My Homeschool Philosophy

The other day I was taking a class and something that the teacher said just stuck with me.

Every moment is an opportunity to create a better version of yourself.

It was sort of life-changing.  And then I thought ... wait, that is really what guides how I homeschool.

I decided to homeschool primarily because I felt that my kids were just rushing through the motions and getting done exactly what they had do to get the right answer.  In school and really, in life.   They weren't stopping to look at each moment and decide how to get the most joy out of it, how to use what they experienced in a positive way.  And I wanted them to.  I wanted them to notice and I wanted them to wonder.  And I wanted them to take those experiences inside their temple of self to create a beautiful, special place.  (Name of the blog, get it?)

Notice and Wonder

The first part of my philosophy is the Notice and Wonder part.  The part where I offer them moments and opportunities.

We don't use a standard curriculum.  Everything we learn is based on experiences.  We pick a topic each month and then I pull a ton of books (fiction and non-fiction) from the library, look for online courses, plan field trips, come up with writing projects (research, persuasive and creative), search out some science experiments and observations, schedule a culture day, find dozens of videos, and create a math workbook.  All having to do with the topic.   We have studied witches, the Victorian Era, immigration,  musical theater, Native Americans, Hamilton, culinary arts, and much more!  Our past curriculums can be found here.

I think the topic-based curriculum works so well because we get so immersed in the topic and everything becomes interconnected.  Certain things make us ask more questions and other things reinforce what we learned.  We are constantly noticing trends and things that seem out of place and wondering about a name dropped in a video or a connection that appears to be between two things we learned about.

Just today we were looking at a map of Salem, MA.  It showed the location of the houses of the accused and the accusers.  One of my kids wondered if the people she was reading about in her book about Salem had houses on the map and then are they still there and can we go see them when we visit.  The other was busy noticing that the people accused had houses closer to water and the town and perhaps wasn't that the best real estate and might that have contributed to who was accused?  I love that they took that moment as an opportunity to go deeper and get more.  I love that they noticed and wondered!

Temple

The other part of my philosophy is the Temple part.  The part where we create a better version of ourselves.

When I started homeschooling I was pretty concerned that I wasn't covering all of the things I needed to because I wasn't covering exactly what the school was covering.  I worried that my kids would fall behind or fail their SATs or never go to college because of what I was doing.  Then I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I am not preparing my kids to do well on a test so they can get into a good college.  I am preparing my kids to be the best version of themselves which will enable them to do anything they want.

Now what I consider to be the best version of someone and what someone else considers to be the best version might differ in the specifics.  I am all about clean hair and my one kid might be going down the road to some smelly dreadlocks.  But I came up with a list that left a lot of room for individuality but really felt to me like the 5 traits I wanted my kids to go out into the world with.

Be determined.

Be observant.

Be kind.

Be joyful.

Be authentic.

Our day touches on these things as we meditate together every morning, we keep a gratitude journal, we wander around just checking things out, we talk about current events and when we are brought to tears we donate or write letters or knit glove to do what little we can, we laugh, we take days off to just snuggle on the couch to read or go see a movie while everyone else is in school, we make and eat lunch together every day, we teach each other things, we talk for hours about our our experiences and our feelings, we ask how we can help each other achieve our dreams.

And for every "school" project, we do I try to guide them to grow in these areas.  I recently asked them to write a biography for someone from the Victorian Era.  Being determined meant helping them to create a plan and an outline, coaching them through research, and encouraging them to proofread and edit.  Being observant meant asking them to think about not just putting facts on the paper but looking at what questions they brought up and going out to find the answers.  Being kind meant giving themselves a breather when they needed it and providing encouragement to each other.  Being joyful meant finding a person that you really wanted to know about, which for one was at first a fictional character form a Victorian Era book.  And being authentic meant encouraging them to write in their own style.

This philosophy helps me step back every day and remind myself that I am guiding them to learn and giving them opportunities to grow.  I am taking them on a journey, not expecting them to achieve a particular result.  And that their entire lives are spent living that in Temple of Notice and Wonder, taking every moment in and using it to their best and most joyful.