What homeschooling looks like

First, happy birthday to me!  Second, thank you every one for the birthday calls.  I love that I can count on one sure day a year when people call me and chat.  Though, by the end of the day I shudder when the phone rings... again... Phone conversations sort of suck energy out of me (in the same way Gauge sucks restful sleep out of me night after night...)

Anyways, one recurring question was "How's homeschooling going?"  And here's the answer: It's going just as well as it has been going for the past five years when I didn't even know that's what I was doing.  We read books, we play games with hidden educational value, we learn about the world around us...  In some instances I'm the definite teacher, but the best times are when I follow and assist in their own discoveries.

So here's what homeschooling looks like for us right now:

It's a camping trip when Gauge discovers he can make mud as well as his sisters.

It's fairy houses made out of nature and nothing man-made.  It's making that fairy house with a friend who has completely different ideas of how the end product should look.

It's stopping for lunch at Arches National Park on the way to visit family.  It's the discussion of erosion, the word arch and noticing the different dirt, rocks and plants along the trail.  It's listening to the German and Chinese tourists.  It's chatting with the fellow from New Zealand.

It's reconnecting with family at a time of year others are in school.  It's pulling dandelions from Uncle Geoff's yard and talking about how they're edible and how we don't have any that grow here in Safford.

It's teaching your sister's baby doll how to pick the ripe tomatoes.  It's watching a wild tomato plant spring up there in the first place!

It's fixing a broken broom with materials we have so they don't have to pay for it with their allowance.  It's catching the rain water in the swimming pool, then talking about how the dirt in the water eventually settles to the bottom to make the water look clear until Gauge splashes in it some more.

It's shoes caked with mud from walking and observing the world on a rainy day.

It's identifying the snake that greeted us when we got home this evening.  Cairn remembered learning about this sort of snake at the library.  More importantly she taught Cerise and Gauge to never touch a snake unless a mommy or daddy says it's all right.

It's playing games, learning to share and take turns.  It's enjoying each other.

At least for this year we aren't adhering to any particular style or curriculum.  I think kindergarten should still be relaxed and fun...  I thought that about many of my college classes too though.  We read.  Cairn is learning how to read.  We bring books home from the library about...  everything.  We enjoy the nonfiction books as much as the storybooks; the poetry as much as the prose.

Homeschooling is going well.