Down time

I'm back up after a bout of the flu.  Sometimes illness can be a blessing. It gives you some time and space to slow down a bit. It is such a struggle to balance our work, schoolwork and family time.

Since both DH and I work mainly from home, and we homeschool our two daughters, home is very much center stage. More like HOME for us. It is very busy in our house. Time slips away here. I wonder sometimes if we get anything done, and at other times I look back over the year and am amazed by just how productive all of us have been. How is it possible to hold these two opposing thoughts? Connecting to this is a blog entry I read on Camp Creek's blog . She talks about 'white space'. As an artist I relate to thisw deeply, negative space or empty space when composing a picture is as important as the lines on the page. I guess my point is that as I wonder at how little I feel I get done each day, and also am amazed at how much we did last year, it dawns on me that dispite our schedules and best intentions, learning happens. I have seen huge jumps in understanding in the subjects of science, math, reading etc. when we 'rest' or take a break from it. Connections made between one subject and another are made. 

So I've thought about time and how to devide it and I am being much more fluid. I've been reading a lot of books about the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. They take a child lead (read very unschooling) approach to education. Project based learning and documentation coupled with easy access to art supplies and the space and support to do them in is key to the success of these schools. What drew me to Waldorf was a focus on open ended, arts based education. Focusing on the child as a whole, for example, paying attention to the space a child lives in as well as what they eat to support learning. What has turned me off about Waldorf is the 'rules' that come with this. Like most forms of education, a curriculum is laid out, and of course, you can't learn everything there is to know in 8 years of elementary education, so you have to pick what is important to know. This is where I diverge from Waldorf and most curriculums. What is important is as individual as your children. Sure, reading, writing, counting and basic math are neccessary for independent study, but the reality is that as long as your children live in a home with materials to investigate; that encourage reading, writing and math, these basic skills will be learned with some amount of focused instruction and attention. The rest? WHat is important? This is a question I keep coming back to and fortunately this world of ours, with information about any subject so easily available, lends itself to project based learning. As the main teacher to my girls, I need to give them the tools neccessry to discover the world. Math beyond the basic, scientific analysis, how to hold a brush for paint or pen to paper...this is my job. Finding things to inspire, books, music, art, ideas...this is my job. My children's work is to explore and investigate their world and this whole world we live in. I can give them places to start, but where they end up is always more amazing when I wasn't at the helm (so to speak).

WHew, well this was long...food for thought.