KISSing Our Curriculum

School lurks right around the corner.  Ever so close.  And this year I plan to KISS our curriculum program.

I have not bought much via way of curriculum...yet.  And I haven't cleaned out last year's books...yet. 

But I have decided to keep with my philosophy of learning geared more towards Unschooling/Literature-Based with a healthy math video tutorial at hand as that's what we always fall back on year after year after year after year after year after year after year after... Let's see.  Have I repeated that at least ten times?  One for every year we've homeschooled?  If not, you get the picture.

I've always toyed with what to call our style of homeschooling.  Though it might resemble several hundreds of other family-styled learning, I think each family needs to have a guiding, definitive name.  Some call it real learning, others tidal homeschooling, still others embrace living without school and some view it as a journey where they are learning as they go. 

I always liked Theresa's token us-schooling because it really does direct the binoculars on each individual family and focuses on what they embrace and do within their own little lens.  In that brief little spitball labeled "us" is crammed a whole wad of family DNA samples and, thus, the possibilities and lessons shot across the room are only as potent as the amount of spit the family contributes.

I really love Seasonal Unschooling or Schooling.  It sounds so poetic. And I guess we do follow a certain rhyme and season and we learn different things depending on the weather and the events each season vapors our way.  It's kind of an "in the air" ebb and flow and no one can quite get away from it.

But I've come to the un-poetic, very plain, very simple classification which I call Life Learning, based on my favorite homeschooling magazine by the same name: Life Learning 

Yes, without a doubt, that's what we do around here.  In the very title Life it says totally and completely what we do.  It's a testimony to the journey our family walks, the real learning we do, the tidal waves we ride, the seasons we breathe, and the spitballs we chew as our cud.

How did I come to this simple realization?

A couple of years ago I realized that everything my children were learning, had learned, or remembered at all were things I never taught them.  The concept was bewildering...and jarring.  And, with this realization, came the realization that everything I had learned, was learning, or remembered at all were things my teachers never taught me!

I'm not saying we don't need teachers and mentors and tutors and instructors...and parents!  We do.  We do.  What I'm saying is that everything I learned, am learning, or remembered at all were things I had taught myself.  In other words, I learned them, I remembered them because I wanted to.   

I was led many times to water with a noose around my neck. 

I was offered Geometry to drink.  Didn't like the taste of it so I didn't drink much...and, thus, I don't remember much.  I have tasted it again in the past ten years of introducing it to my children and, while I find the water sweeter and easier to drink, I still feel it needs more saccharin somehow.

I was led to History and I drank a draft of that...and I remember some.  But I wasn't that thirsty at the time.  Now I have come back to that pond where soldiers drank and Indians filled animals skins and pioneer mothers cooked and Egyptian boats carried their dead down the "mysterious heaven of plenty"...and I am drinking heartily because I am thirsty.

I was led to English classes where I sat and drank and made the proper grades and wrote notes to friends and let the boy in back of me copy my notes because he was cute and, for him, the trip to English Lake was too muddy and too steep.  He reared his head and refused to drink.  But he was a very studly horse...and very sweet.  He nibbled carrots and apples right out of my hand and all but licked my hand in thanks.

Because of my experience...because of how I've seen my children learn...and because of Kevin who sat behind me in Mrs. Fox's tenth grade English class...I'm keeping it simple.

Watch for more of my thoughts on KISSing our curriculum.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Good food for thought, Cay. I think you are right, but it fills me with dread. Often I wonder if it isn't enough to provide a rich environment (with some notable exceptions like math) and leave it at that. I'm far too controlling, but still...

[Paula in MN]

I'll be waiting to read more. This is very thought-provoking.

[Lisa]

Cay,

You state this beautifully. I too, have a hard time labeling our schooling, as I don't fit well into any one and I don't like labels per se.

[diana]

Hi Cay,
Now I know who you are, at first I didn't put two and two together...I was feeling a little like the bloom was off the rose with homeschooling but after reading a few things you posted I feel rejuvenated. Thanks!.

[molly mcgovern]

I love it Cay, as always, you say it so perfectly!

[Mary G.]

Cay -- so nice to know we're on the same journey, realizing the same things about learning and how the kids learn best when they love and embrace the tasks .... you've written beautifully here, Cay -- thanks for the thoughts and glimpse into your learning life!

[Leonie]

Love your thoughts, Cay - and the way learning and living are intertwined in your home.

[Amy]

I have a journal (not kept up very well at present) called Life Learning. I must have unconsiously copied the title from the magazine, which, to tell the truth, I'd forgotten about. Thanks for the timely mention of it (I cruised over here from Unschooling Catholics), because I think I'll subscribe.