School?

At our house we don't do "school". We have routines like get dressed, make your bed, brush your teeth... Then we have fiddle practice. Then Caden goes down for his nap and we gather for what we call school. It consists of a devotional of sorts where we have morning family prayer and then we study out of Gospel Principles together. Then we have "kids school" where I teach them whatever I feel like for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. Then they build things or draw or read while I study. Then we usually we have really great discussions around the lunch table about what we've each learned.
I have found that everyone remembers what they study themselves a lot better than they remember what they are "taught" plus, it really adds to the learning of the whole family when everyone learns what they are excited about and then teaches the rest of us.
For example, on Tuesday, we were studying the story of Daniel in the Lions Den as part of our study of Gospel Principles and Colin remembered that he had heard in The Story of the World that King Nebuchadnezzar had gone mad and ate grass. Somehow in my almost 30 years of life I'd never heard that story so we looked it up in Daniel. Sure enough he was right on, as usual. So we talked about that for a minute.
Later that night we told Randy what we'd learned just before he picked up The Long Winter to read to us. Three pages into chapter 31 he read, "'Could we eat grass?' Carrie asked. 'No, Nebuchadnezzar,' Pa laughed." Then, of course, we all laughed. It was great. I have read that book at least three times and never got that reference before Colin taught me the story. I love it when our books talk to each other and when my kids teach me things!


Sometimes I do freak out a bit and get nervous that we will miss something or some crazy fear like that. At those times, I take it to the Lord in prayer and he always comes through for me.
Two Examples:
1 - Geography.
I have issues with geography because the only thing I remember about geography is sitting in that basement room that had a lot of rolled up maps on the wall in the Jefferson. We colored a lot, don't remember what, and I remember wishing I could be across the hall in the library or the cafeteria instead. How was I going to "teach" my kids geography?!!
I read somewhere that the best way to learn geography was to draw maps. My artistic skills were killed in kindergarten when the class laughed at the "flower" hands that I drew. Those weren't petals - they were fingers! How was I going to "teach" my kids to draw maps.
I prayed about it and later that day at "school" I pulled out the Draw Write Now books and drew myself a chicken. I CAN draw and it's fun! I finished up the chicken with a barn and some hills. Caden helped me with the "finishing touches."



I left the books out on the table and went to make lunch. They were still out that night so Colin took one to bed with him after prayers, scriptures and stories. He came down to the kitchen around 10:00 holding a map of Australia he'd drawn. God does answer prayers! I didn't even know that maps were in that book. Colin has since drawn many, many maps and has big plans for building an interactive web page using his pictures.



2-Long Division
I do fine at good old fashioned arithmetic. I love it. Robyn spends hours doing her math workbooks and we have great times together. Colin doesn't particularly care for workbooks - as a general rule, they bore him silly. He spends hours working out problems that matter to him. He adds the letters in the alphabet using either the corresponding number on the telephone pad or the number the letter is in the alphabet (1-26). He even can add roman numerals and binary numbers. I cannot "teach" him math. I searched for math books that we could find common ground with and I think I found one. It's Life of Fred. Problem is, you have to know long division before you start.
I prayed about math and, the next day, Colin asked me how many 22s were in 72. He had made himself a game and didn't want to count the 72 spaces. He knew that there were 22 spaces on the board so if he knew how many 22s were in 72 he wouldn't have to count so much. He now knows a bit about long division.



Life is so fun!