I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
-PSALMS 138: 14
I just have really liked that verse since I first heard it.
God made families not schools.
-from a mom that unschools
I thought that hit the nail on the head. I have been struggling since starting to home school, trying to find what fit for our family. Every time I find something that seems to work after a few weeks it has lost its fit and I am again fussing with the kids to get it done and find the interest to plan the lesson. Tonight I read Christian Unschooloing by Teri J Brown with Elissa M Wahl and it was my ahha! moment. Unschooling was every thing I wanted our "schooling" to be and had been trying to do with my plans. After reading the book I think I have a clearer understanding of what I am going to do, of what will make sense for us. So the next couple of days will be spent by me redoing our "school" room and turning it into our "learning" room. (I knew when I named our school the Sacred Heart of Jesus Learning Center instead of school it was for a reason.) And boy howdy do I have my work cut out for me, I want to go to the St. Vincent De Paul and get some shelves for my sewing room and the learning room. Right now I have my craft, paint, markers, ect.. for the kids in busy boxes. Which are nice because they stack on each other and do not take up much room. They are very inconvenient to keep things in that you use with any regularity. I want to make things very accessible so that if they want to paint it is all right there. Or what ever they want to do. I have all these great ideas that now that I am thinking them it's like duh! Why wouldn't you have done that from the start. But it's all done in HIS perfect timing, so I am sure there was a reason. I am going to make an idea jar, so when they do not have anything to do, they can pick an idea. It will be something short, like draw an animal and it's home or look up a word in the dictionary. I will also make a running list of ideas for group projects in my "Big Book of Every Thing", a list of books I want to check out, and of books I might get to read together. I am also going to put together folders with work sheets in them so if we do want to do worksheets they are there ready to go. I need to concentrate on making the space ready to learn and easy to learn in. With every thing readily available. Hmmm.... maybe I should get to it. I will post before and after pictures when I am done, hopefully I will be done before February is done.
Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi
