The 2010-2011 school year is our first year homeschooling my 5-year-old. Even so much as a couple of years ago, I looked at homeschooling as something for people with large families and farms…living in a commune. It wasn’t something that I thought would be “for us”.
In the day-to-day raising of my curious, intuitive, 9-billion-question-asking, needs-to-move-to-learn kiddo, the Lord began whispering to me in that gentle way that he has that homeschooling is the route we were meant to take. Well, I did what I typically do when given a missive from God. I balked. I doubted. I argued. But still, the leading was there to homeschool. So I approached my husband with it. And you know what? He balked. He argued. He put his foot down – there was NO WAY we were going to homeschool. So I prayed. I prayed for my husband’s heart, I prayed for my own heart, and I prayed for more direction.
And here we are, homeschooling.
As a gal raised in the public school system, I had a notion in my brain of how our schooling would look.
Remember that wiggly, boisterous, energetic, curious kiddo that I mentioned? Well, it turns out that my notions and his learning needs clashed terribly. Go figure.
So this past year has been a learning experience for both of us. Truly, my 5-year-old is teaching me a lot about letting go, about following our passions, and finding learning in everything we do.
Funny how before we were officially “homeschooling”, I was finding teaching moments in every day things, and giving him hands-on projects to further his learning experiences. Once we put the label of homeschooling on what we were doing, I felt pressure to follow a curriculum-in-a-box, and if we weren’t following it, then we must not be schooling. Hmmm.
So I’ve been trying to get out of my own way for a while now and just allowing us to learn naturally. But it wasn’t until The Great Mouse Adventure that I finally got it. There’s a learning experience in just about every life moment. So instead of thinking of what we are doing as homeschooling, I’m going to consider it life schooling and get over my set expectations!
Thanks for joining us on this crazy journey!
