Wednesday, May 18, 2011

summer school

i told my sister that after reading through my homeschool posts, (looking for some gems to use for my Circle of Mom's Top 25 homeschool blogs interview) - i realized that i only blog about homeschooling when i'm insecure.
& that's ok.
i like the tentative nature of those posts - the fear and trembling that i sense surrounding the decision to educate our littles at home. It's probably good & right that i take it so seriously - with the lives of seven precious saplings weighing in the balance...
Spring always leaves me feeling a little insecure about homeschool. We wrap up some subjects, give up on others - we often have some exams or debriefing - some kind of self examination - & the kind of examination i hate the most... where i find myself looking at my little ones, trying to spot their weaknesses before they cause decay... i feel my brow furrow deep and i watch my little ones prance to be unleashed and i gauge my supposed success or failure by the elation or dread that wakes me in the wee hours during the weeks that i begin to plan for our next year.
Today i purchased some materials for summer school...
& as i walked in the door - i thought to myself - couldn't this be it? Couldn't they get by with little else than these two armfulls i brought home this afternoon?
i place these supplies on the counter next to the groceries: six new bibles - all of the same translation - in the same year - so that no one is left behind when we read the Word of God together... Food beside food....
and...
Five new journals - to write what's on their minds & hearts as we break from traditional school - & set our eyes on the refreshment of summer.
Six bibles, five journals - sounds like the five loaves and two fishes...
Will you multiply it Father?

5 comments:

stephanie said...

I would love to hear more about what you are doing with this idea. If you have the time, maybe FB me. I'm looking at small ways to keep my kids' minds busy without the routine of math, LA and other formal studies.

paige said...

stephanie - it's not much of a master plan :)
We read the bible as a family (me & the littles) every morning & i figured it would help if we all had our own bibles in the same translation to follow along with, so i picked some up from our church (for a small donation). We're gonna continue through the summer to read together. Right now, we're in the Psalms & we usually read 3 or 4 chapters a day. Then, with the journals, i'll get the oldest 5 to write *one* page about *anything* all summer long.
simple.
adequate. :)
If other learning comes, we'll embrace it - (& i'm sure it will) - but i'm not stressing.

Mindy said...

Paige - It's funny, because I was just thinking the other day that your blog is one of the only "homeschooling blog" (as in, one of maybe two) that I really like. I know you're not exclusively blogging about homeschooling, but I do enjoy those posts too. This is noteworthy! :)

My husband reads all these different homeschooling blogs, and he'll send me these links, andI just find myself...utterly disinterested. I've never been sure why. But maybe it is your tone of occasional insecurity that draws me to your homeschooling posts. It so resonates with how I feel about my own experience of homeschooling my little ones. So...thank you for being honest, and please keep on talking about it...

paige said...

aw - thanks mindy :) *so encouraging*.

Lori-Dawn said...

Oh Paige! what an awesome idea! We have 3 NIV Bibles that we do our daily Torah readings with, but I love the idea of the journal too and write a page a day...watch out Silas, mama's on the prowl for a fun manly looking journal!

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