The Joy of Homeschooling - Do You Have Passion in Your Homeschooling?

May. 14, 2009 - Do You Have Passion in Your Homeschooling?

I have homeschooled over the years with a variety of different curriculums. I kept changing with many different curriculums, trying to use what I found as excellent. However, I was a bit worn out and frayed from trying to homeschool. I mean, it wasn't coming as natural or effortlessly as I had heard some homeschoolers explain it had for them. I kept buying different curriculums and materials. Everything just stayed on my shelves. I didn't know why it was that way. I felt a bit ashamed that I had hated to wake up and start another homeschool day. It, honestly, was boring for me (shhh...you're not suppose to say that right?). More honestly, I dreaded each day. I didn't know what was wrong with me. But, all of this changed when I went to a homeschool conference, in which Dr. Guffanti was speaking.

Dr. Guffanti spoke about homeschool moms that don't like the homeschooling experience. He said that we probably had curriculum materials on the shelves that had collected dust over the years. Had he read my mind? He said that it was important for homeschool moms to pursue their passion. He talked about how the body, mind, and emotions were all affected in an ability to handle more stress than they should be able to because of the passion that made it easy to ride the difficult waves of life. He spoke about his knowledge and experiences as a medical doctor regarding this. It was fascinating to listen to his stories and knowledge.

Dr. Guffanti had a book that he wrote called Pursuing Passion. He spoke about how moms are so focused on their children that they forget to meet their own passions. Then he modeled how to incorporate these passions into your homeschooling. He broke us into groups with activities and demonstrated how to find your passion. He said many of us have lost it because we are so focused on meeting our children's passions (he also talked about how to find and meet the children's passions). He used several women, who forgot their passion, as examples on how to find passion. One lady repressed her passion of cooking. She later left with an excitement to use cooking in their homeschooling. Another lady loved missions. She became excited in homeschooling with missions as a focus. Another lady repressed her love for dancing (many different types). She left with ideas of how to incorporate that in her homeschool. It was really neat to see the moms get so excited about homeschooling. Their eyes were so lit with excitement and a renewed strength. Have you ever considered what your passion is? Do you use it in your homeschooling?

Do you want to know what I found out mine was?

I came out of the conference a bit stunned. Had I neglected my passion? I couldn't even remember what it was. I went up to Dr. Guffanti. I didn't know what my passion was. He asked me questions, such as: What do you enjoy doing? What really intrigues you or interests you? He then pointed out for someone to ask you a number of questions and to carefully watch for facial changes when you speak. When you see someone start to smile about what they are talking about, that is a key. I had thought that some interests were easier to identify: cooking, dancing, drawing, etc. But, I didn't even have a hint what mine was. Then he started asking questions. He asked me what I enjoyed doing when I had extra time. I replied very hesitantly, "I love studying to find out about my Jewish roots. I love to study about the Bible through a Messianic Jewish style." When he started probing about my interests, he said, "You're smiling when you talk about studying your Jewish roots". I was surprised. I didn't realize it (nor did the other women when he was asking them questions). He told me that that was what I should incorporate in my studies. I told him that I would feel selfish. Isn't that focusing just on me and my interests and not the interests of the children? Dr. Guffanti explained that our children love to enjoy what we enjoy. God designed them to enjoy things together with us. So, he gave me the license to do something I never considered was "okay" to do - to study together with the children. Oh, it changed our homeschooling in ways that are so exciting! Wow, I couldn't believe how free I felt! Could I actually do that? I asked him. I had never considered it before. I had told him that I had not realized it, but my favorite time of the school day was Heart of Wisdom studies. My children always begged me not to stop teaching on those studies. We would sometimes start in with it, and three hours later the children were lost with excitement still begging me not to stop. Then we were late in studying all the other studies because we didn't want to stop with what we were studying. He smiled and said, "Do it". We did.

We continued with the Heart of Wisdom materials and bridged out a bit. We incorporated Diana Waring's new materials because of her wonderful ideas that beautifully add to the studies (It is so much fun making fossils with play dough, studying different music and art of those time periods. I love her new materials that give so many ideas). We also added Evolution: the Grand Experiemnt by Dr. Carl Werner to debunk evolution as we studied creation. The children and I continued lapbooking about creation. It went beautifully with our studies. Then we added excellent books like Noah's Ark by Tim Lovett, Grand Canyon: a different view by Tom Vail, and a read aloud The Bible Comes Alive by Clifford Wilson. We have learned about Babylon and the civilizations that were started after the Tower of Babel, Babylon Religion by David W. Daniels, Queen of All by Tetlow, Oakland, and Myers, and The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop. We also have the books as resources from Heart of Wisdom which is fun to cross reference with everything we read (no one resource should be relied on too much without cross referencing). We study the Nephilim with many resources, but we have fun with read aloud, The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse by Patrick Heron (our read alouds are very different than the norm). We changed out our science to go along with our studies. We added God's Design for Heaven and Earth by Debbie and Richard Lawrence (we had a blast adding a science experiment that went with the studies: putting water on a plate with a candle and a jar over it to watch it suck up the water and show the delicate balance of oxygen, hydrogen in the atmosphere and how it probably was changed after the flood, or the experiment with cutting paper in a circle and hanging it over a light to watch it swirl as we studied how the warm air causes movement in the atmosphere...there is a different experiment every day that coincides with our Heart of Wisdom). We also read about the different civilizations that were before and after the flood, the giants or Nephilim that roamed the earth. Watching a library video in which an Indian said that American Indians said "HOW" with their hands up to make sure you were not one of the giants with six fingers. We are studying the different world religions that originate from Babylon, fascinating. Oh, the children and I couldn't get enough studies. The children are so excited to share with daddy. One of my daughters memorized the entire areas of the Middle East, Asia, Africa in just an hour. They were so excited as we made our Noah's family tree and then made our own, as we researched our Jewish genology on ancestors.com Jewishgen website. We found out our grandparents were Jewish and my husband's family was Jewish. No one in our families even has any knowledge of this.We kept Truthquest History (love all those commentaries and book lists to incorporate). Homeschooling has never been this much fun for us. We are presently sewing costumes. There is fabric all over the place. One child is cutting out fabric, another is using the serger, another is using the sewing machine. I am really surprised at how much more fun the children say our schooling is since I am using my passion to teach. Do you use your passion to teach? Oh, this is sooo exciting for us. Okay, so you get the idea, we are excited about homeschooling like never before. Perhaps, your passion is different than ours. However, if you are not feeling real excited about homeschooling then check to see what your passion is and incorporate it in your homeschooling.

Comments

May. 14, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Homeschooling6

At one time I dreaded schooling too. (Shh, don't tell anyone.LOL)

What made a big difference for us was not trying to fit the mold of other homeschoolers. It really freed me to break out of that.
For instance switching to textbooks. Every whre I turned I would read that textbooks are school-at-home. They are all fill in the blanks and mindless, boring way to learn.

Oh, dh is home. Will visit later ;)

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May. 18, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by psalm127

Thanks for stopping by earlier and for your words of encouragement.

Love what you found out. I think I added my passion without knowing it. I started knitting while sitting at the table working with the kids. Then they wanted to learn. Other homeschool mom's wanted to learn to knit or crochet. My oldest daught this next year is going to start teaching other home schooler begining crochet and I may add on begining knitting.

I also have loved to sew, on their brake I run up and iron, cut, pin or sew something. I started teaching my oldest ones how to sew. The younger ones are starting to learn how to iron out the fabric(which then leads to their ironing of AWANA uniforms and then into other clothes)

How exciting to add on your studies your research, wow I can see your kids getting excited about it as they discover new things about your heritage.

side note. did you every figure out how to use Edu Track? I bought it over a year ago and have never been able to figure it out.

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May. 21, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Dell

What an excellent post!

When I think back on school, my favorite classes were those that were taught by a teacher with an obvious passion for his or her subject. Even if I wasn't personally fascinated with the Ancient Summarians at the onset of the class, the passion of the teach would become contageous!

By having passion, they infused their teaching with a zest that brought the topic to life.

Even today, I enjoy hearing people talk about those things that bring spark into their eyes! Whether it is one of my own personal interests or not, having a person with passion discuss something always brings out the most interesting and captivating aspects of it for me.

Thanks you for the reminder to teach from our own passions!

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May. 26, 2009 - Hello!

Posted by helff

I haven't stopped by in ahwile, but really enjoyed your post! I hope things are going well for you and your family! Looking foward to reading more!!

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