For those of us who grew up in a conventional school, our schooling, our formal “learning”, took place in a classroom, with periodic field trip outings.
When most people think of homeschooling, they think of schooling taking place at the kitchen table or some formal school room in your house. Like this:
And obviously, from this picture of Z, our kitchen table is often covered in school related materials, usually K’s math or Little E’s art projects.
But, the kitchen table or classroom is not the only place “schooling” should takes place. In fact, I urge you to consider it a last resort.
While some studies, like K’s Algebra, suit themselves well to the kitchen table or a classroom, we limit our kids’ education if we restrict their learning to this one little spot of the world.
True education, true learning, happens every day, in every location. It comes from practically being involved in the world, in life.
We learn not just from “school books”, but from real books, from experiences, from labor, from conversations, from being outdoors, from being involved.
We can study books about animal and plant life all we want, but it’s not the same as getting up close and personal with real live animals, insects, and plants.
Our kids can watch videos about survival skills and study pictures of history, but it’s not quite the same as going out and creating their own re-inactments, building their own huts, and foraging for materials in their environment. Finding the right branches and mud, and figuring out just how it should go together.
Nothing tests that knowledge like spending a raining day hanging out in the hut you built yourself.
Life is about presenting ideas, sharing ideas, and having lots of discussions. It’s about being involved in projects, working together with others, and sharing your own skills and perspectives to fill your own unique spot in the world.
I encourage you to seek out life with your kids, to do life with your kids. Let them explore and find out where they fit, where they shine, what they are passionate about, and what they need to figure out to get to where they want to go.
School Books can go just about anywhere. They do not need to be relegated to the kitchen table, they can be taken outside…
or in the car…
Find a tree to hang out in, a hammock to kick back in, or a simply just lay out on the grass and taken in the world.
You never know what you’ll learn and experience by expanding the world beyond the classroom or the kitchen table. This world is amazing, there are so many things to see and experience. School should not hamper our children’s education, but expand it.
Have you thought about what that word “education” means to you, for you, for your children?
Oddly, I find that most of us don’t.
One of the best exercises I think homeschool families can do is to sit down and write out what education means for them, for their school. What are your goals for your children?
Every school, public or private, has it’s definition of what education is to them, what they are trying to accomplish. As a homeschool, what are you trying to accomplish? What is your “end game”?
Personally, I’m working to help my children be the best they can be within who they are. To equip them with the skills and love of learning to flourish as individuals, to grow and become the person God intends for them to be.
For me it’s not about filling them with up with bits of knowledge, but teaching them to observe and learn, and grow their knowledge and skills as they need to for what they are working to accomplish. To provide them with a solid base to grow on, to build on with their own passions and interests.
I working to equip them with skills more than knowledge. But that’s me, and our school.
I have learned that not all schools look at education the same way. Their goals are not the same. This is true across public schools, across private schools, and definitely across home schools. That’s why we have choice.
You do not have to accept the “education” that the local private school or the local public school offers. You get to choose what education means for your children, for your school. And it may, and probably will, look different than another homeschool family. And that’s okay.
Your family, your school, your educational goals. Take an honest look at what you think of as education, and define it for you and your school.
Then write out your goals for your children, your students? And what are your educational goals for them?
Once you know what your end game is, it’s so much easier to stay the path, to measure against what you are trying to accomplish and not what the school down the street is doing. It’s easier to choose resources, make choices, and watch your children flourish when you are measuring against your goals and not someone else’s.
When it comes to making meals in the advance, I’m not a Once-a-Month Cook (OMAC). The whole idea of planning, prepping, and cooking a month’s worth of meals in a day or two just is more than I can handle.
However, I do make ample use of my freezer, and it is usually stocked with at least one or more pre-cooked meals. And is always full of pre-trimmed and portioned meats, beans, and veggies.
So, if I’m not a once-a-month cook, or even a once-a-week-cook, what am I?
A Sporadic Bulk cook and an Opportunistic Freezer cook!
When I get the whim or see a need and have a few minutes or an hour or two, I’ll get something going for the freezer.
And if I can, I’ll make more than I need for dinner or lunch, so that I have at least lunches that I can freeze or even whole entrees I can freeze and pull out the following week.
It doesn’t require a lot of planning, or even a lot of prep work, which means it fits my very busy schedule very well.
Some days it’s as simple as making a really big pot of spaghetti, and freezing what’s left for next week and/or my husband’s lunches. Or setting a bag of beans out to soak overnight and letting them simmer away the next day.
Other days, I might throw together some ingredients in the Crock Pot and let it simmer overnight, and then it’s done the next day, ready to eat, or cool and package up.
Then there are days like today, where I’ll make up a couple different dishes that have all have the similar base ingredients, so it’s easy to make up multiple things all at once.
One example is spaghetti and lasagna. If I have time, I’ll make beef spaghetti, turkey spaghetti, and then multiple pans of lasagna, using the sauces. After all, if you are going to make one pan of lasagna, it’s just as easy to make 3 or 4, especially if you do it like a production line. And… no need to boil noodles when you are going to freeze it!
Another example is what I did today. I made a list of what I had available to cook up: stew meat, fajita meat, roast, pre-cooked chicken, and ground turkey.
Then I made up a large batch of mirepoix (onions, celery, and carrots) in the food processor, chopped up some onions, carrots, and potatoes separately, and started cooking.
Chicken pot pie filling, beef stew, and turkey chili all used the mirepoix. And the two Crockpots got the roast and the fajita mix.
I saved all the trimmings from the onions, carrots, and celery, grabbed a couple chicken carcasses from the freezer (yes, I throw them in the freezer so I have them on had when I feel like making stock), and got a pot of homemade chicken broth going as well.
Today’s batch cooking took me about 3 1/2 hours, and tomorrow, after everything cools down I’ll package it up. That’s it, and now I have both lunches and dinners for a week, plus some for next week.
Three to Four hours is about all I can do. But it works. Little bits of time here and there – and using slow cookers, making larger quantities, and making meals that use similar ingredients – all ends up saving a ton of time, stress, and money in the long run.
Not much planning, no extra shopping, just being opportunistic and taking advantage of the mood and the little bits of time here and there.
So are you ready to be come an Opportunistic Freezer Cook? Or are you already one?
Letting kids explore their world and interests is not at all what “society” refers to as “education”, and yet, there’s so much learning that happens when we start saying “yes” to the ideas and activities that our kids dream up.
Just take a look at this video from Sarah Brown, a homeschooling mom of 8 and the creator of Dyslexia Games. Sarah calls it “Fun-schooling”. But at the same time, there’s so much science, language, art, and life happening here, not to mention the relationship building that is so very important.
You’d think that those free radicals that mutate cells and cause cancer would know that homeschool moms are too busy to deal with cancer. But no. Unfortunately that’s not even close to true.
In fact, every year in the last five years, there’s been at least one member of our local homeschool group battling cancer of some type. We’ve mourned the loss of one of our members, and prayed over others. Just recently a dear working, homeschool mom of 4 who’s been battling breast cancer was pronounced clear. Yes!
But unfortunately, another member of our group is battling breast cancer. This time, I ask you to pray with us, as it’s Living Life at Home contributor, Karri Fieglein.
Karri is an amazing mom to 6 kids, ages 14 to 2, and an awesome resource in the homeschool community. But even more, she has perseverance and heart that I so respect.
Right around Christmas 2011, Karri was told she had cancer. On January 3, 2012, she was told that it’s stage 3A. Since then Karri has been pouring into research and information about cancer, juggling being a mom, homeschooler, and patient.
On Monday, March 26, she begins her 11th chemo treatment. But in all of this, Karri has been blogging and sharing information she’s learning, things she wished she had known at the beginning, or even before, this journey…And she and a friend are starting up a new University Model School that will open in the Fall. Really.
Karri doesn’t let life stop her, and is claiming the future. Up to now, I’ve not shared Karri’s blog or story with you out of respect for her family’s privacy, as it started out as a care calendar blog. But Karri has ported it over to Blogger, and has given me permission to share it with you. And she is asking for the information she’s sharing to be shared with others “who have cancer on their plate.”
Please join us in praying for Karri and her family, and her support team, and please visit her blog and share your support. If you know someone who can benefit from what Karri is sharing, please feel free to share Karri’s blog with them.
…Shannon
Karri Fieglein’s posts here on Living Life at Home:
or in the car… 
But unfortunately, another member of our group is battling breast cancer. This time, I ask you to pray with us, as it’s Living Life at Home contributor, Karri Fieglein.
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