I am trying to find a name for what we do around here. I have tried them all, homeschooling, home-education, unschooling, skill time, focus time, learning time, work, but I am not satisfied.
We choose to have our children at home with us because we want to offer them a way of being in the world. We want them to have freedom to make choices, to follow their own interests, to find their passions, and we want them to learn how to read, write, and count, with more mindfulness and peace.
I don't know why it is so important for me to find the right name for it. Homeschooling sounds too much like school, unschooling sounds like we are resisting anything of value about school, although I know it implies a different pedagodgy. Home-education is a more fancy name for homeschooling. Skill time sounds like we are training workers. Focus time is a bit better in supporting what we want to offer our children. Learning time makes it seem like we only learn in a certain setting and that learning is not a continuous adventure. Work, well, that just seems a harsh word for what children really do which is play. When people ask where the children go to school, we always say they are home-educated, but I wish for a new name that really captures what we do around here.
Maybe instead of a name I am looking for a description. And in looking for a description I am really looking for some affirmation that I am not alone out there in what I am doing each day with my children. Maybe because this is how I fill my days, I want it named. And I want to like the name, like "stepping into the flow," "watching butterflies," "the ones with painted faces" (from bramble juice), "the gigglers", "the creative ones," "the venus fly trap admirers." These names all fit better but would the world understand? Would they know us by these names?
Learning... Loving....Living.
ReplyDeleteReal-time.
A Time of Wonder ( ripping off McCloskey, here)
Learning Together. Children and Parents as teachers.
Natural Inquiry.
(i am amazed and humbled by what you are doing... and LOVE your blog! Keeep writing! XOX Audrey)
Last night I talked with some friends about play: the wonder and freedom of play, how it gives life and refreshes and builds us up, how we encounter God through play. I think what I really want, for me and my children, is a life of play.
ReplyDeleteAudrey, I really like all of those suggestions, but I am most attracted to Real-time. I have really struggled with the wanting to make sure my children grow to know what living with a purpose looks like. Real living, digging your hands in the dirt, growing our own food, fixing things that need to be fixed, lots of hands on stuff. Also wanting them to have a deep connection with the natural world. I am still dreaming of someday having that land where we can practice a simple but real life. Thanks for visiting.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, There is a great quote I have pinned to my wall by child author DB Johnson (he writes about Thoreau and Walden and his main character is a bear...great books): "May all the work you do feel just like play." I want more play in my life. I want to play and play and play and I am constantly relearning what it means to play! Thanks for you comment.
ah, Nicki- you are living and being with your children the way that I wish I had the insight and wisdom and resources to do twenty-three years ago when I began the parenting-business. Now, as my children are grown, I find that my own life is taking a turn in a direction that I can only call more 'real:' getting in touch with the earth: working it to provide food for my family... getting in touch with my body: exercising to grow strong... amazed at what a 51 year old body can do, when challenged... getting in touch with spiritual practices that make me feel as though my worship and praise and repentance are authentic.... finding a way to be 'real' with my congregations (who represent a political/social mind set that is soooo different than mine).... you see, I am getting there.
ReplyDelete'Authenticity" is a big word for me these days. And I guess that connects to what is 'real.'
Your children are so fortunate that they have a mother- and father- who are so aware...and connected.
XOX
A
Audrey, I really relate to the your pull toward authenticity. The last couple of years I have been aware that when my need for authenticity is not being met, then I am not a happy, loving, compassionate person. I can't give from the heart. I like how you connect to what is 'real' and alive in you, what makes you unique, what you can offer to the world. I wonder if this need for authenticity has something to do with where we are in our lives? As we survey where we have been and where we would like to go, and as our self-awareness grows, we want to be real. It sort of reminds me of that poem, "I shall where purple." I can't even remember what that poem says, but I remember the feeling it expresses about being real. My biggest struggle is working that authenticity out in community. It is a humbling experience for my ego and I undoubtedly feel the pull between the individual and the communal self.
ReplyDelete