On Living Life & Homeschooling

I don't blog much about how we homeschool, or hsing in general. It's so a part of us that it rarely merits separating homeshool life from life-life. We go about our lives; that's it. There is just life. Some people might notice we have an rather large number of books, which are on nearly every surface, from kitchen counters to sofas, to bathroom floors. We also have posters and maps decorating where Ikea prints could go ;). Our art work decorates walls and mantles, and poems are written on chalkboard paint in odd places...But that's us, and hsing or not, those books and other things would be there.

Yet. Homeschooling is different. It's 10:30am and one child is sitting, carefully slicing apples from the farmer's market and slathering them with peanut butter as she listens to an audo book, oblivious to the rules and regulations that go along with eating in school. She can enjoy the book without worries that every book she reads must become a convoluted report and/or numbing 'journal' entries about the protagonist. She can simply talk about the 'foreboding' and the symbolism of the rain. It doesn't have to be one long Herculean Labor which often sucks the joy out of literature and reading.

Another child is watching a movie...is that 'school'? Is it school when she wakes at 5am to work on her art, have quiet time before the bustle of the household disrupts the peace? Is feeding the animals, or taking a walk to the beach in the mniddle of a school day 'school'? It's not. It just life. And that's how we like it.