There's a funny little thing about "school" when you're doing homeschool. There are no set hours. There are no boundaries of "math time" and "cooking time". It just flows throughout the day. Math time can happen at the same time as cooking time! And... I'm constantly looking for learning opportunities every moment of the day, so really my life has turned into school. Which is funny, because when you step back and look at it from an eternal perspective, that really is what life truly is about anyways, isn't it? Our school (newborn through old age) is this Earth! (Side note... when asked what we were thankful for during our "school" for the week of Thanksgiving, Keira said that she was thankful for the Earth, because it gives us a place to learn.)
So, when I post "HS Review"s on my blog, it's really now just another title for, "What We Did This Week". ;) There are so many opportunities to learn all around us, and at the beginning of this school year I was concerned with checking off the "english" box, or the "history" box for the week and worried that it didn't get done when it wasn't done in ways that necessarily look academic. Like, if there were no lectures or worksheets we were somehow slacking! That learning somehow only happens when they're sitting at desks!
I'm learning. ;) I'm learning how to recognize their education now. I'm learning that they actually do learn quite a lot even if there are no worksheets or tests to fill out! I'm learning how much they really are learning by playing games, singing songs, cooking, crafting, reading, and using their imagination! There are so many layers to those things that really nurture the way a child's brain learns! So many layers! I'm learning that at their ages their minds are set up to learn best this way. Of course we're still doing the basics (math, science, history, etc), and that still calls for writing things out and sitting still to listen, but we're looking for more ways to include the academic basics in the other fun things I mentioned.
I've been reading A Thomas Jefferson Education and it's really resonating with me! I've also been reading a lot about what scientists like Erikson, Piaget, and Dewey found through their research into the development of the brain, and how that relates to child development. It has taught me more about the child's brain and how it develops, and how to use that development to grasp academic concepts the best. It's taught me how extremely important reading from the classics really is for these kids! I really had no idea there was so much depth in this activity! I'm still amazed as I sit here and think about what we gain from classics.... From their research into the development of the child's brain, I've learned that hard work shouldn't come from education at this age. That's just pushing the brain to do things it's not ready to do yet, which causes frustration and a correlation between bad feelings and education. Hard work should come from doing jobs, not learning (at this age). I've learned that if you teach them discipline and hard work through jobs when they're young, and teach them to love to learn because it's enjoyable, than when they start entering the teenage years the two will come together and they will be ready to buckle down and do some deep learning; and enjoy it! It all makes sense from a psychological point of view. It's been one "ah-ha" moment after another! I'm thoroughly enjoying the education I am receiving on this journey. ;)
Because of all of this I don't think I will do anymore "review" posts. Oh, I'll keep posting updates. But they won't be a weekly review anymore. The weekly reviews put me in a mindset, now, that I must compartmentalize subjects, as I'm reviewing what we've done. It's harder to report on all that we've learned when it's so fluid and intangible a lot of the time! If I say, "we played Legos this week" that just looks like play on the surface. Maybe even a lazy mom that pulled her kids out of school and just let them slack off with toys! But in any given sitting with Legos we could cover adding, subtracting, division, engineering, multiplication, balance, gravity, sorting, creative story telling, and so on and so on! I've been keeping track of what we're doing in a planner from the beginning, and I'll keep doing that. But I won't be reporting on here all the nitty gritty details anymore. Just highlights and noteworthy activities. :)
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