Our plans this year: Faith

Faith.

It's the "area" ... the "subject" ... the "curriculum" to which I give the most thought, and, yet, it may just be the area in which I unschool the most.

I want our faith permeate our whole lives, and so our "faith studies" are woven through everything else we do. I share my faith with the kids, and try to encourage them in theirs, no matter what we're doing.

Reading literature together? I talk about how to process and analyze through the eyes of our faith.

Science? It begins with respect for the Greatest Scientist, and awe at His intricate, miraculous creation. (And lovely resources like Genesis 1: House of the Covenant, from Hedge School are very helpful, too.)

Art? We talk about how, at one time, art was meant to express the ineffable ... art was faith, and faith was art.

Math? Uh ... we just pray for help here. (Just kidding. Discussion can go back to intricate and miraculous design, of course.)

History? Not tough to figure out how we can incorporate discussions about good and evil, morality and faith into our days as we dig into history. We read about a lot of saints here, too.

A lot of what we do that will ultimately be recorded as faith study is "just" reading and talking. Talking about life, about choices, about our will vs. God's will.

I plan more formal things, too. I do like the Faith and Life series from Ignatius Press, and this year we're doing several of the books as read-alouds (which, again, leads to great discussion and covers so many topics and Church teachings.)

We have art plans that will incorporate looking at Mary through the eyes of several different painters and celebrating the liturgical year with crafts. We'll learn more about Pope Benedict XVI this year (if only there were a comic book), and we'll continue to learn new prayers and to incorporate more daily Mass into our lives.

Praying, reading, talking, praying, thinking, doing, talking ... those are our plans this year for faith.