a new school year

Today, accidentally on Maria Montessori's birthday, we began our new home school year. I feel a little sheepish saying this because, the deeper I immerse myself in the homeschooling milieu, the more I see that the school year never ends. Life hands us opportunity after opportunity to learn. I suppose the reason I personally wanted to give the new school year a bit of a kick-off is that Joel and I are implementing (I suppose you could say imposing on Henry) a bit (just the merest bit) more of a daily routine. At nearly seven, Henry's up for it, though I want to do my best to listen to him with respect and adapt the schedule to his and our needs.

We're also experimenting with a curriculum, Five in a Row, which many homeschoolers may (or may not) be familiar with. It comes to us recommended by several homeschooling families and I like its gentle manner of approaching the disciplines of language arts, social studies, math, science and visual art through good children's literature. Not a person to be confined by too many guidelines :), I can already see us adapting the FIAR concepts to use with books our family wants to read. I'm also excited--yes, excited--to say we're going to give Miquon Math a try. After talking with another trusted homeschool parent, it sounds like Cuisenaire rods are the way for us to go. And, besides, I've read about them in more than one John Holt unschooling book.

I remember that last year I said I wanted to write a post on my/our family's homeschooling philosophy. I never did it but the why of it all is how I entertain my head every night as I'm falling asleep. Why, why, why when so many supports to help us educate Henry in the public school setting are already in place?

I realized today that, for me, it's about care of the soul--Henry's, mine, and hopefully Joel's and Anna's too. There's something so exclusive-sounding about that. My inner judge nags me, "Don't you care about the rest of the world? Do you only care about your own child?" How I would like to answer that voice today is that I long for the world to be a kinder place to the human soul, that uncorrupted part of us that never stops longing for beauty, love, adventure...wholeness.

I love the things I've read by Parker Palmer, including Let Your Life Speak. I haven't read To Know as We Are Known, but suspect I will enjoy it. I checked out another book of his lately, A Hidden Wholeness, that explores a Thomas Merton sentiment touched on here, here, and here. So, how do I see homeschooling as nurturing our hidden wholeness? It can allow children and their families to slow down, explore concepts and master skills over time. It can allow space for slow growth--even the kind of growth that can happen through down time with simultaneous PBS Kids (yes, we're a tv family) and Lego play. Homeschooling allows for discussion-based learning, for bedtime, table and anytime conversations that don't need to be curtailed because it is time to go to the next thing in the program. The subtitle of Parker Palmer's book has to do with cultivating an undivided life--a life where the outside is consistent with the inside--at work, at home, inside ourselves and in our relationships. I strive for this, and I think Parker Palmer expresses it much more eloquently than I have time to. Read his book!

Following are some more links to homeshooling posts I've found helpful from a soulful / spiritual point of view. Red Dirt Mother, Pleasant View Schoolhouse
and Harmony Valley Homeschool.