when your daughter starts asking about ancient Egypt and the next time you go to the library you happen upon Mummies Made in Egypt…when your son says he’s interested in knights, you find him some Playmobil knights on ebay…when you’ve been checking out books on hand lettering and you discover your favorite book’s author teaches at Creativebug and there’s a free trial and there’s a line drawing class and the final class is on hand lettering!  that’s planned serendipity.

sometimes i think we homeschoolers just barely countenance all the little rabbit trails that we follow. but the thing about those rabbits?  they’re not simply wandering the forest aimlessly.  they don’t just hop down any ole trail.  they smell something.  they’re on to something.  trust your nose, trust your hunches.

put yourself in the way of inspiration.

• look up more books by authors you love.  look up the authors of the blurbs on the back.  look up other books in the series or by the same publisher.
• plan your week around other people doing inspiring things.  every Tuesday Harmony Fine Arts hosts Sketch Tuesday.  every Friday you can read so many good poems if you make the rounds of Poetry Friday.  every Monday Lori from Project Based Homeschooling publishes a new Tip Sheet.
• keep an eye out for books or supplies that might be of interest.  don’t go overboard.  hoarding is the opposite of serendipity.  hoarding comes from a scarcity model–we’ll never have the right supplies at the right time.  serendipity speaks of abundance–what we need will come when we need it.  planned serendipity helps make sure you’re in the right place at the right time.
• honor the rabbits and their trails by building downtime, rest, and free space into your days.  if you can’t follow the inspiration because it’s not on the schedule, you might try putting it on the schedule!

it counts.  even if it’s not a part of the curriculum.  even if you just happened to find the book.  even if you weren’t planning on studying it.  it all counts.