To the untrained (or skeptical) eye, it just might look as if we're doing nothing this week.
You see, some dear friends (fellow homeschoolers) are moving. They'll be pulling out of their driveway for the last time on Friday and will head for their new home, hundreds of miles away. (I'm trying not to think about this, but there it is.) I want to do all I can to help them out before they go.
So, what are we doing this week?
Today we had their kids over here. While I baked cookies, the older girls put together an original play that they then performed for me. The little ones, Ramona and M., spent three hours planning their performance, which included quite a bit of dancing, twirling and leaping as well as heaps of dress-up clothes. The older girls did yet another play, in which they took turns playing the part of Marta, who dies (I actually teared up ... have you ever watched your daughter pretend to die?)
The kids also played with paper dolls, read several Baby Blues comic strips online, snacked on chicken and pretzels, had stromboli with the rest of us at dinner (what fun to have 10 people around our table) and then went back to putting on plays.
And so will go our week. We'll spend as much time as we can with these cherished, delightful people before they go, and there probably won't be much that would be recognized as educational by anyone looking for a syllabus, an objective, a predicted outcome or a gradebook. I may end up behind on laundry or my house might be a disaster. But, there will also be this: the sure knowledge that I'm teaching my children that people are more important than things. And that the people we love are not to be taken lightly or taken for granted. I'm teaching my children that we're never too busy to reach out, make dinner, watch other people's kids, bake cookies, feed five-year-olds, or watch the third and final version of a 9-year-old's original play.
I'm teaching them that an education is one of the most important things in life ... it's just that what we call "education" encompasses all of the above. It encompasses our real life, our loves, our passions, and our plays.
We did nothing today. And we did everything.
4 comments:
I don't know. I'm pretty tired.
Oh, Karen, I've had those teary goodbyes all too often, and they aren't easy. I loved reading your perspective on showing children that people are more important than things. This is a beautiful lesson for all of us.
Beautiful, Karen.
Ah, Karen, It's what's so difficult to explain to non-homeschoolers. Education isn't all about curriculum and worksheets, it' about life. How do I ever explain that my kids learned their biology more in the barn than in the house, that they learned as much math while cooking, sewing, dyeing yarn, etc. as they did from Abeka text books. Despite the fact that my kids spent way less time on schoolwork as teens than their friends, they ended up better educated (and far more able to learn on their own). Go figure - but only a homeschooler would understand.
You actually are having a very productive week. If you are creative you could even write all kinds of educationese about what you did. Drama, art, literature, nutrition, maybe some history and geography (where are they moving to, how long will it take to get there, etc. etc.). Of course we know you don't have to do that in order for the most important learning to happen. However, just in case the grandparents ask...
Enjoy your time with your friends, it's irreplaceable.
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