fact, today was our last day before my first scheduled break. Say what?! You better believe it. I’m ready for a break. We’re taking it. We spent the last 6 weeks easing into school and new habits (which of course we’re still needing to work on…). In the last 6 weeks, we got back into our morning routine: breakfast, chores, prayers, read-aloud time. We spent some time dusting off math books and dipping our toes back into math lessons. Most of all, we spent time enjoying the world around us. Nature journaling is going to take a higher priority this year, and I’m even going to journal with the kids. After the first 2 or 3 times out, I was definitely itching to sketch and write along side them, and brought my own journal along last week. Serving others will also be a high priority, and take shape in all kinds of ways. This month we worked on bags for the homeless, filled with snacks and waters, to keep in our van and hand out when we see people on the street corners. Next month will be a new project.

We spent the last 6 weeks and the majority of our first session of the 2014-2015 school year living and learning through our experiences.  (does this make me an unschooler at heart?)

We camped, twice.

We prayed together, and spent time in Adoration together (even though by the end of each Holy Hour I was begging God for the grace to make it through our hour without losing my cool at the wriggly boys).

We read books, for fun.

We baked and cooked meals together.

We gardened, failed at gardening, and tried again.

We began immersing ourselves into various things which provide hands-on, experiential, life-long learning lessons and memories.

It was awesome.

And since it was so awesome, I’ve decided that I’m going to plan our next weeks with a new focus in mind: experiences which aren’t to be missed, well, aren’t to be missed. Math lessons can wait. Phonics will always be there. But opportunities to bake brownies together for my husband’s squadron are fleeting, new neighbors to bring a welcome gift to won’t always be new neighbors, the weather won’t always be so perfect for a hike, the fall colors will change from vibrant to dull all too quickly…

Keeping in mind that we don’t have all the time in the world, and I do have to continue keeping us fed and clothes clean, I’ll have to plan carefully, but still be flexible. I’m going to plan margin in my days, so when something unexpected happens, there’s room in my schedule and our routine. Also, in order to keep myself from becoming a lazy-bones homeschool mom, I’ll be planning for our most important things so we can stay focused and work towards a goal. However, instead of working to finish a text, we’ll be working towards mastery. A fuller understanding of material is much more desirable that being able to say “we finished all of our math text, phonics lessons, and science text!” If we finish the books but haven’t gained anything by plowing through the pages, then our time wasn’t well spent. Quality over quantity.

And that’s that. My dream homeschool experience, in a nutshell, is living learning, and we’re actually working towards that in our home this year. In the next week as I flesh out this vision a bit more, I’ll be going to back to re-read “Teaching From Rest” (which is on sale right now! If you’ve been eye-ing it, now is the time to snatch it up! The sale runs through August 31). The book is such a lovely and encouraging read, it’s refreshing even for seasoned homeschool moms. I know it will be just what I need as I get us ready for the rest of our year. Again.

I will revisit the ebook about planning for peace and print more planning pages to write out those plans which are swirling and building in my head.

Another book I’m reading this week and beginning to love is A Little Way of Homeschooling, which is series of personal stories about how several Catholic families make unschooling work in their home. (I really must be an unschooler at heart…though I really also love classical learning.)

Finally, I’m going to spend quiet-ish moments (while the kids play outside, read, craft, or more likely–watch movies to give me peace) going through the lessons on the Simplified Organization e-course I told you about.

As I go, I might come back and share what is helping me, especially from the e-course. Would that be helpful to you, also? What about if I share some of my plans for the year, to keep learning coming alive for my children? What are you most looking forward to in your upcoming year? Share with me! Let’s inspire and encourage each other.

*this post contains affiliate links. I promise that my affiliate links are 100% awesome and recommended by me, because they are ebooks or products or services I already love and just want to share them with you. If you want to know what I do with the little bit I earn from affiliates, see here, at the end of the page. Thanks!*

Click here to get your copy of Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace