It's been a while since I blogged here - I've been using my blog on the AP site, but, I miss this blog!  So maybe I will pop in time to time and update it.  Chuck in a 'think-piece' here and there.

.

You know, I spend a lot of time thinking.  Pondering the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to do things.  I spend many hours planning, researching, etc. how to home educate, looking at all the vaious approaches, and hunting through all the myriad of resources out there.

.

And, with time and effort, I come up with our ‘plan’.  I listen to what others suggest, try things out, but ultimately, we settle upon what works for us.  In our home, with so many of us, this usually does include text books and work books, and yes, the huge marking pile at the end of the day.

.

But not always.  Sometimes, despite the wonderful timetable each child has in front of them, we’ll get part way through the day, and just think, ‘nope, not today!’.  Like yesterday.  We did some basic Maths, Copywork, English, etc.  But my youngest simply sighed at the bookwork - she wanted to play a game.  At first I resisted - after all, it was ‘school-time’.  But then, I thought, ‘why’?  Why struggle over a pile of books, when we could be having some fun, and ‘really’ sharing time together.

.

So, that is what we did.  The board game came out, the books went away, and we did have fun!  There was laughter, chatting, playing, and even those who were not playing the game became caught up in the conversation, which covered many topics by the time we were done. 

.

I forever question the right and wrong way to do this whole homeschooling thing.  Sometimes, It’s full-on bookwork - you MUST learn those Math facts!    Other times, I think we should just have some fun, and enjoy being together, for this time with our children is very short.  Soon they will grow into adults themselves.  Do I want them to look back and shudder over all that bookwork, or look back and smile over the time when they had the delight of thrashing Mum in a game, or the time we took the day off, and wandered through the local forest?

.

There does, of course, need to be some formal learning, but it’s an interesting challenge to find the right balance.  Hopefully, in our patchwork of various days, we’ll be able to look back and say, ‘yes, we enjoyed homeschooling - we had fun’!

.

May God bless your day,

.

Linda.