At the Heart of Homeschooling

At the Heart of Homeschooling

Redefining Education

This morning I when Luke asked to discect some Owl Pellets I got the stuff out for him thinking in the back of my mind that it would keep him busy while Jonah did his Rosetta Stone Spanish and his math.  Jonah was very interested in the owl pellets too.  While he was doing his Spanish on the computer he got up many times to "help" Luke.  I told him when he finished some of his "school" that he could work on an owl pellet too.   Then it hit me.  THAT IS SCHOOL.  THAT IS LEARNING.   When did I loose sight of that?  When Logan and Jonah were younger I had no problem looking at education in that light--interest lead learning.  But somewhere along the way, what I consider prep. for I don't know what--high school, college, has taken over.  I wish you could here Jonah and Luke's converstation right now.  It is priceless.  The are so excited about what they are finding. I love that.  And the question I am asking myself right now is why don't we do that more often.  When did that stop being as important to me as getting math done for the day?

Yesterday Logan woke up with a fever.  Day off from "school".  That's what I thought.  Do you know how he chose to spend most of his day? Laying in bed listening to a book on tape.  The book?  D-Day: June 5, 1944 by Stephen E. Ambrose.  It has two volumes---about 20 casette tapes.  This child who some times fights me when doing school, tells me he Hates school at times,  is choosing to listen to that. 
Maybe he hates school sometimes because of how I define it. 
This is a wake up call for me.  So I'm writing about it now in hopes that I take this seriously and really think about it. 
When we first started homeschooling I remember hearing a quote that I loved:  Education is more about lighting a fire than filling a bucket.  I need to change the name of my blog.

Owl Pellets

This morning Luke asked to work on some owl pellets that we've had sitting around for a couple of years.  They were a Christmas present from Aunt Peggy and Uncle Brian several years ago.  It was a great present. 
The kit contained many owl pellets, tools to help with the disection, cards with pictures of mouse bones, moles, voles, etc. so that we could identify the content of the pellet, and a curriculum guide on owls.  In case you'd like to disect some owl pellets and learn a little about owls, the name of the kit is: Barn Owl Discvery Kit found www. owlbrandkits.com.