So I haven’t written about homeschooling for sometime now. For the majority of this year I participated in the weekly TOBY Homeschool Highlights which is a wonderful way to wrap up a week of learning activities for those who are Torah focused. Although my children are learning all the time, I just I haven’t found it in me to write an update since Sukkot. I guess with my studies, the farm, personal and family growth through Torah…I’ve been feeling a little burned out about homeschooling. You’ve seen the odd post over the last year or so about natural learning or unschooling. I will admit that I have been trying to find a way to satisfy my natural inclination to just let the children learn from life in an unstructured but meaningful way (which just happens regardless of whether I notice it or not) while alleviating my fears of not providing enough evidence of learning for the Education Department and all the while feeling like I just don’t have the passion for ‘school work’ like I used to.
I know that my children are learning simply by the fact that they are living! I see their natural progress as each one of them asks us to teach them and provide the tools needed to obtain information that they want in order to better understand the world around them.
I read this article from Beverley Paine this morning and I can so relate I wanted to share it here…
I remember the day I recognised that my motivation for asking my children to do ‘book work’ wasn’t so that they would learn something (academic) but because I needed reassurance that they had, despite ‘doing nothing’ for a few weeks, had actually learned quite a bit. Instead of asking them to do bookwork to learn I started asking them to do bookwork to keep my paranoia about the effectiveness of homeschooling at bay. By doing a few pages of book work for a few days they could quickly and efficiently dispel my lack of confidence (until the next bout of doubt would hit).
My children didn’t like doing bookwork for reasons that didn’t make sense to them. Helping mum feel okay and reassured was, to them, a legitimate reason for doing something they really didn’t want to do.
What did my children teach me? Life isn’t about achieving goals that will one day lead to a better paid job: it is about building relationships and friendships and giving our time selflessly to others to help them feel okay too.
© Beverley Paine
So I think for now, that is what I will do when it comes to bookwork; just ask them to do a little bit for me 
and apart from that, we will continue to play, read, farm, talk… live and learn…and I will keep reading to figure out how to turn that into something that the department will be satisfied with.
Maybe I might have something for a TOBY highlight this week, too. We’ll see!
Love this post!! My heart on a page!!
)
Thank you
Blessings
Shoshannah
thanks for letting me know Shoshannah … nice to know that I’m not the only one feeling this way
I so understand the need to justify to others / the education dept that the children are actually learning. I find as soon as we say we homeschool people actually start asking Lily educational questions to see what she knows. This annoys me to no end as we personally do not match up with the Particular curriculum for her ‘grade’ plus there is a variety of what one school learns compared to another school so it’s a bit ridiculous anyway. Add to that Lily having had learning difficulties with reading and I now just find it rude.
It is
Donna recently posted..Two words
Such a hard balance as mamas to teach our kids what they truly need to know and YHVH’s ways as opposed to what others think they should know. Some days I feel we do great and other days I have to wrack my brains. I was keeping a journal daily as it helped me see just how much she was learning. I need to get back into that! I so relate to the waNting them to do bookwork just to appease my conscience !!
Luv Donna
Donna recently posted..Two words
hey Donna
sometimes I think the bookwork stuff is just easier on us mums who haven’t got the energy to rack our brains for a day, or follow them round and try to see ‘learning moments’ happening and then have the brain space to record it! We know it happens all the time anyway; its the recording part that bugs me to no end!
I have no problem with using bookwork like this from time to time. If it eases my conscience then, hey, family life is smoother and something just as important has been accomplished!
I can totally relate to this post Christine. (In case you haven’t guessed, this is EXACTLY why I don’t participate in TOBY right now!)
Ever since our girls came home from Haiti (18 months ago) and our move (12 months ago) we have been what most would consider unschooling. I have always been ecclectic and free spirited with how I do school – however their is a real sargeant in me too..that “get a lot done” So we always had tons of stuff to show for it. Notebooks full…but that has slimmed down significantly. YES…tons of learning is still happening i call kinds of ways and so are the the R’s and science…I still am confident my children are “ahead” in so many areas that I refuse to go nuts over the “records”. I am so thankful we have the freedom to do this! I pray that never changes! (If it does keep a light on for us…we’ll be heading your way! And….. it comes to that..please delete this comment!) 
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LOL Pamela!
We got through fits and starts with bookwork. Honestly, I hate it. We do it, because of fear and doubt. Not that I should let anything other than YHVH dictate what we do and how we do it. Funny thing is my hubby was thinking I was crazy at first about pulling the kids out of school. Nearly 4 years later he is a stanchly protective of our right to homeschool. All of us, parents and children have grown and learned so much that wasn’t possible in the school environment. This is why I never got into TOBY highlights. Oh and I’m with Pamela.
If it comes to moving to protect our family, to continue homeschooling we would do it in a heartbeat. Yep delete my comment too. lol